John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 2 October 1798
John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams
Berlin 2. October 1798.
My dear Brother.
The enclosed paper will give you an exact idea of that property belonging to me, [in the] hands of Doctor Welsh, and our brother Charles, which it is [my] wish that, you would take under your care, and management upon your arrival in America. When my library shall arrive from Lisbon, you will consult with your mother for a place of security in which to lodge it— If it should be joined to that of my father, you will take care to keep them as far separate that mine may be distinguished expressly and easily from the other. And I wish you to add to mine, all the books belonging to me now in my fathers library, which [is j]ust a few.— Charles too has many books of mine, which you may require of him, or leave with [him] taking care to mark them as mine, and to take a list of them.
You may draw within the six first months of the ensuing year for 10,000 Dollars, either on Messs Willing and Van Staphorst and Hubbard or [upon such] house in London, as the Secretary of State shall have given me a credit upon for my salary, as you know I have requested You can enquire of him [whether] he has given me such a [credit and] upon [whom], and if he has, drawn upon that house, and I shall direct the payment of your bills immediately upon receiving the credit.— This will be preferable to drawing upon Amsterdam on which the exchange on America is and will certain to be excessively low— For the same reason, you may draw upon the same house in London for the amount of the 150 dollars, for which I gave you an order upon the bankers at Amsterdam— Or, you may pay yourself, from the monies which you will receive on my account in America.
You may employ the 10,000 dollars either to purchase me an house in Boston, renting at least six per Cent upon the sum of its purchase, or such public funds or bankstock as you shall judge most profitable, or in loans upon bond and mortgage, in which case you will pay particular attention, not only to the goodness of the security, but likewise to the character of the persons with whom you deal.—1 I shall confidently expect from you the same care and attention as you would use in the employment of your own property— If you can meet with opportunities offering a more advantageous use of money than those above mentioned, you will not neglect it; but I must expressly forbid, what I am sure your own good sense would avoid, any illegal or usurious contract or hazard— In drawing your bills, you will do well to take advantage of the season, when the exchange is most favourable— Draw either at thirty or sixty days sight, but take care that the last two thousand of the 10,000 Dollars be not made payable before the first of July next.
Upon these 10,000 Dollars and upon all future drafts which you may make on my behalf and under my authority, you will reserve a Commission for yourself, of 5. per Cent—and the same upon all annual sums of interest which you may hereafter receive and again employ for me, But not upon what Doctor Welsh, or Charles may deliver to you of mine— For the employment of the interests, you will observe the same directions as those above mentioned.
You will always give me notice of your drafts and their amount; not only by the same vessel that brings the drafts but by duplicates as early as possible.— And at the close of every year, you will send a regular account stating the situation of my property in your hands
I shall feel a perfect confidence that my business will now be as well managed, as if I were at home to take care of it myself. At the same time I do not expect or wish that you shall make it burthensome to yourself. Attention and fidelity are the two qualities essential to every good agent or attorney I know that you would fully discharge these duties on behalf of any one whose affairs you should [ta]ke into your hands I shall ask no more even from your kindest fraternal affection.
I am with every wish for your welfare, and special prayers for the prosperity of your approaching voyage, your ever affectionate brother
John Q. Adams.
ENCLOSURE
Schedule of papers and securities left in the hands of Dr: Thomas Welsh, by J. Q. Adams, and which are to be delivered to Thomas B. Adams.
1. Deed in fee of an House in Court street, Boston.
2. Lease of said house for 5 years from October 24. 1794, to Rebecca Whitwell, widow.2
3. Deed of Land, in Salem; State of Vermont.
*4. Six receipts of Cashier of Trustees to Boston Theatre for £33:6.8. each.
5. Certificate of 200 Dollars stock in the Union Bank.3
6 Two orders on T. Crafts—County treasurer, for £10. and for £7:3:6.4
7. Five Shares in Middlesex Canal
*8. Ticket. Harvard College Lottery. Class 1. N. 10,124.5
*9. Cash. 100. Dollars.
Of these Doctor Welsh signed a receipt. He must now further have in his hands:
10. 4 Tickets, in the 4th: Class of the College Lottery—No: 20,506.7.8.9.
11. A note of hand from John P. Ripley. for.6
*12. Deed of my share in the Boston Theatre.
13. Various receipts for monies paid by him on my account.
But With regard to my share in the Boston Theatre, the principal caution will be to prevent it [brin]ging any [. . . .] [expe]nses. I consider the property as lost.
