Another Woman's Mail

A 1781 letter written by Stratford-reared Alice Lee Shippen is mistakenly delivered to Braintree rather than to Boston. Politically literate, if shaped by family partiality, Alice's letter offers its unintended recipient clarity about intrigues involving an absent husband on diplomatic assignment. At the heart of these intrigues is a much beloved figure in the American mythos, Dr. Benjamin Franklin. But Dr. Franklin wasn't beloved by all, not quite the hero then that he has become, especially not to those who worked with him during the Revolution and expressed frustration with his idiosyncratic ways of conducting American business. The letter constitutes the origin of a correspondence between two elite women of politically significant families and raises a window on the intramural frictions, friendships, and resentments that were a naturally occurring feature of the American founding.

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Transcript

SM 3:1 Another Woman’s Mail

Intro

Stratford Mail returns just in time for Women’s History Month with a misdelivered letter from one patriot foremother to another. 

Alice Lee of Stratford buried her mother Hannah in January 1750, her father Thomas in November. She turned 14 in June and was living at Stratford with her 16-year old brother Francis Lightfoot Lee and her preteen brothers William and Arthur. Sister Hannah Corbin was married and living at Peckatone some 20 miles distant, and Brothers Philip, Thomas, and Richard Henry were studying abroad. Eldest brother Philip cut short his law studies at the Inner Temple in London and returned to Virginia in April 1752 to assume guardianship of his junior siblings, take possession of Stratford, and act as executor of his father’s last will and testament. 

I give to my Daughter Alice one thousand Pounds Sterling to be paid her at twenty-one years of age or day of marriage and till such time I desire her a reasonable maintenance, board and education out of my Estate. 

Philip’s handling of his father’s will was messy and a source of resentment and deep division in the Lee family. In March 1754 Alice and brothers Francis, William, and Arthur successfully petitioned the court to transfer their guardianship from Philip to their cousin Henry Lee II. That same March Alice joined her brothers (including Richard Henry) in filing a lawsuit against Philip, demanding that he show cause for the still unsettled state of their father’s legacies. The court dismissed the case a decade later, by which time Philip had distributed his father’s land legacies to Thomas Ludwell, Richard Henry, and Francis Lighfoot, but legacies of money and other effects were never resolved and weighed heavily on Philip's relationships with his brothers and sisters until his death in 1775. The failure of the siblings’ lawsuit against Phil in 1764 had no financial impact on Alice, who, weary of the strife at Stratford (and especially of Philip’s hypocrisy and litany of excuses), escaped to London in May 1760, renouncing all right and title to her legacy in exchange for an annuity of 40 pounds Sterling. 

In London Alice lived on Craven Street with her maternal uncle Philip Ludwell III, but her refuge in the heart of the empire was short-lived. In the capital Alice met Billy, that’s William Shippen Jr., who studied medicine alongside her brother Arthur Lee in Edinburgh and whose social rounds in London overlapped with her own. Alice and Billy married on April 3, 1762 at St Mary le Strand Church in Westminster, and returned that same year to Billy’s hometown, Philadelphia, moving into the house built by Billy’s father (still standing) on the corner of Prune (now Locust) and South Fourth Streets. Daughter ‘Nancy’ was born in 1763, and son ‘Tommy’ two years later. Later pregnancies were troubled and Alice struggled with the psychological scarring of miscarriage and infant death. [aside: Among the Colonies’ pioneers in anatomy, surgery, and obstetrics, Billy helped to found the medical department at the College of Philadelphia, later serving as chief physician and director-general of the Medical Corps of the Continental Army.] 

Meantime Alice’s brothers in Virginia and London (with whom she kept close contact) were spooling up to become proper rebels, having contested British authoritarianism and overreach since the first whisperings of a Stamp Act stirred up resistance in 1764. The Shippen home in Philadelphia soon became an informal headquarters for her patriot brothers and their rebel friends. On September 3, 1774, only a day after first meeting Alice’s brother Richard Henry Lee at City Tavern in Philadelphia, the gentleman from Massachussetts Bay John Adams breakfasted at the Shippen house. He made this observation in his diary: This Mr. Lee is a Brother of the Sherrif of London, and of Dr. Arthur Lee, and of Mrs. Shippen. They are all sensible, and deep thinkers. Another Adams, Samuel Adams, enjoyed even closer ties to the Lee family, primarily through his correspondence and friendships  with Arthur and Richard Henry Lee. While in Philadelphia, Sam was a regular visitor to Shippen house, but by June of 1781 Sam left Congress to preside over the Massachusetts Senate. Alice Shippen seized the opportunity to open a correspondence with Sam’s wife, Elizabeth Wells Adams, on June 17, 1781:   

