Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to Abigail Adams, 17 January 1800
Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to Abigail Adams
Atkinson January 17th 1800th
My Dear Sister.
How often do we find that having much to say, the
full heart cannot impart the half— This evil I find extends to
epistolary writing, for having many things incidents crouding upon each other, I thought I had
not time to notice them as I ought, & so have communicated nothing.
But as the occurrences of my own Family, are what can only be very
interesting to you, I will tell you that our numerous little flock are
all well; excepting my dear Abby, who does
not yet enjoy but feeble Health. If she lives till warm weather, I
intend she shall try the cold bath again, for it was certainly of
service last Summer, & the Dr. thinks her complaints proceed from a
relaxed state of fibres more than from any other Cause.— Your Grandsons
are well, & I trust improving. William the last quarter, did not
make that proficency in writing as John; but he has had so much said to
him, that he will not only equal him, but I hope, excell his Brother.
They are both fond of Latin, are in the same Class, behave well, &
are attentive to the rules of the Family— William has a very firm
constitution, John’s is natturally not half so good— I some-times fear
he will be troubled with the rheumatism like his Uncle Thomas, &
always gaurd him against voilent heats, & colds—but he is all
activity, & good humour— I was very sorry I could not have the
pleasure of visiting you before you left Quincy. I hoped after Mr
Peabody had returned from his mission, & our Exhibition was over, I
should have obtained a Furlow. But instead of this, company, &
Boarders increased in the Vacation & did not permit me any
relaxation from business, or I believe, I should tried to have visited
our good Brother, & Sister Cranch, & my friends in Boston, my
dear Neice, & her sweet little Cherub of a Boy—
I should really delight
in a large Family, if it was not attended with so many cares, & so
much business as to deprive me, of that time which ought to be devoted to reading, & the
sweets of literary improvements. But it looks so cheerful, to see a
large family, especially, when composed cheifly of young persons, that
for this reason I am pleased, when I behold
the olive plants spreading around my table; & though not of my own
vine, yet they look up to Mr Peabody, & myself, as their Friend &
Gaurdian.1 I often
ask my Heart, is there any way in which I can render myself more useful
to society, than by rearing these human Buds, & like the dew of
heaven, in gentle distillations, infuse the “fresh instruction”?2 Stimulated by these
reflections, I do cheerfully devote
myself to their service, & do all in my power to “raise the genius,
& to mend the Heart,“ endeavouring to check temerity, &
conceit—wherever it is visible—3 Perhaps you will smile if I
tell you, I have this summer, more than ever, been considered by the Scholars, as their general Mother— And particularly in Mr
Peabody’s absence, many parental duties devolved upon your Sister— Some,
I had to encourage, & direct, Others, kindly to reprove, &
admonish; though the latter is always dissagreeable; for praise, &
approbation is more pleasing, & congenial to my nature than
reproof—
I could not but regret that it was not in my power to
see my Son, before he went to Phyladelphia. A Mothers heart, feels a
thousand tender anxieties for her Child— Yet when I consider, that he is
under such parental care, my Soul rises in
gratitude to heaven, & the kindest of
friends— For I would not be unmindful of my many favours; though I must
confess to you my Sister, that when I came to the Table upon our
Thansgiving Day, & found my family collected, & almost every One
Exoticks, my full heart sickened at the
sight of food, & I had an hard contest with myself— It was mental,
& I believe unperceived, for I could not bear the thought to throw a gloom, &
check the gratitude of the smiling, cheerful company, which surrounded
our table, replete with the rich bounties of the closing year—
My Dear Sister will permit me upon the recent solemn
occasion to mingle my tears with hers, & with the Sons, &
Daughters of the land, in tender sympathy, lament, that at this critical Juncture, a “great Man is
fallen”—4 I presume
that not his nearest relative, will feel the Shock more than the
President. For him I mourn— Blessed in the
strictest confidential friendship they lived— In concert they reared a
fabrick, sacred to Virtue, & to Liberty; In perfect harmony, they
united in its support: With unrivalled perseverance, & unremitted
exertions they have preserved it inviolate. And, though now one of its
pillars is fallen removed, yet let
us not sink, but supplicate the great Arbiter of Events to defeat the
counsels of the Ahithophel’s, that “the
gates of Hell may not prevail”—that while the good men are perishing
from the earth, we may still find Clusters
in the Vine, so
that our Sons may arise, assume the mantle, gaze upon their godlike
Father, ’till they “shine like him”—5
I am called— Daniel & Jenny Kimbal are come in to dine, with Mr Hall. If you please tell William the former is keeping school at Bradford, Abner Rogers at Milton, Robert at Bolton—that Daniel White is Tutor at Cambridge—are all well &ce—6
May the Angel of health encamp arround, my dearest relatives, prays your ever grateful affectionate / Sister
Elizabeth Peabody
accept Mr Peabodys best respects—
RC (Adams Papers); endorsed: “Mrs Shaw Janry / 17 1800.”
1. The Peabodys’ student boarders from July 1799 to Jan. 1800 were Nathaniel Adams Jr., Fitz Edward Hutchings, Mary Oliver, and Samuel and Arolina Gilman (Accounts, of Boarders, 1792–1808, MWA:Stephen Peabody Diaries).
2. James Thomson, The Seasons, “Spring,” line 1154.
3. Alexander Pope, “Prologue to Mr. Addison’s Cato,” line 2.
4. 2 Samuel, 3:38.
5. Peabody was quoting Matthew, 16:18, and Joseph Addison, Cato, Act I, scene v, line 21.
6. The Peabodys hosted Daniel Kimball (1778–1862), Harvard 1800, a native of Bradford, Mass., and a tutor at Harvard beginning in 1803, and his sister Jane (b. 1776). Abner Rogers (b. 1775), Harvard 1800, became a schoolmaster in Medford in 1801, and Daniel Appleton White (1776–1861), Harvard 1797, was a tutor at Harvard until 1803 (Leonard Allison Morrison and Stephen Paschall Sharples, History of the Kimball Family in America, Boston, 1897, p. 175, 332; Charles H. Morss, “The Development of the Public School of Medford,” Medford Historical Register, 3:35 [Jan. 1900]; Daniel Appleton White and Annie Frances Richards, The Descendants of William White, of Haverhill, Mass., Boston, 1889, p. 32).