Adams Papers

[Sarah Yard’s Bill for Board.]
[from the Diary of John Adams]

[Sarah Yard’s Bill for Board.] 1

Mr. John Adams  Dr.  To Mrs. Yard.
1775
Augt. 1st. To your Board & Lodging from the 10th May to this day 11 1/2 Wks.à 30s. per Wk. £17: 5
To your Servants Board for 7 Wks. 4 days à 15s. 5: 12: 6
To your Proportion to the Parlour and Candles 11 1/2 Wks. à 4s. 2: 6
To your proportion of the Liquor 13: 10
£38: 13: 6

Receiv’d the Above in full—Sarah Yard

38 13 6
7 14 8 1/2
£30. 18. 9 1/2
L.M. £30: 18s: 10d
39: 2
38: 13: 6
8: 6

1M-Ar: vol. 210. The arithmetic at the foot of the paper is in JA’s hand.

According to its Journal, Congress adjourned on 1 Aug. to meet again on 5 Sept. (JCC description begins Worthington C. Ford and others, eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, Washington, 1904–1937; 34 vols. description ends , 2:239). But it should be noted that R. T. Paine’s Diary (MHi) has under 1 Aug. only the notation “Very hott,” but on the following day: “D[itt]o. Congress adj[ourne]d. ... 1/2 past 12 Clock Sat out, Stopt at Red Lyon. ... thence to Trenton. Lodged.” Clearly Congress met at least briefly on the 2d; see also Francis Lewis to Philip Schuyler, 2 Aug. (Burnett, ed., Letters of Members description begins Edmund C. Burnett, ed., Letters of Members of the Continental Congress, Washington, 1921–1936; 8 vols. description ends , 1:187). From Paine’s use of the second person plural in entries recording his return to Massachusetts, it seems likely that the other delegates accompanied him, but there is nothing to confirm that JA did so, and he certainly reached Braintree well before Paine reached Taunton on the 10th, because on that day JA attended a meeting of the Massachusetts Council, to which he had been elected by the new House on 21 July (Mass., House Jour. description begins Journals of the House of Representatives of Massachusetts [1715– ], Boston, reprinted by the Massachusetts Historical Society, 1919– . (For the years for which reprints are not yet available, the original printings are cited, by year and session.) description ends , 1775–1776, 1st sess., 6:60). See also the following entry and note.

Index Entries