John Adams Starts to Worry

Yesterday I quoted Abigail Adams’s frazzled description of the skirmish on Grape Island, off the South Shore of Boston harbor. John Adams’s response to early news of the incident reaching Philadelphia was a jocular comment on 2 June:

Was you frightened, when the sheep Stealers got a drubbing at Grape Island?—Father Smith [i.e., Abigail’s father] prayed for our Scough Crew, I doubt not, but how did my dear Friend Dr. [Cotton] Tufts sustain the shock?

Only later did he receive Abigail’s letter describing the panic among their friends and family and the local militias’ response. On 6 June, John sent a further comment:

I am afraid you will have more Alarms than are necessary, in Consequence of the Brush at Grape Island. But I hope you will maintain your philosophical Composure.

Another four days went by, and John hadn’t heard from Abigail again. And I sense that he started to worry a little more because he returned to the topic of Grape Island in his letter on 10 June, asking more questions:

I long to know, how you fare, and whether you are often discomposed with Alarms. Guard yourself against them my Dear. I think you are in no Danger—dont let the groundless Fears, and fruitfull Imaginations of others affect you.

Let me know what guards are kept—and who were principally concerned in the Battle at Grape Island as well as that at Chelsea. The Reputation of our Countrymen for Valour, is very high. I hope they will maintain it, as well as that for Prudence, Caution and Conduct.

Abigail didn’t receive that letter until 22 June, and by then the little skirmish off Hingham had been overshadowed by the Battle of Bunker Hill. Nevertheless, she responded with some more news about the fight on 21 May:

You inquire of me, who were at the engagement at Grape Island. I may say with truth all Weymouth Braintree Hingham who were able to bear Arms, and hundreds from other Towns within 20 30 and 40 miles of Weymouth.

Our good Friend the Doctor is in a very misirable state of Health, has the jaundice to a [very great] degree, is a mere Skelliton and hardly able to [ride from] his own house to my fathers. Danger you [know] sometimes makes timid men bold. He stood that day very well, and generously attended with drink, Bisquit, flints &c. 5 hundred men without taking any pay. He has since been chosen one of the committee of Correspondence for that Town, and has done much Service by establishing a regular method of alarm from Town to Town.

Both your Brothers were there—your younger Brother [Elihu] with his company who gaind honour by their good order that Day. He was one of the first to venture aboard a Schooner to land upon the Island.

You can explore the Adams family correspondence in depth through the Massachusetts Historical Society’s Digital Adams collection.

The First Skirmish in Boston Harbor

Last month I quoted the first entry in selectman Timothy Newell’s journal of the siege of Boston. That was dated 19 Apr 1775, the day the war began. He didn’t write another for over a month because there was no significant fighting during that time.

(Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen did take Fort Ticonderoga on 10 May, which turned out to be a significant military event. But Newell didn’t know about it, and there hadn’t been any fighting out there, either. The British outpost hadn’t yet heard about Lexington and Concord, and were therefore caught unawares.)

Selectman Newell resumed his chronicle this way:

May 21st (Sabbath). This day two sloops and an armed schooner with soldiers sailed to Grape Island near Hingham to get hay, our People attacked them and beat them off, some say with loss, none on our side as is known, they returned without accomplishing their design. Our People afterwards set fire to the hay.

This little skirmish ended without loss of life. Newell wasn’t close enough to see the response to the three British ships, but Abigail Adams was. She described the alarm in the provincial towns south of Grape Island in a letter to her husband dated 25 May:

Suppose you have had a formidable account of the alarm we had last Sunday morning. When I rose about six oclock I was told that the Drums had been some time beating and that 3 allarm Guns were fired, that Weymouth [meeting] Bell had been ringing, and Mr. Welds was then ringing.

I immediatly sent of an express to know the occasion, and found the whole Town in confusion. 3 Sloops and one cutter had come out, and droped anchor just below Great Hill. It was difficult to tell their design, some supposed they were comeing to Germantown [in Braintree] others to Weymouth.

People women children from the Iron Works flocking down this Way—every woman and child above or from below my Fathers. My Fathers family flying, the Drs. [Dr. Cotton Tufts’s] in great distress, as you may well immagine for my Aunt had her Bed thrown into a cart, into which she got herself, and orderd the boy to drive her of to Bridgwater which he did.

The report was to them, that 300 hundred had landed, and were upon their march into Town. The allarm flew lightning, and men from all parts came flocking down till 2000 were collected—but it seems their [i.e., the British military’s] expidition was to Grape Island for Levet's hay. There it was impossible to reach them for want of Boats, but the sight of so many persons, and the fireing at them prevented their getting more than 3 ton of Hay, tho they had carted much more down to the water.

At last they [i.e., the local militiamen] musterd a Lighter, and a Sloop from Hingham which had six port holes. Our men eagerly jumpt on board, and put of for the Island. As soon as they [the army] perceived it, they decamped. Our people landed upon Island, and in an instant set fire to the Hay which with the Barn was soon consumed, about 80 ton tis said. We expect soon to be in continual alarms, till something decisive takes place.

As Adams’s hastily written letter reflects, people in towns around Boston harbor expected punitive raids from the British military at any time.