41Abigail Adams to Cotton Tufts, 7 March 1790 (Adams Papers)
I received your Letter inclosing mr joys proposals and I have omitted answering it because I wished mr Adams to determine himself. he says that he had already offerd mr joy what he gave, which he considerd quite as much as the place was worth, that it will not yeald him half the interest of the Money unless he was to live at home & be able to improve it, that mr Joys present proposal of the...
42Abigail Adams to Mary Smith Cranch, 15 March 1790 (Adams Papers)
I last Evening received your Letter of 28 th of Febry which relieved my mind from a great weight of anxiety. I do not think that I have been so long a period, without Letters from some, or other of my Friends Since I first came to Newyork, or elsse the anxiety I have been under for several weeks appeard to prolong the Time I have written to you 3 weeks Successively but you do not mention...
43Abigail Adams to Mary Smith Cranch, 21 March 1790 (Adams Papers)
I was in hopes of hearing from you by last Nights post, as I am solicitious to learn how mrs Norten does. I had Letters from Thomas and find that he is returnd to Cambridge very well he says, and he gives me the agreeable News of his Aunt shaws having got well to Bed with a daughter added to her Family. I have been anxious for her; as her Health is so slender, and I know how to feel for you...
44Abigail Adams to Mary Smith Cranch, 3 April 1790 (Adams Papers)
I congratulate you and my dear Neice upon the late happy event in your Family. can you really believe that you are a Grandmamma? does not the little fellow feel as if he was really your own. if he does not now, by that time you have lived a year with him, or near you, I question if you will be able to feel a difference. have you been so much occupied by these New cares as not to be able to...
45Abigail Adams to Cotton Tufts, 18 April 1790 (Adams Papers)
Your kind favour of the 5 th Instant came safe to Hand. I know our interest at Braintree can be of very little Service to us, seperated as we are from it, and lying so much in Buildings. I do not know what benefit was last year derived from the great Garden but unless Bass could carry manure upon it, it would soon become good for very little. if any method could be devised by which the Rent...
46Abigail Adams to Mary Smith Cranch, 21 April 1790 (Adams Papers)
I received your two kind Letters of April 1 & 5 I am extreemly sorry to hear that mrs Norten is afflicted in the way that you write me she is, but tell her to keep up a good Heart. I can Sympathize in her Sufferings a Bath of Hot Herbs was the most salutary means made use for me. a poultice of Camomile flowers is also very good, but I hope she is relieved before this time. painfull experience...
47Abigail Adams to Mary Smith Cranch, 28 April 1790 (Adams Papers)
I designd to have written to you by the Monday Post, but I was so very ill on Sunday that I could not set up. I have had the severest attack of the Rhumatism attended with a voilent fever which I have experienced for several years. I have not yet left my chamber, tho I am much releived. the weather has been uncommonly wet and cold, Snow we have had in the course of this fortnight more than...
48Abigail Adams to Mary Smith Cranch, 8 May 1790 (Adams Papers)
I wrote to you ten days ago and informd you that my Family were very sick. I did not then conceive it to be, what I have since found it the Influenza. I have got better, but my cough & some other complaints still hang about me. Polly Tailor is so bad with it, that if she is not soon relieved the concequences threaten to be fatal to her. Louissa is very sick confind to her chamber I keep a...
49Abigail Adams to Mary Smith Cranch, 30 May 1790 (Adams Papers)
your kind Letter of various dates came safe to Hand. I was allarmed at not hearing from you, & feard that you were all sick. the disorder termd the Influenza has prevaild with much voilence, & in many places been very mortal, particularly upon long Island. not a Creature has escaped in our Family except its Head, and I compounded to have a double share myself rather than he should have it at...
50Abigail Adams to Cotton Tufts, 30 May 1790 (Adams Papers)
I received your kind Letter of May last week I was very sorry to hear that you and your Family had not escaped the prevailing sickness. the disorder has universally prevaild here. not a single one of our Family, except mr Adams has escaped, and Polly, it was very near proving fatal too. We Have been in very great anxiety for the Pressident. during the state of Suspence, it was thought prudent...
