A very bad whitloe upon the finger of my right Hand has prevented my holding a pen; or useing my hand for a long time, or I should not have been so long silent. altho my communications will give You more pain than pleasure; it may releive Your mind respecting the loss your Brother has sustaind; but it will be only shifting the Burden upon older Shoulders; You know Your Father had some Money in Holland, which since your Brothers return; he concluded to draw out, and vest in the Farm which belonged to Your Great Grandfather Quincy Mr Tufts after keeping his part a year, made an offer of it to your Father and he concluded to take it; relying upon the property he had abroad to pay for it.1 Your Brother undertook the management of the buisness abroad and as the exchange was more in favour of England than Holand, the money was drawn from thence, and placed in the Hands of the House which has lately faild, Bird Savage & Bird; a Catastrophe so unexpected to us; and at a time when we had become responsible for so large a sum; has indeed distrest us. at no other time of our lives could we have been equally affected by it. the cloud is not however so black as it first appeard; the Bill which past through your Hands, and upon which such heavey damages would arrise if returnd, the House inform your Brother 287 that mr King kindly agreed to take up upon honour; if this should be true as I sincerely hope it may, it will Save us from Such Sacrifice of property as at first appeard necessary to us— Your Brother tho no way to blame in the Buisness; having conducted it with as much circumspection as possible, still insists upon selling Some property which he has in Boston; a House which he lately purchased in order, to aid in raising the money necessary upon this occasion; we shall endeavour to make him Secure so that he shall not finally be a looser any further than in common with the rest of the family;2 at first my Phylosophy was put to a trial, different from any I had ever before experienced I have in the various Stages of Life, been call’d to endure afflictions, & dangers of many kinds, but this was something so new, so unexpected, that I could scarcely realize it. Your Father bears it as well & better than I could have expected—but as yet we hardly know what we may call our own there is the Farm that has not Vanished, and will fetch as much as we agreed to give for it— but what the damages will finally amount to upon the Bills, we cannot yet determine: let it not depress your Spirits— it is one of the unfortunate incidents in human affairs to which no remedy but patience & Submission applies. it was not dissipation; extravagence or lack of Judgement which on our part produced the event— I hope we may yet be able to obtain some part of the property in time— in the mean time; the sacrifices we must make shall on my part be cheerfully borne. if I cannot keep a carriage, I will ride in a chaise. if we cannot pay our labourers upon, our Farms, we will let them to the halves, and live upon a part to know how to abound, & to suffer want is a new lesson, but I will bring my mind to my circumstances— I do not dread want; but I dread debt, and for that Reason I would contract no debt which I do not see a way clear to pay—

I shall upon the next arrivals from England be able to let you know further respecting the State of this Buisness—

I have not had a letter from you for a long time— adieu my dear Son, my anxiety is chiefly upon my childrens account— neither your Father or I can have a much longer lease— We should have been rejoiced to have left our children with better prospects— Your affectionate Mother

Your Letter of April 30th put me into good Spirits.1 I had felt more upon your account. I can truly say, than upon my own, in the late misfortunes which have assailed us. I had pland a future Scene of domestic comfort for you; I had anticipated seeing a worthy woman rewarded for her steady attachment, and all that happiness given & received which So unstable a state of existance allows frail Mortals; I had pleased myself with having some share in effecting the object. but my plans are in a measure marred. Some real estate must be parted with; Shall it be the Quincy Farm or that upon which Brisler lives? the determination is in favour of the latter and Your Brother is to be the purchaser; he has Sold a House in Town and raised Seven thousand Dollors: Land will be sold him as an Equivelent the Whole at that end of the Town is to be apprized; and the Farm upon which Burrel lives; The Quincy estate is a noble one, and in the course of a few years Should we be so fortunate as to recover a part of the property now in Jeopardy your Father will have that place a very productive one, situated so advantageously as it is for obtaining manure.2 I do not know whether I wrote You that just previous to the failure of the House, Mr Tufts had sold out his part of the Farm to your Father for Seven thousand dollors, so that he was Lord of Mount W——n

the Severity of enormus Charges & Damages upon protested Bills: has been kindly mitigated, by the union of mr King Gore and Williams who took up the Bills, and paid them upon honour; which will be a saving of Some thousand of dollors to us;3 We shall See in the course of the year how matters will terminate. in the mean time 289 any success of yours will give us great pleasure, and I will not, I cannot relinquish the pleasing Idea of having You near to us: Your Brother will let his House in Boston & remove here in August & remain with us untill the begining of October, when he will sit out for washington with his family—4 he proposes to reside in Quincy whenever he returns from thence.— I think You ought to come here upon a visit this Summer. tho there may be occasion for delay, there can be none for secrecy. if the Subject is ever mentiond to me, I shall not hesitate to avow it, and vindicate it—

I read the port folio with much interest. Who has been the Reviewer of Camillus? I have read them without having seen the Letters tho mr Shaw promissed them to me.5

We have as cold a spring, as we had mild Winter; this 8th of May, we have had quite a snow storm. it melted as it fell, but was quite picturisque to see the Blosoms & flowers drest in white ground

adieu my dear Thomas. let me hear often from you.

Your affectionate / Mother