Browsing: Adams Family Correspondence, Volume 3

5. Benjamin Hichborn had been captured with JA's indiscreet letters in Aug., 1775 but afterward escaped; see JA, Diary and Autobiography , 2:174–175; 3:318–319. Thomas Welsh, serving as a military surgeon, was a relative of AA's by marriage; see Adams Genealogy. Jonathan Mason, a former law clerk of JA's and a correspondent of AA's, has been identified and often alluded to in earlier volumes of this series. John Codman (probably John Codman Jr., on whom {p. 79} see William Smith to AA, 1–3 Oct., below) was one of the members of the Independent Company when it was formed in 1776; see AA to JA, 1 Aug. 1776, vol. 2, above; Mass. Soldiers and Sailors , 3:704. Neither Smith nor Bradford can be identified with certainty.