John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Adams, 2 May 1804
John Quincy Adams to Louisa Catherine Adams
Quincy 2. May 1804.
My dearest Louisa.
I was two days last week at Dedham, where there was a Court sitting, at which I had something to do—1 On Friday evening I received your letter of the 17th: of last Month— Yesterday, being at Boston I found your’s of the 24th: and rejoyce to hear of your all being so well— They ought not to have charged you with postage for my last Letter— However, 20 Cents is not worth disputing with them. Mr: and Mrs: Morton pass’d through Dedham on their return home; one of the days when I was there— They came from New-York to Providence by Water; and had a bad time— Several days on the passage, and bad weather
Mr: and Mrs: Quincy were out here this morning— Since the opening of the Bridge their house here is no near them; that it is but a morning or afternoon’s ride, to come out and return to Boston— He is building, both here and in Boston—2 I was much gratified at his election as a Senator.
I desired Mrs: Whitcomb to procure all the things for which you wrote, as soon as possible, and have them safely pack’d— There is a vessel going in a few days to Alexandria, by which I hope to send them— The same vessel may furnish an opportunity by which my trunks may come.3
Whitcomb quits the house on the first of July— He has engaged Concert-Hall, from that time— It has been much enlarged since last Summer; as you remember they were building there when we left Boston—4 Whitcomb is I believe well satisfied with his success hitherto.— His wife is much thinner than I ever knew her.
I went up and down Hanover Street to look at our old house, which has undergone an entire metamorphosis— Your garden is broken up, and at the bottom of the yard is a large brick Store— All the window-sashes in the house have been taken out, and windows with large glass put in— The whole house is painted outside, of a light colour, so that Mr: Brown’s, at the next door looks quite shabby by the side of it— Mr: Odin the purchaser was not long since married.5
The Spring is just beginning to shew her face— The fields are in the act of changing from grey to green; and the blossoms on the peach-trees are just bursting open— I observe the progress of the vegetation, and think myself growing a farmer—
I will endeavour to procure some of the vaccine inoculating matter from Dr: Waterhouse; and to send it you, as soon as possible.
Shaw has just finished the terms required as a student at Law; and has been admitted at the Court of Common Pleas in Boston— He intends to remain there.6 He never sees me without telling me how much he longs to see George— And if he longs to see him, how much more must I to see him, and you; and John; indeed I think of scarce any thing else— One Month has already past (this day) since we parted— And I count every day— And every hour untill we meet again— Till then believe me, your ever faithful and affectionate
John Q. Adams.
RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “Mrs: L. C. Adams.”
1. JQA attended the Court of Sessions with Moses Black on 27 April where a report was read regarding the proposed route for a “Quincy road.” Dispute over the road’s location led to proposals for multiple routes, and JQA recorded that the current petition was “against both the roads petitioned for— But in favour of a middle road, between the two.” The court deferred consideration of the issue until its June session, and JQA returned to Dedham, Mass., on 5 June, accompanied by Capt. Benjamin Beale Jr. The petition was rejected, and a subsequent petition introduced by Braintree residents was allowed “a new viewing” committee, prompting JQA to comment that the viewing would go on “ad infinitum” (D/JQA/27, 26, 27 April, 5 June, APM Reel 30). See also JQA to LCA, 9 June, below.
2. Eliza Susan Morton and Josiah Quincy III resided on Pearl Street in Boston. Quincy had inherited the family’s estate at Mount Wollaston on the death of his grandfather Josiah I in 1784. He also held lucrative investments in Boston and South Shore property (, p. 102, , No. 8057; Robert A. McCaughey, Josiah Quincy, 1772–1864: The Last Federalist, Cambridge, 1974, p. 16–17).
3. LCA’s request to Elizabeth Epps Whitcomb has not been found, although the goods were likely sent aboard the sloop Mary, Capt. Folger, which cleared Boston for Alexandria, Va., on 9 May 1804 (Boston Columbian Centinel, 2, 9 May).
4. Boston’s Concert Hall was built in 1756 at Hanover and Court Streets. Tilly Whitcomb assumed the property’s lease on 1 July 1804 and within days was advertising both its renovation and availability for rental. In November he advertised that the improvements were “so far completed, as to enable him to accommodate large or small parties.” Although there were brief periods when he relinquished the property’s lease, Whitcomb remained proprietor of the hall through 1822 (Caleb H. Snow, A History of Boston, the Metropolis of Massachusetts, from Its Origin to the Present Period, Boston, 1825, p. 333; , 1:166; Boston Commercial Gazette, 5 July, 22 Nov. 1804, 23 Oct. 1815, 18 July 1816; Boston Yankee, 23 May 1817; Boston Repertory, 1 June 1819; Boston Daily Advertiser, 29 Nov. 1820; Boston Intelligencer, 19 Oct. 1822).
5. Samuel Brown, a Boston merchant who resided at 40 Hanover Street, was the Adamses’ neighbor before JQA sold his 39 Hanover Street property to hardware merchant John Odin, for which see AA to TBA, 26 April 1803, and note 2, above. Odin (1774–1854) married on 4 Jan. 1804 Harriet Tyng Walter, a daughter of Rev. William Walter (, p. 25, 93, , No. 8057; Boston Columbian Centinel, 7 Jan.; “Pedigree of the Odin Family,” , 12:223 [July 1858]).
6. After finishing the required three years of legal study, for which see Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to AA, 29 March 1801, and note 6, above, William Smith Shaw qualified for admission as an attorney of the Court of Common Pleas of Suffolk County in April 1804 (, p. 186; Rules and Regulations of the Bar in the County of Suffolk, Boston, 1805, p. 8, , No. 9445).