Adams Papers

John Quincy Adams to William Smith Shaw, 2 June 1804

John Quincy Adams to William Smith Shaw

Quincy 2. June 1804.

Dear Sir.

I enclose an order for $110. which I will thank you to present, and if accepted, receive the money— This together with the rent you have received of Mr: Dexter, will pay the assessmt: due on my Bridge-Shares, and leave a Balance—1 I will thank you to pay the Assessmt: to Mr: Foster, and take the rect:

Please to send me word whether you have advertised the rooms in Whitcomb’s House and if so, whether you have had any Application for any of them—2

You will recollect the Shakespear—And the two volumes at Dr: Elliot’s—3 If you have them, I suppose my brother can bring them out with him.

Your’s truly

J. Q. Adams.

RC (MWA:Adams Family Letters); addressed: “Mr: W. S. Shaw. / Boston.”; endorsed: “— June / J Q Adams / rec 2.”

1Possibly Andrew Dexter Jr., to whom John Ward Gurley assigned his lease of JQA’s Court Street house in Sept. 1803 without JQA’s knowledge. Dexter (1779–1837) was an attorney, who worked in the law office of his uncle Samuel Dexter, and a speculator, who became involved with the Exchange Office brokerage (D/JQA/27, 21 Sept. 1803, APM Reel 30; ANB description begins John A. Garraty, Mark C. Carnes, and Paul Betz, eds., American National Biography, New York, 1999–2002; 24 vols. plus supplement; rev. edn., www.anb.org. description ends ).

2For the lease of JQA’s Half-Court Square property formerly leased by Tilly Whitcomb, see JQA to LCA, 2 Sept. 1804, and note 9, below.

3Rev. John Eliot (1754–1813), Harvard 1772, was minister of Boston’s New North Church and a founding member of the Massachusetts Historical Society. In 1797 he was awarded a doctorate of divinity from the University of Edinburgh. JQA occasionally socialized with Eliot when he was in Boston (vol. 3:112; Samuel A. Eliot, ed., Heralds of a Liberal Faith, Boston, 1910, p. 109–110; D/JQA/27, 20 July 1803, 3 Sept., APM Reel 30).

Index Entries