Misc: Letter from Mary Adams to children: Chester County, Pennsylvania Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Wilma Fleming Haynes . *********************************************************************** USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: Printing this file within by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged, as long as all notices and submitter information is included. Any other use, including copying files to other sites requires permission from the submitters PRIOR to uploading to any other sites. We encourage links to the state and county table of contents. http://www.usgwarchives.net/ *********************************************************************** from my 3rd gr grandmother... she never put a year.. she did date it 24 Sep... we have tried to figure out when she wrote this.. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Charlestown, Chester county, PA Sep ye 15th Dear Children and grandchildren it give me great pleasure to hear so particular from you after many an anxous thought concerning you we have great reason to be thankful to a kind providence we have enjoyed health sometimes but the appictions and changes in my family has left such an impression on me i hope through divine assistance i may be prepared and resigned to meet what awaits me and to say with the psalmist it is good for me i have been aflicted it was alarming last summer sickness and deaths on every side bu twe were preserved from either this summer has been healthy except some few cases. your uncle Jeames son Davis had been thirteen months in the army on Crany ? island got his discharge after an absence of many years from his fathers make it his [..road?] to see them intending to go home to his family he had married a young woman in Virginia named Poly WILSON has a son and a daughter on his way tohis fathers he was taken sick 21 days before he reached there died 10 days after he came it is the first death in their family since they were married the effects of the war in regard of the militia has been distant till now my three sons i may say are under marching orders of fineable and a man that lives in the house on the [....] place is drafted but they think the allien law will excempt him. Davis and a number of his neighbors marched last Thursday they are not yet at old Chester John went there to day Mordecai equiped himself for the troopo last spring i expect he will start this week if there is occasion Davis is elected an officer under the new militia law i hope he may come home when that takes place he apeared determinded to see you this fall but now we know nothing about it we must hope for the best and until the event it will be very agreeable to me to leave my family nearer together but the war seems to occupy peoples attention in case we were to sell and [....] it would create business enough for peaceable times if it is not alowed us to have the comfort of each others company in this world of trouble and tribulation let us endeavour to be proud in the way of our duty be contented and thankful for the number of merceys we enjoy in hopes of meeting in a better kingdom [....] are what we are promised while we are in this world and if we are enable to see the hand it will suport us to bear the rod for it [scribbled out] Isaac Davis did not write to you will speak of Mrs howel she had had bad health at times ever since she buried her husband i have not seen her very lately but am told her disorderers and she aprears to lose hopes of geting it removed i have not seen your aunt betsy some time your uncle methuselah and betsy boys and letticia was at Davids burying our aunt was as well as usual our family is so scattered to day that i don't know how i shall [....] my scribble to george and he fear when you get it youl be at a los to read it i have been so long out of the practice of writing i hope you will embrase every ooportunity of writing to us we never were so long without hearing from you it gave a concerning and unpleasant thought i shall econclude with my best wishes for you all through time and eternityh and remain your ever afectionate mother. signed Mary ADAMS addressed to Joshua DAVIS [found out later this is a son-in-law & my line] Alexander THOMPSON found later this is a son-in-law] Lettice THOMPSON [found later this is her daughter] Hannah DAVIS [found later this is her daughter..and my line] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Just a note here... We have had this letter for.. well forever... and we didn't know who these people were she talked about.. I have learned from these wonderful Rootsweb lists.. who she was, She was Mary DAVIS ADAMS her parents were David DAVIS and her mother was Lettice TREVILLIAM...I have been able to identify some of the people she spoke about..not all of them, but a lot of them.. I still don't know who Mrs HOWELL was... Mary's husband John 5) ADAMS died 1809 at Charlestown, Chester, Pennsylvania... Mary made a saddle blanket of blue with red roses on it, and rode her roan pony to New York to visit her daughters Hannah DAVIS and Lettice THOMPSON... by that time she had a third daughter who had married in Chester county and moved to Springport Cayuga, New York near her sisters.. Mary came back home and packed all she had and again rode to Springport.. this time she went with a caravan.. taking her belongings. She lived with her daughers until her death 12 Aug 1822.. The saddle blanket and saddle were still in the family 50 years ago!! Mary's husband was 5th generation from Henry 1) ADAMS of Braintree... learned that from Rootsweb too!!! I have found cousins who have sent me manuscripts... it is just wonderful what I have learned... now reading the letter re Benjamin Franklin... I think maybe I have learned more.