Papers of John Adams, volume 1

Boston Town Committee Report on a Society to Promote the Arts, Agriculture, Manufactures, and Commerce, 29 September 1770 JA Cushing, Thomas Hancock, John Boylston, Thomas Adams, Samuel Warren, Joseph Dennie, William Boston Town Meeting

1770-09-29

Boston Town Committee Report on a Society to Promote the Arts, Agriculture, Manufactures, and Commerce, 29 September 1770 Adams, John Cushing, Thomas Hancock, John Boylston, Thomas Adams, Samuel Warren, Joseph Dennie, William Boston Town Meeting

Boston Town Committee Report on a Society to Promote the Arts, Agriculture, Manufactures, and Commerce

Boston, 29 September 1770. MS not found. At the Boston Town Meeting of 20 Sept., JA was named to a committee including John Hancock, Thomas Cushing, Samuel Adams, Thomas Boylston, Joseph Warren, and William Dennie to consider the “Proposal of a number of Inhabitants for forming a Society in order to promote Arts, Agriculture, Manufactures and Commerce in this Province.” The town meeting records for 29 Sept. show that “the Committee . . . not being present their Report which had been lodged with the Town Clerk, was not read, but the consideration 249thereof referred to the Adjournment” (Boston Record Commissioners, 18th Report , p. 37–38). No evidence of further consideration of the report has been found.

To John Lowell?, 15 December 1770 JA Lowell, John

1770-12-15

To John Lowell?, 15 December 1770 Adams, John Lowell, John

To John Lowell?

Dr sir Decr. 15. 1770

Being generally Speaking a son of Liberty, notwithstanding the Cloud of Toryism that has lately, you know, passed over me,1 a Number of Gentlemen have retaind me, with you, in Defence of that great and inestimable Right, Liberty and Priviledge by Charter of digging Clams upon the Ipswich Clam Banks. The Proprietors of Ipswich have sued Varrill before a Justice &c.—Varrill2 will shew you the Copies. Will it not be best (if the Ptfs should enter) for unknown amount of text missing the Proprietors will bring the next Action before the Superiour Court and have this great constitutional Question decided at last by the Kings Bench.—I wish you a pleasant and profitable Court and am with great Esteem your Brother3

John Adams

RC (NNPM). MS mutilated; only the upper portion of the sheet remains, with the opening sentences. The closing lines and signature are on the verso.

Presumably a reference to his unpopularity for defending the soldiers charged with the Boston Massacre.

No case involving “Varrill” is recorded in JA's docket book for 1770–71.

That is, cocounsel. John Lowell may be meant, for he served in this capacity in Patch v. Herrick, which involved litigation over the Ipswich clam bank (JA, Legal Papers , 2:4–9).

Announcement of Changes of Address of John Adams’ Law Office, 22 April 1771 JA

1771-04-22

Announcement of Changes of Address of John Adams’ Law Office, 22 April 1771 Adams, John

Announcement of Changes of Address of John Adams' Law Office

Boston, 22 April 1771 John Adams,

Notifies the Removal of his Office to a Room in Queen-Street, in the House of Mr. John Gill, within a few Steps of the New Court-House, but on the opposite Side of the Street.1

Reprinted from (Boston Gazette, 22 April 1771).

The transfer of JA's law office was probably dictated by the Adams family's return to Braintree earlier this month. Before becoming Gill's tenant, JA had apparently maintained his office in the quarters “near the steps of the Town 250house Stairs” mentioned in his account of the events of March 1770 (JA, Legal Papers , 1:lxv–lxvi). Gill, copublisher of the whig Boston Gazette, was a grateful former client, whom JA had successfully represented in 1768 and 1769 in the printer's suits against John Mein (same, p. 151–157). This Queen Street law office was used until Nov. 1772, when JA moved into Shrimpton Hunt's house, also on Queen Street, which he had purchased in August.