Browsing: Adams Family Correspondence, Volume 5

4. Up to 1783 AA employed tutors at home for her boys, but shortly after she and/or Mary Cranch received this letter, AA put CA and TBA under the care of their uncle Rev. John Shaw (see AA to JA, 7 April, below). At the same time, Richard and Mary Cranch put their son William at the Shaws. And when JQA returned from Europe, he also studied with Rev. Shaw before entering Harvard.

Before Elizabeth's marriage in 1777, AA did not have much use for John Shaw, and as late as 1778 she expressed reservations about him (vols. 1:176, and note 1; 2:173; 3:78, and note 10). Thus AA's willingness to entrust her boys' schooling to Shaw may have marked a change in her views. Later passages in this letter also suggest the possibility that AA was concerned that her sister was in financial need, and that she and Mary Cranch were trying to help out.