I have long promis’d myself the Honor of a Correspondence with you Madam, and now I cannot in person enquire of your Health and Welfare from Mr. Adams your good Spouse, I can no longer deny myself the satisfaction of doing so in this way; and if I can be of the least Service to you here, either by communicating or otherwise, you cannot oblige me more than by commanding me. My Brother Arthur Lee is with us, and with Mr. Shippen desires to be remember’d in the most respectfull manner to yourself and Mr. Adams, on whose safe arrival at Boston I congratulate you Madam, and it gives me great pleasure to hear that the People have Virtue and Discernment enough still to respect and love him: may they long continue to do so; and may he live long, very long, to serve them and enjoy their Gratitude.

Alice implies that not everyone is so virtuous and discerning as to value public servants. She has in mind the acrimony and contention then fixed on her dear brother Arthur and its roots in the infighting that plagued the American Commission to the Court of France. The commission’s role was to secure a commercial and military alliance with the government of Louis XVI. The Continental Congress appointed to the commission veteran statesman Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane of Connecticut, and Dr. Arthur Lee. The commission pulled off the alliance in February 1778, but in Paris Arthur uncovered large-scale war-profiteering by Silas Deane and his cronies and espionage by the commission’s trusted secretary, Dr. Edward Bancroft. And Arthur blew the whistle; but no matter the evidence Arthur presented to senior commissioner Benjamin Franklin, the philosopher celebrity stood by Deane and Bancroft and rebuked Arthur for petulance, jealousy, and even insanity. Franklin couldn’t be bothered, and Arthur was principled and relentless–the center could not hold. When Silas Deane was recalled by the Continental Congress in March 1778, and failed to provide an adequate accounting of his activities (especially his use of public funds), Deane took to the papers to discredit the Lees, especially Arthur, with nothing more than insinuation, innuendo, and barefaced fiction. Despite Arthur’s vindication before Congress in July 1779, his reputation (a precious and fragile property in the 18th century) had taken a tarnish from the distortions circulated by Deane and his cronies. 

The conflict between Arthur Lee and Silas Deane was a microcosm of larger-scale conflicts between the Lee-Adams alliance in Congress and their antagonists. These conflicts are the backdrop to the second half of Alice’s letter to Elizabeth Adams:  

The British are making sad Havock in Virginia, they have taken six Members of their Assembly: I am much distress’d lest a Brother I have in that Body should be one of their number. I am sure none of my Brothers will find any Mercy with them. A French Fleet in Virginia now might do every thing we wish, but I despair of such assistance while a certain person is our Minister. He has sent his resignation to Congress; this is probably no more than a State Trick to fix him more firm in the Saddle. He says perhaps he is too Old, but he does not perceive any thing like it himself; and then gives a strong Proof of it by recommending his Grandson as the Person who will, in a Year or two, be most fit for our Plenepotentiary. From this recommendation one or the other of these two things is clear, either Mr. Franklin’s faculties are impair’d, or he thinks ours are. This same Gentleman is now blackening the Character of Mr. John Adams to Congress more than he did Mr. Lee’s, and he has got the french Minister to join him. I fear I shall quite tire you; I will only beg leave to add that I am with the highest Esteem, Madam, your very humble Servt.,

Alice Shippen

Alice’s concern for her brothers, especially Richard Henry Lee, then representing Westmoreland County in the Virginia House, gives way to rancor directed at Benjamin Franklin. Alice exhibits knowledge of Franklin’s spring 1781 letter to the Congressional President Samuel Huntington, in which he proposes his retirement from public service: 

I do not know that my mental Faculties are impair’d; perhaps I shall be the last to discover that; but I am sensible of great Diminution in my Activity; a Quality I think particularly necessary in your Minister for this Court … I have been engag’d in publick Affairs, and enjoy’d public Confidence in some Shape or other, during the long Term of fifty Years, an Honour sufficient to satisfy any reasonable Ambition, and I have no other left, but that of Repose, which I hope the Congress will grant me, by sending some Person to supply my Place. 

