close
Isaac Smith Sr. to John Adams
Docno: AFC03d017
Recipient: JA
Date: 1778-05-06
[dateline] Boston May the 6th. 1778
[salute] John Adams Esqr.
Hopeing this might find you safe Arrived, and haveing an Opportunity by Via Cadiz, thought itt might be Agreeable to let you know your family and friends are well.
A fleet from France is now Arriveing. The Dean Frigate with Young Cushing &c. is att Portsmouth.1 Mr. Dean was landed att the Eastward as you will know as the ship returnd.2—Tryon sent Out part of an Act to Govr. Trumbal. I have inclosed his Answer which is very spirited, and to the purpose, and is much Admired.3
You will probably have heard of the loss of the Alfred, Capt. Hinman, who with the Rawley Agreed to Attack two Ships of much less force—the Rawley haveing as many people as both the british ships. Hinman went to Attack them, According to Agreement, but the Rawley kept her Wind and never went to his Assistance and after engaging both Vessells sometime, he was Obliged to strike. So we go on with Continental ships, by all Accounts itt is a much worse Affair than McNeils.4
A ship of Warr is this day Arrived with duplicates of what Mr. Dean brought. We have Advise from Bilbao to the last of March and was in hopes to have heard of your Arrival.—Hopeing to here of your Arrival soon is the wish of Yr. Most hum. servt.,
[signed] Isaac Smith
RC
Adams Papers
. For the enclosure (not found), see note 3. French translation, of selected sentences only (Archives Aff. Etr., Paris: Etats-Unis, Corr. pol., vol. 3), bears these notations: “Isaac Smith a John Adams. traduit de l'Anglois Interceptée”; reproduced in Stevens' Facsimiles
, No. 822. See descriptive note on Thaxter's letter to JA, preceding; these two letters doubtless came by the same conveyance and may have been captured and recaptured before reaching their recipient.
1. The Boston Gazette of 4 May reported the arrival at Portsmouth, N.H., of the Continental frigate Deane, Capt. Samuel Nicholson, on 1 May in nine
{p. 20}
weeks from France, bringing a cargo of military supplies from France and a number of passengers, including Thomas, son of Thomas Cushing Sr.
2. Simeon Deane, bringing copies of the treaties with France to Congress, sailed home on the French frigate La Sensible and arrived at Falmouth (now Portland, Maine), on 13 April (Boston Gazette, 20, 27 April 1778).
3. Probably Smith enclosed a printed handbill dated at Boston, 27 April: “The following Bills [i.e. North's conciliatory bills], together with a Letter from Governor [William] Tryon to Governor [Jonathan] Trumbull, and his Answer thereto, came to Hand this Afternoon” (copy in MHi; Ford, Mass. Broadsides
, No. 2128).
4. Hector McNeill (1728–1785), captain in the Continental Navy, commanded the frigate Boston when it was commissioned in 1776. Following an action in July 1777 in which his fellow officer Capt. John Manley, commanding the frigate Hancock, was captured, McNeill was court-martialed and suspended or dismissed from the service, and although subsequently the Continental Congress declined to carry out the sentence, McNeill did not serve again. Manley was acquitted. The trials of both officers were about to come on in Boston when the present letter was written. See Gardner W. Allen's authoritative sketch of McNeill's career, supported by extensive documentation, in MHS, Procs.
, 55 (1921–1922):46–152.
Cite web page as: Founding Families: Digital Editions of the Papers of the Winthrops and the Adamses, ed.C. James Taylor. Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 2007.
http://www.masshist.org/ff/
http://www.masshist.org/ff/