RC (Adams Papers); addressed: “Mrs. John Adams Braintree”; docketed in pencil by AA: “Jan 9.” (These penciled docketings continue on JA's letters through February and were probably made late in March when AA inventoried the letters she had so far received from him; see AA to JA, 26 March, below.)

JA's host was Dr. John Sprague, a well-to-do physician and warm patriot who has been mentioned earlier in these letters; on Sprague's house in Dedham see Sibley-Shipton, Harvard Graduates , 10:241. Accompanying JA were his servant (John Turner) and one of the two recently elected additional Massachusetts delegates, James Lovell. JA's somewhat imperfect account with Massachusetts for his expenses on this journey is printed from the Adams Papers in his Diary and Autobiography , 2:252–253, and his experiences on the way are rather fully described in his letters to AA that follow here. Under the threat of Howe's army in the Jerseys, Congress had adjourned from Philadelphia on 12 Dec. 1776 and reassembled at Baltimore on the 20th ( JCC , 6:1027–1028). The travelers took a wide arc around the opposing armies, and their precise itinerary is given in a paper docketed by JA “Mr. Lovells Account,” which is receipted by Lovell to JA and is in the Adams Papers under the assigned date 1776–1777 (but should be Jan. 1777). The itinerary and payments for food, lodgings, &c. (for the whole party of men and horses), are given by Lovell as follows:

JA's two-thirds share is indicated as £18 8s.