The ticket for the first class of the Lottery has been accounted for: and also the 100 Dollars cash.
The rent upon the house and the dividends upon the bank stock, are accounted for up to April 1798 inclusive
Upon the shares on the Middlesex canal, 700 Dollars had been paid in July 1798. The receipts of course will appear.
And in July 1798 Doctor Welsh’s account acknowledged a balance of 293 Dollars 28 ½ Cents, cash in his hands.
The orders on the County treasurer, do not appear to have been paid.
The following statements in the account of Charles Adams, accompanying his letter of 7. September 1796. (being the latest account rendered by him) will shew what he now is accountable for.7
It appears by account of Doctor Welsh, that on the 17th: of October 1796 he received from Charles Adams 219 dollars, in my behalf. This must have been the 75 dollars, last above-mentioned. The interest on the 2000 dollars due 10. Septr: 1796 and the quarters interest due on the 939 dollars, on the 30th: of Septr: 1796.— For all the interest accrued upon all the sums, since those dates respectively, Charles Adams remains accountable.
FC-Pr and enclosure (Adams Papers); internal address: “Mr: T. B. Adams.”; APM Reel 131. Some loss of text due to fading of ink.
1. No property was purchased at this time, and it was not until Oct. 1801 that JQA purchased additional property in Boston (, 2:780).
2. In Sept. 1793 JQA purchased from JA the Court Street house that he used as a law office. In 1798 the 756-square-foot two-story dwelling was valued at $3,500. Rebecca Parker Whitwell (ca. 1740–1805), the widow of Rev, William Whitwell of Marblehead, Mass., resided in the house until her death (, 2:64; Boston City Council, Documents of the City of Boston, for the Year 1890, 4 vols., Boston, 1891, 3:285; Maclean W. McLean, “Robert Parker of Barnstable, Mass.,” , 113:107 [April 1959]; Boston New-England Palladium, 1 March 1805).
3. The Union Bank was incorporated in 1792 as Boston’s third commercial bank. Shares purchased for $200 were worth $250 by late 1793, and the value of the stock remained above par until adversely affected by the War of 1812. JQA retained his shares until at least June 1802. The bank survives today as the State Street Corporation (Robert E. Wright and Richard Sylla, Genealogy of American Finance, N.Y., 2015, p, 249–250; D/JQA/24, 10 June 1802, APM Reel 27).
4. Col. Thomas Crafts Jr. (1740–1799) was a prominent member of the Sons of Liberty and an associate of JA’s during the American Revolution. Crafts served as Suffolk County treasurer from 1788 to 1795 (James M. Crafts and William F. Crafts, The Crafts Family: A Genealogical and Biographical History, Northampton, Mass., 1893, p. 114–122).
5. The first class of the 1794 Harvard College Lottery offered 25,000 tickets at $5 apiece, each of which provided a chance to win one of 8,358 prizes ranging from $8 to $10,000. JQA’s ticket number 10,124 drew an $8 prize. In 1796 the fourth class of the lottery also offered 25,000 tickets, this time at $10 apiece and with 8,422 prizes ranging from $16 to $20,000. One of JQA’s four tickets, number 20,507, drew a $16 prize (John Noble, “Harvard College Lotteries,” , 27:163, 169–170, 177–180 [April 1929]; Boston Independent Chronicle, 1 Jan. 1795, 13 Feb. 1797). For AA’s participation in the same lottery, see vols. 11:576, 577; 12:8, 48.
6. John Phillips Ripley (1775–1816), a Philadelphia lawyer and nephew of Dartmouth College president John Wheelock, passed through The Hague in June 1795 during a European tour, He asked JQA for a loan of 1,500 florins on the credit of his uncle, and although JQA initially refused, he agreed in July to lend Ripley 500 florins. JQA advised Thomas Welsh in November that Ripley promised to settle the debt with Welsh upon his return to the United States (Edgar L. Erickson, “The European Adventure of an Eighteenth Century American, “Pennsylvania History, 3:259–266 [Oct. 1936]; Ripley to JQA, 16 June 1795, Adams Papers; JQA to Ripley, 17 June; to Sylvanus Bourne, 16 July; to Welsh, 6 Nov., all LbC’s, APM Reel 128). For TBA’s attempt to obtain repayment from Ripley, see TBA to William Smith Shaw, 8 Sept. 1799, and note 2, below.
7. Not found.