1Elizabeth Smith Shaw to Abigail Adams, 31 October 1795 (Adams Papers)
I have this moment heard Mr & Mrs Black is in town, & going out again immediately but I would not let slip this favourable opportunity of sending directly to you— I have omited writing before, as I wished to see Mr Peabody, & inquire of him if he knew of any place worth purchasing— I have [in]quired of Mr Tucker, & others but can find none, not any, but what will want constant repairs, & not...
Justice & judgment are the habitation of thy throne, O my God! but thy mercy endureth forever— In the depths of Sorrow, I have lifted up mine Eyes, & felt some ray of comfort, when I saw this thy darling Attribute shining with distinguished lustre—“many, very many were the virtues of my Friend”— feign would I hope, they were such as would more than ballance his failings— feign would I hope...
3John Quincy Adams to Elizabeth Smith Shaw, 8 July 1795 (Adams Papers)
About three months have elapsed since I received information by Letters from America, of the distressing trial you were called to endure, and the heavy affliction you sustained so soon after my departure from my native land. The intelligence affected me sensibly not only from the disposition to sympathize with your sorrows, but because I felt the loss myself of a friend, whose affections were...
4Elizabeth Smith Shaw to Abigail Adams, 13 June 1795 (Adams Papers)
I should be unpardonable if I neglected this Opportunity of writing to you by a private hand, & returning my grateful acknowledgements to my dear Brother Adams & you, for all your kindness—but alas! how inadequate are words to express the feelings of my heart. Upon those occasions I think it my duty to trace mercy’s to there great Source, & look up to heaven with thankfulness that I, & my...
I believe in one of my Letters I told you I had troubles of various kinds— I need to be possessed of more wisdom than the Serpent, joined to the innocence of the Dove, more meekness than Moses, more patience than Job—& to abound richly in the fruits of the Spirit— In one word our people have been very Jealous of me, they were conscious they had not used Mr Shaw well, & thought it imposible for...
6Elizabeth Smith Shaw to Abigail Adams, 24 January 1795 (Adams Papers)
I have had a very bad cold, attended with some other complaints which have enfeebled me, & made me look quite sick, for a fortnight I dare not go out of door, but I am now much better— The body, & the Mind are so nearly connected that the one cannot suffer without the other. To the indisposition of the former, would I attribute a certain depression of Spirits which has troubled me for some...
7Elizabeth Smith Shaw to Abigail Adams, 10 September 1794 (Adams Papers)
My Cousins most agreeably supprized me by a Visit— I had been informed that your Sons were to sail the week before— I thought they were upon the wide Ocean, & many a fervent wish for their saefty T had breathed forth— I am sorry I could not have the pleasure of seeing my other Nephews, especially your eldest Son, as perhaps, it will be many a year before I see him, if ever— It is an unstable...
8Elizabeth Smith Shaw to John Quincy Adams, 9 June 1794 (Adams Papers)
My Dear Nephew could not suppose a Friend to merit, could read a Paragraph in last Saturdays Paper, without feeling themselves gratified, by finding that the opinion of Persons of the highest eminence entirly coincided with their own— He who has obstinately, & undeviateingly persevered in a course of Study, who “can bring back at Eve, the manners of the Morn immaculate,” & steadily pursue the...
9Elizabeth Smith Shaw to Abigail Adams, 29 December 1793 (Adams Papers)
It is a long time since I have written to you, or received a Line from either of my much loved Sisters— I have done like many others, in the more important Concerns of Life, who, though convinced of their Duty, put off the performance of it, to a more convenient Season—not considering, that the present moment, is the only one we may be favoured with— I know that my Sister looks back upon the...
10Elizabeth Smith Shaw to Abigail Adams, 11 June 1793 (Adams Papers)
I am extremely sorry to hear, that you have had another attack of your ague, since Cousin Betsy left you— I hope you are in the use of every probable means for your releif, & restoration to Health— That glow in your features, which I have contemplated with so much satisfaction, I should be grieved to see injured by Sickness, or any disaster— But you my dear Sister have a double Security—Nature...
