1Sunday June 20 1784. (Adams Papers)
Embarked on Board the ship Active Capt. Lyde commander, with my daughter and 2 servants for London. To go back to the painfull Scenes I endured in taking leave of my Friends and Neighbours will but excite them over again. Suffice it to say that I left my own House the 18 of June. Truly a house of mourning; full of my Neighbours. Not of unmeaning complimenters, but the Honest yeomanary, their...
2Wedensday [23 June]. (Adams Papers)
Our ship dirty, ourselves sick. Went upon deck and sent the servants down to clean her up: very little attention is paid on Board this Ship to that first of virtues cleanliness. I wonder this necessary virtue was not ranked amongst those which are called Cardinel and Deified. I have often reflected upon the observation of my best Friend, that of all Beings a Lady at Sea was the most...
3Thursday [24 June]. (Adams Papers)
A fine wind and clear air but the Ship going before the wind rolls sadly. Dr. Clark has been well through the whole, and kindly attentive to us. If he had been our Brother he could not have been more so. I know not what we should have done without him. No airs, but a pleasent, Benevolent, friendly kindness, as tho he was rewarded by the disposition alone of doing good. Our Captain an exelent...
4Sunday June 27. (Adams Papers)
I have been so sick that I could not be regular in my journal. We have had two days calm since we came to Sea. The rest of the time good winds which have brought us on our Way rejoiceing, for we have not had any bad weather except rain, thunder and lightning one evening which was not severe. I have been surprized at myself to find that I can sleep notwithstanding the lasshing of the waves; and...
5Monday Mor’g 28 June. (Adams Papers)
A very dissagreeable Night. Wind at the southard near the Banks of Newfoundland. The morning damp. A most voilent Headack. Sick every one of us. Our Ship goes at about nine and 8 knots an hour. No going upon deck. Their is so much confinement on Board a Ship and such a Sameness that one knows not what to do. I have been reading since I came on Board Buchan Domestick Medicine. He appears a...
6Thursday July 1 1784. (Adams Papers)
I have not been able to write a line since Monday when a North east Storm came on and held till Wednesday Mor’g. It was with the utmost difficulty that we could set or lie only by holding by each other with our feet against a table braced with ropes, that we could keep up; and when in bed I was obliged to hold fast by the sides till my hands and wrists aked to keep in: only conceive a great...
7Fryday 2 of July. (Adams Papers)
A fine wind and a pleasent day. Our sea sickness has left us in a great measure. Went all of us upon Deck to enjoy the fresh air, had our rooms cleaned out, begin to feel a little more reconciled to our confinement. Hemd a hankerchief upon Deck. Yesterday mor’g the Capt. sent an embassy to the Ladies representing the distressed state of our poor cow, who by the late Storm had been disabled...
8Saturday 3 July. (Adams Papers)
A fine morning. Rose by six o clock. Went upon deck. None of the Gentlemen up; our Second Mate, a grand son of the Revd. Dr. Chauncy of Boston. He was upon deck and handed me out. A likely young fellow whose countanance is a good Letter of recommendation. We were all prejudiced in his favour as soon as we saw him; he told me to day that he was taken a prisoner during the War, and carried to...
9Sunday July 4th 1784. (Adams Papers)
This is the Anniversary of our Glorious Independance. Whilst the Nations of Europe are enveloped in Luxery and dissipation; and a universal venality prevails throughout Britain, may the new empire, Gracious Heaven, become the Guardian and protector of Religion and Liberty, of universal Benevolence and Phylanthropy. May those virtues which are banished from the land of our Nativity, find a safe...
10Tuesday July 6th. (Adams Papers)
I was not able to write yesterday the wind blew so fresh; and not very fair, so that there was too much motion of the Ship. In the afternoon it came on rainy, and continued so through the night, this morning a small north east wind cloudy and unpleasent. Whilst our Friends on shore are melting under a mid Summer Sun; there has been no day so warm at Sea; but what I could wear a double calico...
