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Browsing: Diary of John Adams, Volume 3
Docno: ADMS-01-03-02-0013-0003-0024
Date: 1796-08-24
August 24. 1796. Wednesday.
Billings, Bass and the Lothrops upon the Wall. The blacks going to pick Apples. I
took Rhubarb and Salt of Wormwood.
Bathing my Feet and drinking balm Tea, last night composed me somewhat, and I hope
the Rhubarb and Salt of Wormwood I took this Morning will carry off my Complaints:
but the Pain in my head and the burnings in my hands and feet were so like the Commencement
of my Fevers of 1781 at Amsterdam and of 1783 at Paris and Auteuil, that I began to
be allarmed.
Mr. and Mrs. Norton dined with Us.
Old Mr. Thomas Adams of Medfield, the Father of Hannah Adams, the Author of The View
of Religions, came in to return a Volume he borrowed last Spring of Bryants Analysis
of the ancient Mythology, and to borrow the other two Volumes which I lent him.1
Brisler and the black Boys picking Apples.
1. Thomas Adams of Medfield was a distant cousin of JA; considered eccentric because he doted on books, he acquired the name “Book Adams.”
However, he returned all three volumes of Jacob Bryant's New System, or an Analysis of Ancient Mythology, 2d edn., London, 1775–1776, for they may be found among JA's books in the Boston Public Library.
His daughter Hannah Adams (1755–1831) was “probably the first woman in America to make writing a profession” (DAB), and was accordingly much patronized by literary Boston. Her View of Religions, in Two Parts, an enlargement of an earlier work, was published in Boston, 1791, and was dedicated
to JA, who subscribed for three copies. Though a mere compilation, this is still a useful
book. See Hannah Adams to JA, 21 Feb. 1791, Adams Papers; and JA's reply, 10 March, LbC, Adams Papers; also the engaging Memoir of Miss Hannah Adams, Written by Herself. With Additional Notices, by a Friend, Boston, 1832.
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, 2017.
http://www.masshist.org/apde2/
http://www.masshist.org/apde2/