James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 11 August 1779

James Lovell to Abigail Adams

11. Augst. 1779

My amiable Friend

This Evening I have satisfactory Intelligence of the real Embarkation of your very dear Treasure at <~~Nantes~~> l’Orient the 17th. of June and that he was left well 12 days after, off the western Islands. The Secretary of Arthur Lee arrived at Metompkin, Virginia, Augst. 1st. in a very swift sailing Vessel.1 Mr. Adams told him at parting that he had good News for Congress and sent his Respects. The Secretary is not here but a Connecticutt Captain a Passenger in the same Vessel is my Author. There is a very lazy Vessel in Company with the Baggage of the french Minister who is with Mr. Adams; so that you need not be uneasy meerly on Account of Time. But I must honestly say that there is a risque both from Arbuthnot and Collier. God grant he may escape both, and speedily embrace his dear Family.

James Lovell

RC (Adams Papers).

1. This was Hezekiah Ford, a Virginian of dubious political and moral character who as “Parson Ford” had alternately bored and shocked JA while the latter was waiting at Lorient for passage home. See JA, Diary and Autobiography description begins Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols. description ends , 2:364–368, 373, 376–377.

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Source Project: Adams Papers
Title: James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 11 August 1779
Author: Lovell, James
Recipient: Adams, Abigail
Date: 11 August 1779

Reference

Cite as: “James Lovell to Abigail Adams, 11 August 1779,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/04-03-02-0171. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Adams Family Correspondence, vol. 3, April 1778 – September 1780, ed. L. H. Butterfield and Marc Friedlaender. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1973, pp. 222–223.]

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