11Thursday July 8th. (Adams Papers)
If I did not write I should lose the Days of the Weeks. Yesterday a cold wet day. Could not go upon deck. Spent a large part of the day in writing to Mrs. Cranch. Any thing for amusement is agreeable, where there is such an unavoidable sameness. “Were e’en paridice my prison, I should long to leap, the cristal walls.” The Ship itself is a partial prison, and much more so, when we are confined...
12Fryday July 9. (Adams Papers)
A fine day; but little wind; have been upon Deck the chief of the Day, engaged in reading Campbles political Survey of Great Britain. None of the advantages which he has enumerated belonging to Britain of Soil, climate, water; &c. but what America possesses in an equal if not superiour degree. As our Country becomes more populous, we shall be daily makeing new discoveries and vie in some...
13Saturday 17 of July. (Adams Papers)
I have neglected my journal for a week. During that time we have had 3 calm days, some wet weather but nothing worth remarking has occur’d. I have been several days sick of the Rheumatisim, occasiond I suppose by the dampness of the Ship, which made my Bed so too. I had the precaution to take some medicine on Board proper for the Disease, which the Dr. administerd, and I have in a great...
14Sunday July 18th. (Adams Papers)
This Day about 2 oclock made land. It is almost a Calm, so that we shall gain but little. We hope to land at Portsmouth a tuesday; this is doing very well; I have great reason to be thankfull for so favourable a passage. The mate caught a shark this morning but he got away, after receiving several wounds with a harpoon. I believe I could continue on Board this Ship 8 or ten days more, and find...
15Monday Morning July 19th. (Adams Papers)
A calm. The vessel rolling: the wind freshning towards Night. We hope for a speedy passage up the Channel. Tuesday a fine wind but squally. We have seen land supposed to be Dover cliffs. AA ’s chronology here and in the next entry is confused, which is perhaps not surprising in view of her having slept only four hours between Saturday the 17th and Tuesday the 20th (which was in fact the day...
16Wedensday [i.e. Tuesday, 20 July.] (Adams Papers)
Early in the morning a pilot Boat came of to us from Deal. The wind blew very high and the Sea ran with a great Swell. In her journal-letter of 6–30 July AA gives a colorful account of the landing of the Active’s passengers in the surf at Deal and of their trip through Canterbury, Rochester, Chatham, and Blackheath (where a highwayman had just been apprehended) to London. They arrived at 8 in...
17Fryday July 20 1787 London. (Adams Papers)
This day three years I landed at Deal. Since that time I have travelld to France, to Holland and several parts of England but have never kept any journal, or record except what my Letters to my Friends may furnish nor have I ever perused this Book since it was first written till this Day when looking into the first page, it excited all my former emotions and made the Tears flow affresh. I have...
1821. (Adams Papers)
We set out about 9 in the morning, stoped and baited at Farnham, dinned at Alton and reached Winchester about 8 oclock. Robert Quincy Earl of Winchester formerly resided here and was I presume an ancestor of my mothers, bearing the same arms. There is a Cathedral Church here, it being a Bishops See. The present Bishop of Winchester is Brother to Lord North whose Seat and park is in Farnham....
19Sunday 23 [i.e. 22 July.] (Adams Papers)
Went to the Cathedral Church at Winchester. It is a very curious structure. It is said to have been part built by Bishop Walkelyne in the year 1079. In a Chaple belonging to this Edifice Queen Mary was married to King Philip, and the Chair in which she was seated during the ceremony is still to be seen. There is also a Statue of James the 1 and Charles the first. This place since its first...
2024 [i.e. 23] July. (Adams Papers)
We dinned at South hampton and set out after dinner for Salsbury 22 miles, where we meant to have passt the night and taken a view of the Town, but when we reachd the Inn we found it fully occupied, and not a single Bed to be had neither at the Inn we went to, or any other in Town, the Court of Assize being held there for the week. Tho nine oclock we were obliged to proceed to the next stage...
21July [24–]25 (Adams Papers)
We left this village and proceeded on our way to Blanford where we put up for the Night. Saw nothing striking in this place and met with poor accommodations oweing chiefly to the Assizes, which were to commence the next Day and the House was nearly occupied when we arrived. We stayd only untill the next morning and then persued our route. Arrived at diner time at Dorchester an other very old...
