Browsing: Papers of John Adams, Volume 6

3. Thomas Greenleaf escaped from Forton Prison, to which he had been sent on 7 July, and may have been the “Mr Greenleaf” who carried JA's letter of 27 Dec. to AA in America. Greenleaf, who later became a noted New York city printer, was the son of Joseph Greenleaf of Boston (Marion and Jack Kaminkow, comps., Mariners of the American Revolution, Baltimore, 1967, p. 78; Adams Family Correspondence , 3:141; 1:198, note 4; James Edward Greenleaf, comp., Genealogy of the Greenleaf Family, Boston, 1896, p. 196, 77–78). For JA's opinion on aid to prisoners in general and to Greenleaf in particular, see his reply of 8 Sept., apparently not sent (Adams Papers, Microfilms, Reel No. 93).