Adams Papers

From John Adams to James Warren, 11 September 1779

To James Warren

Braintree Sept 11 1779

My dear Friend

I was told in Boston that Mr. Avery and Mr. Wendell had been proposed for Judges of the Inferior Court for the County of Suffolk, in the Room of my Friend Pemberton.1 I said not a Word, but since I have been at home, I have reflected upon this and altho these Gentlemen have amiable Characters I cannot think them So well qualified for this Place as Mr. Cranch, whose great Natural Abilities, and whose late Application to the study of the Law and to public affairs, made him occur to my Mind.2 It is the first Time of my whole Life, that I recollect that I ever proposed a Relation of mine, for a Place,3 and I cer­tainly should not have done it in this Case, if he had not been, entirely without my Knowledge untill my Arrival, been brought into public View. If you think as I do, that the public will be as faithfully and ably served by such an Appointment, as by any other, and will mention it to Mr. Sever,4 who is acquainted with him, perhaps it may be proposed in Council. There is but one objection that I know of, and that is, he is my Brother. This may be enough. <My most>

In haste yours

John Adams

RC (MHi: Warren-Adams Coll.); addressed: “The Honourable James Warren Esqr of the Continental Navy Board Boston”; docketed: “Mr. J Adams. Lettr. Sepr. 1779.”

1. Neither John Avery nor Oliver Wendell was appointed to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Samuel Pemberton (Sibley-Shipton, Harvard Graduates description begins John Langdon Sibley and Clifford K. Shipton, Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge and Boston, 1873– . description ends , 14:384–389; 13:367–374; 11:161–162).

2. Richard Cranch, married to AA’s sister Mary, was then a member of the House of Representatives (Mass., Province Laws description begins The Acts and Resolves, Public and Private, of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, Boston, 1869–1922; 21 vols. description ends , 21:4). Cranch was named to the common pleas court in 1780 (William T. Davis, History of the Judiciary of Massachusetts, Boston, 1900, p. 151).

3. In a letter of 2 May 1775, JA hinted to Joseph Palmer “in Behalf of [his] Brothers, if Either of them should have an Inclination to engage in the Army” (vol. 3:1, and note 7).

4. William Sever was then a Council member (Mass., Province Laws description begins The Acts and Resolves, Public and Private, of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, Boston, 1869–1922; 21 vols. description ends , 21:3).

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    Adams Papers
    Title
    From John Adams to James Warren, 11 September 1779
    Author
    Adams, John
    Recipient
    Warren, James
    Date
    11 September 1779

    Reference

    Cite as
    “From John Adams to James Warren, 11 September 1779,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-08-02-0103. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Papers of John Adams, vol. 8, March 1779 – February 1780, ed. Gregg L. Lint, Robert J. Taylor, Richard Alan Reyerson, Celeste Walker, and Joanna M. Revelas. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989, pp. 143–144.]

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