Adams Papers Digital Edition

Adams Family Correspondence, volume 3

Abigail Adams to John Lowell

Oliver Wendell to Abigail Adams
Abigail Adams to Oliver Wendell, 29 November 1779 AA Wendell, Oliver Abigail Adams to Oliver Wendell, 29 November 1779 Adams, Abigail Wendell, Oliver
Abigail Adams to Oliver Wendell
Dear Sir Braintree ante 29 November 1779

My dear Mr. Adams when he left me recommended Mr. Wendle to me as one of those Friends he had Requested to assist me in his absence.1

My present Application is to request that you would be so good as to inform me at what rate exchange is at present, and whether you would take the trouble of exchangeing 30 or 40 dollors for me within this fortnight or 3 weeks if I should send them to you.

If hard Money has rose in proportion to other articles it ought to be Double what it was a Month ago.

I think Mr. Adams told me that you advised not to exchange more at a time, than present necessity required. I have no objection to this, otherways than being too often troublesome to my Friend.

A few lines left for me at Mr. Smiths will be safely conveyed to me.

Your Benevolent Mind will consider my situation, deprived of the care and assistance of my Nearest Friend, which must plead my excuse for giving you this trouble.

Be pleased Sir to present my Respectfull Regards to Mrs. Wendle2 from your Humble Servant, A Adams

RC (Hugh Upham Clark, Arlington, Va., owner of the Austin H. Clark Collection, prints of which have been deposited in MBCo); addressed: “To The Honble. Oliver Wendle Boston”; endorsed: “Braintree Mrs. Adams Letter & my Answer 1779.”

1.

Oliver Wendell (1733–1818), Harvard 1753, Boston merchant, land magnate, selectman, justice of the peace, member of the Constitutional Convention of 1779–1780, and, later, judge of common pleas, member of the Massachusetts House and Senate, and Fellow of Harvard College (Sibley-Shipton, Harvard Graduates , 13:367–374).

 2.

In 1762 Wendell had married Mary Jackson, whose mother was a Quincy; the Wendells' daughter Sarah was to marry Rev. Abiel Holmes and become the mother of Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes (same, p. 367, 373).