I am confident it will afford you Pleasure to be informd that I am in health. My Duty to your Mother—tell my Daughter & Sister Polly, & Hannah (who I hope is with you) that I love them, and be assured my dear Betsy, that I am with the warmest Affection
Your,
________________________________________________________________ 1Cf page 127. 2Cf. John Hancock to Committee of Safety, April 24, 1775. A. E. Brown, Hancock, His Book, p. 196.
TO MRS. ADAMS.
[MS., Samuel Adams Papers, Lenox Library.]
PHILADELPHIA June 16 1775
MY DEAR
I have so often wrote to you, without having a single Line in Answer to one of my Letters, that I have doubted whether you have receivd any of them. Had I not heard that you dined with some of my Friends at Cambridge about a fortnight ago I should have suspected that you had changed your Place of Abode at Dedham and that therefore my Letters had not reached you, or I should have been very anxious lest by some bodily Indisposition you were renderd unable to write to me. It is painful to me to be absent from you. As your Letters would in some Measure afford me Reliefe, I beg you would omit no Opportunity of writing. Your Backwardness leads me to apprehend there has something happend which would be disagreable to me to hear. If any ill Accident has befallen my Son or any other person dear to me, I would chuse to hear it. Our Boston Friends are some of them confined in a Garrison, others dispersd I know not where. Pray, my dear, let me know as much about them as you can. I make no Doubt but it will be a pleasure to you to hear that I am in good Health and Spirits. I wish I could consistently inform you what is doing here. I can however tell you that Matters go on, though slower than one could wish, yet agreable to my Mind. My Love to all Friends. I earnestly recommend you and them to the Protection and Blessing of Heaven. The Bearer is waiting for this Letter, I must therefore conclude with assuring you that I am with the greatest Sincerity, my dear Betsy,
Your affectionate husband and Friend
June 17