22July 26[–27] (Adams Papers)
Our next Stage was Bridport a small Sea port but a very bad harbour. No trade only in coal which is carried there by water for the supply of the inhabitants. We dinned there, and then proceeded for Axmister, the first town in the County of Devonshire. Here we put up at the best Inn I ever saw, the George kept by a Mr. Ellis. The appartments were not only neat and convenient, but every thing...
2328th (Adams Papers)
We left Axminster and proceeded to Exeter. Here we put up at the Hotell in the Church yard and opposite to the Cathedral Church. At this place lives Mr. Andrew Cranch the Eldest Brother of Mrs. Palmer and Mr. R. Cranch. We went to visit him. A Mr. Bowering a very Worthy Tradesman came to see us, and as he lives near to Mr. Cranch, he persuaded the old Gentleman to come and drink Tea with him....
Sunday London March 30. We took our departure from the Bath Hotell where I had been a Fortnight, and sat out for Portsmouth, which we reachd on Monday Evening. We put up at the Fountain Inn. Here we continued a week waiting for the Ship which was detaind by contrary winds in the River. The wind changing we past over to the Isle of Wight and landed at a place call’d Ryed, where we took post...
25John Adams to Abigail Smith, 4 October 1762 (Adams Papers)
By the same Token that the Bearer hereof satt up with you last night I hereby order you to give him, as many Kisses, and as many Hours of your Company after 9 O’Clock as he shall please to Demand and charge them to my Account: This Order, or Requisition call it which you will is in Consideration of a similar order Upon Aurelia for the like favour, and I presume I have good Right to draw upon...
26John Adams to Abigail Smith, 1762 – 1763 (Adams Papers)
I have taken the best Advice, on the subject of your Billet, and I find you cannot compell me to pay unless I refuse Marriage; which I never did, and never will, but on the Contrary am ready to have you at any Time. I hope Jemima’s Conscience has as good a Memory as mine. RC ( Adams Papers ); addressed: “To Miss —— Weymouth.” There is no clue to the precise date of this note, the “Billet” to...
27John Adams to Abigail Smith, 14 February 1763 (Adams Papers)
Accidents are often more Friendly to us, than our own Prudence.—I intended to have been at Weymouth Yesterday, but a storm prevented.—Cruel, Yet perhaps blessed storm!—Cruel for detaining me from so much friendly, social Company, and perhaps blessed to you, or me or both, for keeping me at my Distance. For every experimental Phylosopher knows, that the steel and the Magnet or the Glass and...
28Abigail Smith to Isaac Smith Jr., 16 March 1763 (Adams Papers)
Tis no small pleasure to me, to hear of the great proficioncy you have made in the French tongue, A Tongue Sweet, and harmonious, a Tongue, useful to Merchants, to Statesmen; to Divines, and especially to Lawyers and Travellers; who by the help of it, may traverse the whole Globe; for in this respect, the French language is pretty much now, what I have heard the Latin formerly was, a universal...
29John Adams to Abigail Smith, 20 April 1763 (Adams Papers)
Love sweetens Life, and Life sometimes destroys Love. Beauty is desirable and Deformity detestible; Therefore Beauty is not Deformity nor Deformity, Beauty. Hope springs eternal in the human Breast, I hope to be happyer next Fall than I am at present, and this Hope makes me happyer now than I should be without it.—I am at Braintree but I wish I was at Weymouth! What strange Revolutions take...
30Abigail Smith to John Adams, 11 August 1763 (Adams Papers)
If I was sure your absence to day was occasioned, by what it generally is, either to wait upon Company, or promote some good work, I freely confess my Mind would be much more at ease than at present it is. Yet this uneasiness does not arise from any apprehension of Slight or neglect, but a fear least you are indisposed, for that you said should be your only hindrance. Humanity obliges us to be...
31John Adams to Abigail Smith, 15 August 1763 (Adams Papers)
The Disappointment you mention was not intended, but quite accidental. A Gentleman, for whom I had much Esteem, Mr. Daniel Leonard of Norton, was so good as to offer to keep the sabbath with me at Braintree—a favour that would have been very agreable if it had not detained me from the most agreable of all Company, to me, in this world, and a favour that will I know be sufficient with you to...