By 1781 Franklin had crowded out other diplomatic appointees and reigned in Paris as the lone minister plenipotentiary of Congress to the French court. In his resignation letter (which Congress declined), the old veteran recommended his grandson Temple Franklin as a very able Foreign Minister for the Congress in the near future. Alice was also attuned to the tensions between ‘Poor Richard’ and John Adams overseas. The tensions of 1781 took wing in the spring of 1778. 

The American Commission had only just inked treaties with France, Silas Deane was defrocked, and John Adams was dispatched to Paris to replace him. Adams arrived on April 9, 1778, ready to work alongside Franklin and Lee to steward the relationship with France so as to optimize American goals. But Adams soon cut a frustrated figure, confiding to his diary fewer than two months later these irritations (May 27, 1778):  

The Life of Dr. Franklin was a Scene of continual dissipation. I could never obtain the favour of his Company in a Morning before Breakfast which would have been the most convenient time …  and as soon as Breakfast was over, a crowd of Carriges came … to his Lodgings, with all Sorts of People …  but by far the greater part were Women and Children, come to have the honour to see the great Franklin, and to have the pleasure of telling Stories about his Simplicity, his bald head and scattering strait hairs, among their Acquaintances. . . These Visitors occupied all the time, commonly, till it was time to dress to go to Dinner . . . and after that went sometimes to the Play, sometimes to the Philosophers but most commonly to visit those Ladies who were complaisant enough to depart from the custom of France so far as to procure Setts of Tea Geer as it is called and make Tea for him. . . . After Tea the Evening was spent, in hearing the Ladies sing and play upon their Piano Fortes . . . and in various Games as Cards, Chess, Backgammon, &c. &c…. In these Agreable and important Occupations and Amusements, The Afternoon and Evening was spent, and he came home at all hours from Nine to twelve O Clock at night.

The unavailability and inscrutability of Franklin also vexed co-commissioner Arthur Lee. Franklin was a law unto himself. And while the commissioners agreed that steering the relationship with France to good ends was critical, Franklin, on the one hand, and Adams and Lee, on the other, differed fatally on how it should be done, and what sort of deference it implied. I say differed fatally because by mid-September 1778 Congress resolved that Dr. Franklin alone would serve as minister plenipotentiary to France, terminating the appointments of Adams and Lee to the French court. While Arthur was posted to Spain, Adams returned to Massachusetts where he drafted its state constitution. In 1780 he was reposted to Europe as the commissioner solely charged to negotiate commercial and peace treaties with Great Britain. He stopped first in Paris (Franklin’s fiefdom) where he engaged in a series of combative exchanges on (among other things) the inadequacies of French naval strategy with French Foreign Minister Monsieur le Comte de Vergennes. Not without merit, his arguments were nevertheless received as antagonistic and impolitic, especially as Adams no longer enjoyed any diplomatic status vis-a-vis France. De Vergennes complained to Franklin, who on August 9, 1780 sent this letter to Congressional President Huntington:  

Mr Adams has given Offence to the Court here by some Sentiments and Expressions contained in several of his Letters …

Franklin also explained what he took to be the point of contention between himself and Adams: 

He seems to have endeavour’d supplying what he may suppose my Negociations defective in. He thinks as he tells me himself, that America has been too free in Expressions of Gratitude to France; for that she is more obliged to us than we to her; and that we should shew Spirit in our Applications. I apprehend that he mistakes his Ground, and that this Court is to be treated with Decency & Delicacy … I think … an Expression of Gratitude is not only our Duty but our Interest … Mr Adams, on the other Hand, who at the same time means our Welfare and Interest as much as I, or any Man can do, seems to think a little apparent Stoutness and greater Air of Independence & Boldness in our Demands, will procure us more ample Assistance. It is for the Congress to judge and regulate their Affairs accordingly.

The displeasure of the French and the mission briefs from Franklin emboldened the opponents of Adams in Congress to use the occasion to reduce Adams’ influence by surrounding him with additional commissioners on the embassy to Great Britain (among them, Benjamin Franklin). Franklin’s mission briefs on Adams’ relations with our French allies were what Alice took to be “blackening the Character of Mr. John Adams to Congress.” It was a bit of political intelligence from the American capital that seasoned the opening entry in a correspondence with Elizabeth Wells Adams. Alice addressed the letter to Mrs. Adams and posted it to Massachusetts where it landed in the hands of Mrs. Adams, but not the Mrs. Adams whom Alice intended. The Mrs. Adams who received the letter explained the error to a friend:   

A Letter of Mrs. Shippen addressed to Mrs. A. but without any christian Name or place of abode, was put into my Hands Supposed for me, I opened and read it half through before I discover’d the mistake. 

