Adams Papers Digital Edition

Diary of John Adams, volume 1

Boston August 10. 1769.

1769. Aug. 12. Saturday.
Aug. 11th. 1769. Fryday. JA Aug. 11th. 1769. Fryday. Adams, John
Aug. 11th. 1769. Fryday.

Mr. Tudor came, for the first Time and attended the Office, all 340Day, and paid me £10 St.—In the Morning I went to take View of Mr. Copelys Copley’s Pictures, and afterwards to hear News of the Letters arrived in Scott. The Mystery of Iniquity, seems to be unravelled.1

Spent the Evening at Mr. Wm. Coopers, the Dr. came in and was very social.2 He came from a Meeting of the Overseers of the Colledge, at Cambridge, which was called to advise the Corporation to proceed to the Choice of a President.

 1.

Capt. Scott of the Boston Packet arrived on 10 Aug. and brought “A new Freight of curious Letters of Sir Francis Bernard of Nettleham, Bart. the Commissioners, &c. which will probably soon be publish’d” (Boston Gazette, 14 Aug. 1769). Bernard had just sailed for England. These letters and papers, furnishing a narrative of the recent “Troubles of this Town” from a government point of view and explaining only too clearly the role of the customs commissioners in bringing the regiments of British troops to Boston, were soon published under the title Letters to the Ministry from Governor Bernard, General Gage, and Commodore Hood, and also Memorials to the Lords of the Treasury, from the Commissioners of the Customs, Boston, 1769.

 2.

William Cooper, perpetual town clerk of Boston and an active member of the Sons of Liberty, was the older brother of “the Dr.,” i.e. Rev. Samuel Cooper, pastor of the Brattle Street Church ( NEHGR , 44 [1890]:156–57).