11Elizabeth Smith Shaw to Mary Smith Cranch, 21 April 1793 (Adams Papers)
I have been exceedingly grieved at hearing of our dear Sister Adams’s Illness— She was so well in the winter, that I hoped she would have escaped any inconvenience from the return of the fever & ague— When it gets such fast hold of a Constitution, it appears to be a very formidable Disorder, & is attended with very disagreeable Consequences— I have heard she was growing better, & hope by this...
12Elizabeth Smith Shaw to Abigail Adams, 31 December 1792 (Adams Papers)
I wish I could be satisfied, & know what is my duty towards my William, & Abigail, I could then feel easy, & cheerful— To day is the last day for our inoculation for the small-Pox— There is an hospital about half a mile above our house The people are passing, & repassing every hour of the Day, & I cannot think William secure & yet I am fearful of his going in the winter— I thought we were...
13Elizabeth Smith Shaw to Abigail Adams, 26 August 1792 (Adams Papers)
I hope you will not think me criminally negligent in not particularly addressing myself to you before now— You may be assured I always think of you with the tenderest affection, & wish that I could have time, in a more correct manner to evidence the ebulitions of a Heart, filled with every sentiment of Esteem Love, & Gratitude— When I write to my Sister Cranch, I generally write in great...
14Elizabeth Smith Shaw to Abigail Adams, 24 June 1791 (Adams Papers)
As I am exceedingly grieved when I hear of the Indisposition of any of my Friends, so am I greatly rejoiced, when I hear of their Recovery—& am much gratified at hearing of yours my Sister— When Mr Shaw went to Boston we did not know of your arrival at Braintree—& since that, the Circumstances of the Parish, & Family would not admit of our leaving Home— I hope soon to have the pleasure of...
15Abigail Adams to Elizabeth Smith Shaw, 20 March 1791 (Adams Papers)
I received, by Dr. W——, your kind letter of February 14th. He was very punctual to his commission. He has been three times to visit us. He came out this afternoon to let me know that he should leave Philadelphia on Tuesday. By him I have to thank my dear sister for three letters, and to confess myself much in arrears. ’Tis in vain to say that I have had a sick family; that I have had a large...
16Thomas Boylston Adams to Elizabeth Smith Shaw, 17 March 1791 (Adams Papers)
A few days since I received your kind letter of Feb ry : 18 th: and its being handed by a Townsman of yours was a circumstance that afforded me additional pleasure. Indeed I always receive more satisfaction when I meet with any of your Neighbors, than from the inhabitants of any other place; and can account for it upon this principle chiefly, that I lived in that town at a period when objects...
17Elizabeth Smith Shaw to Abigail Adams, 14 February 1791 (Adams Papers)
By my Sister I have been informed of your Sickness, & of the distressed State of your Family, which gave me great, pain, & anxiety— more espicially for my Cousin Thomas, who when your Letter was written was still in great distress— I am sure I know how to pity a sick Family—For in the course of the last year, there were four months, when we were severely exercised with Sickness, & the voice of...
18Elizabeth Smith Shaw to Abigail Adams, 6 December 1790 (Adams Papers)
Major Mc Farling has just called upon us, & informed us of his intention of going to Philadephia this Week—& has intimated a wish, that some outlines of his general Character might be given to the Vice President— Mr Shaw is called away on some business, & supposes, that if it is done in the female line, it may be as efficacious as if he had written himself— Major Mc-Farling had some...
I know your tender sympathetick Heart will join with me, & drop a Tear over a lovely Child—the once beautiful John Adams Thaxter—sick—faded—withered—dead— Just as his dawning reason made us wish his stay— Just as his beauteous smile & sparkling Eye promised future Joy— It is this consideration alone that can calm the tumult of the Soul, & give peace, & serenity to the weepings Eyes, &...
20Elizabeth Smith Shaw to Abigail Adams, 14 March 1790 (Adams Papers)
I have a Letter partly written to you which was begun sometime ago, but as a new Seene has presented itself to my view, I will lay that aside, & ask my Sister to rejoice with me in the recovery of my Children, & Family from the Meassels, & on the birth of a fine little Daughter which was born the 2 d Day of March. She has little bones, & weighed nine pound— She is as plump as a partridge,...