32John Adams to Abigail Smith, August 1763 (Adams Papers)
Germantown is at a great Distance from Weymouth Meeting-House, you know; The No. of Yards indeed is not so prodigious, but the Rowing and Walking that lyes between is a great Discouragement to a weary Traveller. Could my Horse have helped me to Weymouth, Braintree would not have held me, last Night.—I lay, in the well known Chamber, and dreamed, I saw a Lady, tripping it over the Hills, on...
33Abigail Smith to John Adams, 12 September 1763 (Adams Papers)
You was pleas’d to say that the receipt of a letter from your Diana always gave you pleasure. Whether this was designed for a complement, (a commodity I acknowledg that you very seldom deal in) or as a real truth, you best know. Yet if I was to judge of a certain persons Heart, by what upon the like occasion passess through a cabinet of my own, I should be apt to suspect it as a truth. And why...
34Hannah Storer Green to Abigail Smith, 1763 – 1764 (Adams Papers)
My inclinations, tho’ not my Expectations were very much disapointed in not sending you a long Letter the last time I wrote; however I must still beg your Patience and I will pay you all, the very first minute I can.—Patience my dear I recommend to you, upon more accounts than one, first upon your friends, secondly upon your own, for if you do not have Patience with me, I shall never pay you,...
35Abigail Smith to Cotton Tufts, 2 April 1764 (Adams Papers)
I should not have been unmindful of you, even tho you had not call’d upon me to exert myself. I should be the most ungrateful of Mortals, if I did not always with Gratitude remember so kind a Benefactor, as you have been to me both in Sickness, and in Health. How often has your kind hand supported me when I was more helpless than an Infant. How often have you revived me by your Vital Heat? And...
36Abigail Smith to John Adams, 7 April 1764 (Adams Papers)
How do you now? For my part, I feel much easier than I did an hour ago, My Unkle haveing given me a more particuliar, and favorable account of the Small pox, or rather the operation of the preparation, than I have had before. He speaks greatly in favor of Dr. Perkins who has not, as he has heard lost one patient. He has had since he has been in Town frequent opportunities of visiting in the...
37John Adams to Abigail Smith, 7 April 1764 (Adams Papers)
For many Years past, I have not felt more serenely than I do this Evening. My Head is clear, and my Heart is at ease. Business of every Kind, I have banished from my Thoughts. My Room is prepared for a Seven Days’ Retirement, and my Plan is digested for 4 or 5 Weeks. My Brother retreats with me, to our preparatory Hospital, and is determined to keep me Company, through the Small Pox. Your...
38Abigail Smith to John Adams, 8 April 1764 (Adams Papers)
If our wishes could have conveyed you to us, you would not have been absent to Day. Mr. Cranch and my Sister have been here, where they hoped to have found you. We talk’d of you, they desire to be rememberd to you, and wish you well thro the Distemper. Mr. Cranch told me that the Deacon with his children design for Boston next Saturday and that they propose going by water—that the Deacon would...
39Abigail Smith to Cotton Tufts, 9 April 1764 (Adams Papers)
I suppose you have written to me, tho I have not received it, for Mr. Ayers left his pocket Book with the Letters at Roxbury. However full in the Faith that I have a Letter there, I return you my thanks for it. We are all very sollicitious to hear from you; Brother has they tell us two eruptions; upon which I congratulate him. I hear also that he is in high Spirits, and more agreeable than...
40John Adams to Abigail Smith, 11 April 1764 (Adams Papers)
The Room which I thought would have been an Hospital or a Musaeum, has really proved a Den of Thieves, and a scene of Money Changers. More Persons have been with me about Business, since I shut up , than a few, and many more than I was glad to see, for it is a sort of Business that I get nothing by, but Vanity and Vexation of Spirit. If my Imprisonment had been in Consequence of Bankruptcy, I...
