Diary of John Adams, volume 2
This Week vizt. last Tuesday my Family and Goods arrived at Boston where we have taken Possession of my House in Queen street where I hope, I shall live as long as I have any Connections with Boston.
This Day Majr. Martin came into the Office and chatted an Hour very sociably and pleasantly. He says that Politicks are the finest Study and science in the World, but they are abused. Real Patriotism or Love of ones Country is the greatest of moral Virtues, &c. He is a Man of Sense and Knowledge of the World. His Observation upon Politicks is just, they are the grandest, the Noblest, the most usefull and important Science, in the whole Circle.
A Sensible Soldier is as entertaining a Companion as any Man whatever. They acquire an Urbanity, by Travel and promiscuous Conversation, that is charming. This Major Martin has conversed familiarly in Scotland, in England, and in America, and seems to understand every Subject of general Conversation very well.
69I have now got through the Hurry of my Business. My Father in Law2 Mr. Hall and my Mother are well settled in my Farm at Braintree, the Produce of my Farm is all collected in, my own Family is removed and well settled in Boston, my Wood and Stores are laid in for the Winter, my Workmen are nearly all paid. I am disengaged from public Affairs, and now have nothing to do but to mind my Office, my Clerks and my Children.
But this Week which has been so agreable to me, in the Course of my own Affairs, has not been so happy for my Friends. My Brother in Law has failed in Trade, is confined to his House, unable to answer the Demands upon him, by some Thousands. A Miserable Prospect before him for himself, his Wife, Children, Father, Mother, and all his Friends.3 Beware of Idleness, Luxury, and all Vanity, Folly and Vice!
The Conversation of the Town and Country has been about the strange Occurrence of last Week, a Piracy said to have been committed on a Vessell bound to Cape Cod, 3 Men killed, a Boy missing, and only one Man escaped to tell the News—a misterious, inexplicable Affair!4 About Wilkes's probable Mayoralty, and about the Salaries to the Judges. These are the 3 principal Topicks of Conversation at present.
My Workmen have this day loaded my Brothers Boat with Horse dung from Bracketts stable. This is the 3d. Freight—the first was 15. Load, the second 12 and this last 11, in all 38 Loads.
Friday was the 27th.
That is, stepfather.
This “Brother in Law” has not been certainly identified.
The Ansell Nickerson murder case, an “Affair” in which JA was to be involved as one of Nickerson's counsel and which remains to this day “misterious.” The Boston Evening Post of 23 Nov. 1772 gives the facts as they were first reported:
“On Sunday the 15th Current, Captain Joseph Doane, jun. sailed from Chatham Harbour on the Back of Cape Cod, and soon after, viz. about 10 o'Clock in the Forenoon saw a Schooner with a Signal of Distress, and, going on board, found one Man only in her who appeared to be in a great Fright, and gave the following Account.—That the Day before the said Schooner, Thomas Nickerson, Master, sailed from Boston, bound to Chatham—That about 2 o'Clock the next Morning they saw a Topsail Schooner, who brought them to, and sent a Boat on board, and after questioning them returned again—Soon after four Boats with armed Men came back from the Schooner, and the Man who gave the Account fearing he should be Impressed, got over the Stern and held with his Hands by the Taffarill, with his Feet on the Moulding, under the Cabin Windows. That whilst he was thus hanging over the Stern he judges by what he heard that the Master, with his own Brother, and a Brother-in-Law, named Newcomb, were murdered and thrown overboard, and a Boy named Kent, carried away alive, as they said, in order to
make Punch for them—That he heard a Talk of burning the Vessel, but it was finally agreed to leave her to drive out to Sea with her Sails standing. That after perpetrating this inhuman Deed they plundered the Vessel of a considerable Quantity of Cash, knocked out the Head of a Barrel of Rum, and after wasting 70the greatest Part of it, went off with the Money and other Booty; tho' they left behind a Quarter of fresh Beef & a number of small Stores.—That when they left the Vessel he came upon Deck, he found none of the Crew, but saw the Marks of Blood, and supposes they were murdered.”
Nickerson was brought to Boston, examined by the Governor and other officials, and committed to jail pending his trial by a special court of admiralty. Public opinion was soon sharply divided between whigs who, remembering the Corbet case, were willing to believe the British navy was responsible for the atrocity, and tories who, like Hutchinson, found “Every part of [Nickerson's] account . . . incredible” and thought him guilty of a shocking multiple crime for the sake of “the money which the crew had received at Boston” (Hutchinson, Massachusetts Bay, ed. Mayo, 3:300–302).
On 16 Dec. the court sat. Nickerson's counsel, JA and Josiah Quincy Jr., requested and obtained a delay in order to gather further evidence. The trial took place in the summer, extending from 28 July to 6 Aug., and the prisoner, who stoutly maintained his innocence throughout, was found not guilty (Boston Gazette, 9 Aug. 1773).
Hutchinson says the verdict was owing to a technicality: Nickerson could be tried in America only for piracy (if for murder, he would have had to be sent to England, where evidence would be impossible to obtain). But four of the eight judges held that in order to prove the piracy, the murders would also have to be proved. Hutchinson did not agree, but the equal division of the judges resulted in acquittal.
JA's civil law authorities and other notes for his argument in the Nickerson case will be found among his legal papers (Adams Papers, Microfilms, Reel No. 185). In his Autobiography he wrote: “I know not to this day what Judgment to form of his Guilt or Innocence. And this doubt I presume was the Principle of Acquittal.” On 30 July 1773 Nickerson signed a promissory note to JA for his legal fees and expenses in the amount of £6 13s. 4d. lawful money. The note remains in the Adams Papers. It is not receipted.