21Abigail Adams to Elizabeth Smith Shaw, 27 September 1789 (Adams Papers)
I write to you my dear sister, not from the disputed Banks of the Potowmac, the Susquehanna or the deleware, but from the peace-full Borders of the Hudson, a situation where the Hand of Nature has so lavishly display’d her Beauties, that she has left scarcly any thing, for her Handmaid Art, to perform. The House in which we reside is situated upon a Hill, the Avenue to which is intersperced...
22Elizabeth Smith Shaw to Abigail Adams, 2 May 1789 (Adams Papers)
By the News Papers, I find you have met with a temporary Loss—The United suffrages of my countrymen have once more taken my Brother Adams from you —from rural retirement—& the sweets of domestic Life, & again placed him in the political Hemisphere, where his merit—his knowledge—his patriotism—his virtue, will (I presume) shine with conspicuous Lustre, though surrounded by a multitude of bright...
23Elizabeth Smith Shaw to Abigail Adams, 14 February 1789 (Adams Papers)
You cannot think how mortified & grieved I was, by being so unexpectedly disappointed, of seeing my dear, long absent Friends last night— Mrs Smith had kindly given me information of the intended Visit—& as the Weather was uncommonly fine, though it had injured the smoothness of the road in some measure, yet here it was no impediment to any ones business— In the full assurance of seeing you...
24Elizabeth Smith Shaw to Mary Smith Cranch, 26 November 1788 (Adams Papers)
I do not know whether you have heard a word from me since I left you, if you have not, I presume it will afford you some pleasure to be assured that I got home well, though we had an uncommon cold time— We found our own Family in good Health— But Miss Lydia Marsh was very sick with the scarlet fever, & good Mrs Marsh was taken the day we got home with a very voilent fever, which threatened...
25Elizabeth Smith Shaw to Abigail Adams, 3 October 1788 (Adams Papers)
I am almost affraid you do not love me so well as I hoped you did— If you had have known how much you dissappointed me, & my Friends here, in not making us a visit, your benevolence would have induced my Brother, & you, to have surmountd every Obstacle— If I had not felt too great a tenderness for the Parent , I would have told you that your Son was here very Sick, & had alarming Complaints—...
26Elizabeth Smith Shaw to Abigail Adams, 21–23 September 1788 (Adams Papers)
Mr Lincoln has been here for several Days past— Tomorrow he intends to return to Hingham, & has offered to carry a Letter to either of my Sisters— I would not let so good an Opportunity pass, since I have often experienced how good, & how pleasant it was to receive a few Lines from a dear Friend, informing me of particular Circumstances which are interesting to them, whether it be of Joy, or...
27Elizabeth Smith Shaw to Abigail Adams, 26 July 1788 (Adams Papers)
I got home the Friday-noon after I left you, & had the great satisfaction of finding all well—my little Daughters humour much abated, & was going of without a sore forming under her chin, as the Dr feared— But I soon had a bitter ingredient thrown into my lap, by hearing the complaints of my faithful Servant Lidia, who had every Symtom of a voilent fever coming upon her— The Dr thinks her...
28Elizabeth Smith Shaw to Abigail Adams, 22 June 1788 (Adams Papers)
Thanks be to an ever watchful & kind Providence that has conducted my dear Brother, & Sister safely to their native Shore— With all the tender affections that ever warmed a Sisters Heart, I bid you welcome—welcome once more to America—welcome my dear Brother to a Land for which you have for many years toil’d & laboured— I have my dear Sister been exceedingly axious for these three weeks about...
29Elizabeth Smith Shaw to Mary Smith Cranch, 8 May 1788 (Adams Papers)
You cannot think how anxious I have been to hear from my Sister Adams, & you. Two Vessels I saw by the Papers had arrived from London, & I could not but think we had Letters— The intelligence you give me of her Health, makes me feel solemn indeed— It is 18 Months since she has been in a very poor way— I know she is mortal, & must die— But the very Idea of her being separated from us, I cannot...
30Elizabeth Smith Shaw to Mary Smith Cranch, 17 February 1788 (Adams Papers)
I hear Judge Seargant is to go to Boston tomorrow, & I will not defer writing a few Lines to my Sister, & most heartily thanking her, for her two kind remembrances of me— When I read that my young Friends designed me a Visit, I felt execeding sorry that they were prevented by the weather— They need not have been frighted, for there is seldom a Time from November, to March but what persons may...