41John Adams to Abigail Smith, 11 April 1764 (Adams Papers)
This is the last Opportunity I shall have to write you from Braintree for some Weeks. You may expect to hear from me, as soon after my Arrival at Boston as possible. Have had a peaceable, pleasant Day upon the whole. My Brother and I have the Wishes, the good Wishes of all the good People who come to the House. They admire our Fortitude, and wish us well thro, even some, who would heartily...
42John Adams to Abigail Smith, 12 April 1764 (Adams Papers)
I have Thoughts of sending you a Nest of Letters like a nest of Basketts; tho I suspect the latter would be a more genteel and acceptable Present to a Lady. But in my present Circumstances I can much better afford the former than the latter. For, my own Discretion as well as the Prescriptions of the Faculty, prohibit any close Application of Mind to Books or Business—Amusement, Amusement is...
43Abigail Smith to John Adams, 12 April 1764 (Adams Papers)
Here am I all alone, in my Chamber, a mere Nun I assure you, after professing myself thus will it not be out of Character to confess that my thoughts are often employ’d about Lysander, “out of the abundance of the Heart, the mouth speaketh,” and why Not the Mind thinketh. Received the pacquet you so generously bestowed upon me. To say I Fasted after such an entertainment, would be wronging my...
44John Adams to Abigail Smith, 13 April 1764 (Adams Papers)
We arrived at Captn. Cunninghams, about Twelve O’Clock and sent our Compliments to Dr. Perkins. The Courrier returned with Answer that the Dr. was determined to inoculate no more without a Preparation preevious to Inoculation. That We should have written to him and have received Directions from him, and Medicine, before We came into Town. I was surprized and chagrined. I wrote, instantly, a...
45John Adams to Abigail Smith, 14 April 1764 (Adams Papers)
The Deacon and his Three Children are arrivd and the Operation has been performed, and all well. And now our Hospital is full. There are Ten, of Us, under this Roof, now expecting to be sick. One, of Us, Mr. Wheat, begins to complain of a Pain Under his Arm and in his Knees, and about his Back, so that We expect within a few Hours to see the Course of the Eruption and of the fever that...
46Abigail Smith to John Adams, 15 April 1764 (Adams Papers)
Mr. Cranch informs me that Hones will go to Town tomorrow, and that I may not miss one opportunity, have now taken my pen to thank you for yours by Tom, and also for that which I have just now received by Mr. Ayres. You seem in high Spirits at which you know I rejoice. Your minute description of the persons you have seen, are very entertaining to me. I cannot consent you should omit writing,...
47Abigail Smith to John Adams, 16 April 1764 (Adams Papers)
I think I write to you every Day. Shall not I make my Letters very cheep; don’t you light your pipe with them? I care not if you do, tis a pleasure to me to write, yet I wonder I write to you with so little restraint, for as a critick I fear you more than any other person on Earth, and tis the only character, in which I ever did, or ever will fear you. What say you? Do you approve of that...
48John Adams to Abigail Smith, 17 April 1764 (Adams Papers)
Yours of April 15th. this moment received. I thank You for it—and for your offer of Milk, but We have Milk in vast Abundance, and every Thing else that we want except Company. You cant imagine how finely my Brother and I live. We have, as much Bread and as much new pure Milk, as much Pudding, and Rice, and indeed as much of every Thing of the farinaceous Kind as We please—and the Medicine We...
49John Adams to Abigail Smith, 18 April 1764 (Adams Papers)
Three of our Company, have now the Small Pox upon them, Wheat, Badger, and Elderkin. We have seen them for two or Three days each, wading thro Head Acks, Back Acks, Knee Achs, Gagging and Fever, to their present state of an indisputable Eruption, chearful Spirits, coming Appetites and increasing strength. Huntington begins to complain and look languid.—Our Turn comes next. We have compleated...
50Abigail Smith to John Adams, 19 April 1764 (Adams Papers)
Why my good Man, thou hast the curiosity of a Girl. Who could have believed that only a slight hint would have set thy imagination a gig in such a manner. And a fine encouragement I have to unravel the Mistery as thou callest it. Nothing less truly than to be told Something to my disadvantage. What an excellent reward that will be? In what Court of justice did’st thou learn that equity? I...