Adams Papers Digital Edition

Adams Family Correspondence, volume 13

Abigail Adams to William Smith Shaw

John Adams to Abigail Adams
John Adams to Abigail Adams, 18 November 1798 Adams, John Adams, Abigail
John Adams to Abigail Adams
My dearest Friend Stanford November 18. 1798

From Lovejoys at stratford We fixed off Mr shaw with a part of the Baggage by the stage for East Chester. Mrs Smith and the fair Caroline came with me to Norwalk to dinner at Gregories, where We were very comfortable. We rode in gentle snow & rain all day and Arrived at Webbs at Night, where We put up till Monday.1 My Horses want a day of rest. From Quincy to stanford, within 22 miles of East Chester in Six days is too much for Horses So fat as ours.

Mr Davenport came in and drank Tea with Us and was very conversible.2

Madam Gregory, Yesterday told Us how much she had been disappointed in our not stopping there as We went home, and took pains to convince Us that she was not attached to the French.

The News Arrived at New York by the Way of Greenock in Scotland, from the Supplement to the Redacteur and the other french Papers of the 14. 15. & 16 of September, are some corroboration of the News arrived at Boston last Sunday: But there is something very unaccountable, in the total Want of official Information3 I have not 281 recd any Account from you since my Daughter left you— Indeed I could not expect any.

I am as ever

J. A

RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “Mrs A”; endorsed: “J A / Nov’br 18 / 1798.”

 1.

Jabez Gregory (1741–1824) and Mercy St. John Gregory (1739–1839) kept an inn in Norwalk, Conn. David Webb operated a hotel in Stamford, Conn. (Grant Gregory, comp., Ancestors and Descendants of Henry Gregory, Rutland, Vt., 1938, p. 98; Bonnie K. Bull, Images of Stamford, Charleston, S.C., 1997, p. 30).

 2.

That is, John Davenport (1752–1830), for whom see JQA, Diary , 1:306.

 3.

The ship Adventure, Capt. Berry, arrived in New York City from Greenock, Scotland, on 13 Nov., carrying news of Napoleon’s defeat at the Battle of the Nile, which was quickly reported by the New York City press, including translated extracts of the Paris Le rédacteur, 14 Sept., and news from “Paris papers till 17th.” Much of it repeated reports in the Boston Columbian Centinel, 10, 14 Nov. (New-York Gazette, 14 Nov.; New York Commercial Advertiser, 14 Nov.; New York Argus, 15 Nov.).