The intended recipient was Sam’s wife Elizabeth in Boston, but the actual recipient was Abigail Adams (wife of the ‘blackened’ John Adams) in Braintree. And Abigail answered Alice: 

Your favour of june 17 was put into my Hands last Evening, and tho not realy intended for me, I cannot but consider it as a fortunate mistake on two accounts not only as it explained to me the machinations of a Man, Grown old in the practise of deception and calumny, but as it give me an opportunity of an epistolary acquaintance with a Lady, whom a dear absent Friend long ago taught me to respect.

Abigail was irate and reckoned that Alice could well empathize with her anger given that her “much injured Brother” Arthur had likewise been tarnished with “unjust aspersions.” Abigail’s venom for Franklin was outstripped only by her vindication of her “absent Friend” and husband John: 

As I am wholy Ignorant of the Nature of the charges which this finished character has exhibited to Congress against my absent Friend, I can only say that those who have no private Interest to serve, no Friends to advance, no Grandson to plenipotentiarise, no Views incompatable with the welfare of their country, will judge I hope more favourably of a Gentleman whose Heart and Mind are truly republican. 

Discussing the contents of the misdelivered letter with her friend and Massachusetts delegate to the Continental Congress, James Lovell, Abigail writes: 

It comes not unexpected upon me I assure you, he who had unjustly traduced the character of one Man, would not hesitate to attack every one who should obstruct his views and no Man however honest his views and intentions will be safe whilst this Gentleman holds his office.

In the poetic apogee of her outrage, and quoting Iago from Shakespeare’s Othello Act III. Scene 3, Abigail concludes her letter to Lovell: 

When he [Adams] is wounded I blead. I give up my domestick pleasure and resign the prospect I once had of an independant fortune, and such he could have made in the way of his Buisness. Nor should I grudge the sacrifice, only let not the slanderous arrow, the calumniating stabs of Malice rend in peices an honest character which is all his Ambition.

‘Who steals my purse steals trash twas mine, tis his and has been slave to thousands but he who filches from me my good Name takes that which not enriches him and makes me poor indeed.’

The costs of public service for honest men (not the Silas Deanes, but the John Adams and Arthur Lees) was steep, especially if the sacrifice of private fortunes in the service of country brought with it reputational hitjobs. Alice and Abigail continued to correspond, their affinity animated by their love for and reasoned esteem for the patriotic efforts of their maligned loved ones, and by a shared antipathy toward the man Abigail dubbed the enchanter, Benjamin Franklin. Their correspondence expressed the political attunement and literacy of elite women and further cemented the Lee-Adams alliance. In August Alice replied to Abigail: 

I rejoice at any circumstance that begins a correspondence with a lady whose acquaintance I have long wish’d for; but am sorry the contents of my letter must have given you pain … I can truly sympathize with you Madam. I have learnt to mourn for injured worth and merit, your case indeed is not singular, my amiable brothers are as you observe fellow sufferers, they have sacrificed every other prospect for the sole one of serving their Country, and how are they rewarded! … I will not trouble you with details, or “I could a tale unfold” …

Alice pulled no punches on Franklin: 

It is a little surprizing, is it not, that Congress should have join’d Dr. Franklin in commission with your Friend after what has pass’d; Can harmony be expected by joining a mans calumniator with him? It is certainly putting your friend in a disagreable situation, ’tis most probable if an advantageous peace should be negociated, Dr. Franklin will take the credit!

In 1790 John Adams famously complained to Benjamin Rush that an American mythos was already taking shape with Franklin and Washington as the dynamic duo responsible for independence and the architecture of a new nation. James Lovell reassured Abigail that policy differences and revised strategy rather that ill will were at the root of the troubles in 1781, though Lovell’s view is somewhat rosier than the facts support. Franklin and Adams were ill-wed in the diplomatic service, though it was finally the strange brew of Franklin’s studied dispassion and Adams’ devil-may-care candor that secured the most advantageous terms in peace negotiations with Britain and American allies, but that is a tale for another day.    

outro

Sound effects courtesy of Pixabay

Pianoforte: Celementi - Sonate Bb Allegro con brio (1781) performed by Tobias Birkenbeil
Music is William Ross Chernoff's "In Shadows"
AI voices courtesy of Play.ht (except Dr. Steffey)

© Dr. Gordon Blaine Steffey, 2025