51Abigail Adams to Mary Smith Cranch, 13 June 1790 (Adams Papers)
I received your Letter of May 16. and was very happy to find that you were all upon the recovery. we have daily mercies to be thankfull for, tho no state is exempt from trouble and vexation. the one which at present Torments me is the apprehension of a Removal from a very delightfull situation, to I know not where, and I am too short sighted, or too much blinded, to see any real advantage from...
52Abigail Adams to Mary Smith Cranch, 4 July 1790 (Adams Papers)
A Memorable day in our calender a Church beloning to the dutch congregation is this day to be opened and an oration deliverd. this Church was the scene of misiry & horrour, the Prison where our poor Countrymen were confined, crowded & starved during the War, & which the British afterwards destroyed. it has lately been rebuilt and this day is the first time that they have met in it. they have...
53Abigail Adams to John Quincy Adams, 11 July 1790 (Adams Papers)
I believe this is your Birth day, may you have many returns of this Period, encreasing in wisdom knowledge wealth and happiness at every Aniversary. it is a long time since I wrote to you, yet I have not been unmindfull of you I am anxious for your welfare, and Solicitious for your success in Buisness. you must expect however to advance slowly at first and must call to your aid Patience and...
54Abigail Adams to Mary Smith Cranch, 27 July 1790 (Adams Papers)
I received your kind Letter of july 4 th the articles sent by captain Barnard all arrived in good order, and I have to acknowledg mr Cranchs kind care in attending to them. you have got through commencment and I hope have not been made sick with the trouble and fatigue. we had a pleasent day here, not over Hot and I pleasd, myself with the hope that it was so with you. We got Thursdays paper,...
55Abigail Adams to Cotton Tufts, 2 August 1790 (Adams Papers)
Commencment being finish’d some of your cares for my Family will be lesned. I esteem it amongst my blessings that my young Family have all past through Colledge with so much Reputation, and that in scenes strewd thick with dangers, they have escaped so well. I hope their future progress through Life may be equally pure. I feel myself indebted to many of my Friends for the kind care they have...
56Abigail Adams to Mary Smith Cranch, 8 August 1790 (Adams Papers)
I have the pleasure to inform you that last Night mrs Smith got to Bed with an other fine Boy. We could have all wisht it had been a Girl, but rest satisfied with the sex as it a very fine large handsome Boy and both mother and child are well. She spent the day with me on fryday, and I urged her as I had Several times before, to accept a Room here, and lie in here, as the house in which she is...
57Abigail Adams to John Quincy Adams, 20 August 1790 (Adams Papers)
I congratulate you upon your having setled yourself thus far, and am pleasd to find you so well accommodated. you have a good office, a Good Library, and an agreable Family to reside in. be patient and persevering. you will get Buisness in time, and when you feel disposed to find fault with your stars, bethink yourself how preferable your situation to that of many others, and tho a state of...
58Abigail Adams to Mary Smith Cranch, 29 August 1790 (Adams Papers)
I last Night received your Letter which I have long expected, dated 9 th of August, and thank you for your account of commencment, as well as your care. I have written to you a number of times and wonderd much at not hearing from you. by dr Jeffries I wrote you an account of mrs Smiths getting well to Bed. She is very cleverly and has been once out to see me tho only three weeks last Night...
59Abigail Adams to Abigail Bromfield Rogers, 5 September 1790 (Adams Papers)
I Received by judge Cushing your very obliging Letter and am very happy to find that your Health was so far restored by your journey as to enable you to attend upon commencment. it would have afforded me much pleasure to have been present as I was peculiarly interested in the day. it is a little Singular that I should have three sons graduated there and not be able to attend at one single...
60Abigail Adams to Thomas Brand Hollis, 6 September 1790 (Adams Papers)
You ask, in one of your letters to Mr. Adams, what is become of Mrs. Adams that I do not hear from her? If my heart had not done you more justice than my pen, I would disown it. I have so long omitted writing to you, that my conscience has been a very severe accuser of me. But be assured, my dear sir, that I never fail to talk of you with pleasure, and think of you with affection. I place the...
61Abigail Adams to Lucy Ludwell Paradise, 6 September 1790 (Adams Papers)
By mr Knox our old accquaintance who is appointed consul to dublin I embrace the opportunity of writing to you and acknowledging the Recept of your obliging Letters by col Trumble whom we were all very happy to welcome to his Native Land and who has acquired to Himself and his Country an immortal Fame by his great Genius and talants in painting the Mayor and corporation of this city have...
62Abigail Adams to Cotton Tufts, 6 September 1790 (Adams Papers)
Mr Adams received your Letter dated August 31. he sat of that morning after for Philadlphia and desired me to let you know that he would transmit to you an order from the treasury for the Sum you received of Generall Lincoln upon his return. where is Thomas we have been daily expecting him for near a Month, and mr Adams delay d going his journey a week expecting him here. he wrote me that he...
63Abigail Adams to John Quincy Adams, 9 September 1790 (Adams Papers)
yesterday mr Howard arrived here and brought me Letters from your Brother Thomas, and one from you to Charles— I was rejoiced to find that he was on his way here, as the delay had been the source of a good deal of uneasiness. I am fully of your mind with regard to Thomas, and know that if he studies Law it will be a force to his inclinations. the want of capital I Suppose is one great...
64Abigail Adams to John Quincy Adams, 12 September 1790 (Adams Papers)
I received by your Brother on fryday last your kind Letter; he did not get here, oweing to contrary winds untill the tenth. he appears to think of the Law, but I fear it is rather from necessity than inclination, and because he finds that his Father is fond of having him study it, and that he does not See any opening in any other buisness. I shall be better able to judge when your Father...
65Abigail Adams to Mary Smith Cranch, 3 October 1790 (Adams Papers)
do you not pitty me my dear sister to be so soon all in a Bustle? and wary of Removing again, as much Boxing and casing, as if we were removing to Europe. our furniture may well be stiled movables . the expence attending the various removals would very handsomely furnish one House. I feel low spirited and Heartless. I am going amongst an other new set of company, to form new acquaintances to...
66Abigail Adams to Mary Smith Cranch, 10 October 1790 (Adams Papers)
I wrote to you last Sunday, and on Wednesday received your kind Letter. we have begun to pack up our furniture, and expect to get it on Board by the 20th perhaps we may make it later, but I hope not as the weather will every day become more & more uncomfortable. the Idea of going so much further from you is painfull to me, and would be more so if I did not hope to Spend the next summer with...
67Abigail Adams to Mary Smith Cranch, 25 October 1790 (Adams Papers)
After I had closed my Letter to you this day fortnight, I retired to my chamber, and was taken with a shaking fit which held me 2 Hours and was succeeded by a fever which lasted till near morning, attended with severe pain in my Head Back &c the next morning I took an Emetick which operated very kindly and proved to me the necessity of it. on tuesday I felt better and went below stairs, but...
68Abigail Adams to John Quincy Adams, 7 November 1790 (Adams Papers)
perhaps a few lines from my own Hand may serve to put you more at your ease than an account of my Health from any other person. I have indeed had a very severe sickness in which both Body and mind sufferd, and the care which devolved upon me in consequence of my being in the midst of Removal I found too much for me. the least buisness put me into such a Tremour as would prevent my getting any...
69Abigail Adams to Abigail Adams Smith, 21–28 November 1790 (Adams Papers)
I suppose you wish to hear from me and from your little boy. He is very well, and very amusing, as usual; talks of William, and of the other papa; is as fond as ever of the “fosses,” and has a great edition to his amusement and pleasures from a flock of sheep, which are daily pastured by a shepherd and his dog upon the lawn in front of our house. Bush Hill, as it is called, though by the way...
70Abigail Adams to Mary Smith Cranch, 12–14 December 1790 (Adams Papers)
I have received your two kind Letters one dated in october the 30 day I think & the 14 of Nov br as the last came by a private Hand it did not reach me till last Evening. you will suppose that I might have written to you long e’er this, but as my letters would only have been a detail of grivences and troubles I was reluctant at taking my pen, and put it of from day to day. I reachd this city...