Lewis, James A. Neptune's Militia: The Frigate South Carolina during the American Revolution. (Kent, OH: The Kent State University Press, 1999.)
Littell, Charles Willing. "Major William Jackson - Secretary of the Federal Convention". The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 2, No. 4 (1878), pp. 353-369.
(Note to the Faithful Readership of this blog: The writer of this overall blog has a spiral notebook that serves to be a repository in which the title and date of posting of each individual post is documented and recorded. For the post of this same title and with the date of posting of "12/14/2018" the following brief note is included:
"This post was lost due to a glitch in the Weebly site or some other unidentified factor on 01/09/2019. If it cannot be restored at some point, it will be reconstructed and re-recorded."
The writer of this blog was greatly grieved and dismayed when this completely unforeseen event took place and contacted the Weebly Help Desk to attempt to recover the "lost" post. In the meantime, it has become evident that the post could indeed be recovered but, in such a form that might alter the overall blog itself. Thus, the writer of this blog has decided to attempt to reconstruct the text of the lost post and to place it in it's proper chronological sequence within the overall blog.)
Of all the "passengers" who traveled on board the frigate South Carolina on her maiden voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, bound for the waters of America, possibly none of them had a personal charge under their care as important as the one under the direct care of William Jackson., Captain of the 1st South Carolina Regiment of Foot. This charge was none other than Charles Adams - the young, second son of John Adams, delegate to the Second Continental Congress, American envoy to the Court of Louis XVI of France, and future second President of the United States of America. At the time of the sailing of the frigate South Carolina from The Texel, Holland, the youthful Charles Adams - in company with his father, John Adams, and brother John Quincy Adams - would have already been resident in Europe for almost two years and had turned eleven years old a few months earlier in May 1781. Captain Jackson, on the other hand, was also quite young himself at twenty-two years of age, an experienced combat officer, and a friend of some extremely influential members of South Carolina society as well as members of the Continental Congress. They must have made a very compatible pair because of the closeness of their ages may well have viewed their "special" relationship as a type of older-younger brother bond.
That this special bond did exist, at least in the opinion of Captain William Jackson, is evident in his correspondence to John Adams. Captain Jackson wrote at least three letters to John Adams that have survived to document the unique relationship that existed between the slightly older Jackson and younger Adams. These three letters are as follows:
- "William Jackson to John Adams, September 26, 1781", (Founders Online, National Archives, last modified - October 5, 2016.)
- "To John Adams from William Jackson, November 12, 1781", (Founders Online, National Archives, last modified - October 5, 2016.)
- "William Jackson to John Adams, November 30, 1781", (Founders Online, National Archives, last modified - January, 18, 2019.)
The temper and quality of these three letters addressed to John Adams were intended to assure the father of Charles Adams that he had reposed the personal care and complete security of his second son in the correct person - Captain William Jackson. The first letter, dated September 26, 1781, begins such:
"Lest the date of my letter should alarm your Excellency, I am happy in prefacing it with an assurance that your dear little Boy, who is now at my elbow, is perfectly well.".
Further on in the text of the same dated letter can be found the following statement:
"....Colonel Searle, Colonel Trumbull, and myself propose going to France on board a frigate which will sail in twelve or fourteen days. I shall take Charles with me, and should your Excellency honor me with farther instructions respecting him, I will follow them with pleasure and punctuality.".
The letter concludes with the following lines:
"... - Be assured your Son's happiness will be my peculiar care -- he has, and continues to read french and english to me daily, and is in every respect the Boy you would wish him to be, endearing himself to every-body.".
In this first letter to John Adams, Captain William Jackson gives complete and total reassurance to the father of Charles Adams - American envoy to France, John Adams - that the young boy's safety and security has been vested in the proper person. He began the letter by allaying the fears of an anxious father hat his son was "..perfectly well..." and concludes the correspondence with an assurance of the same being that "...your Son's happiness will be my peculiar care..". Captain William Jackson was attempting to convince John Adams that he was the "right man" for the job of caring for his second son, Charles Adams. His carefully-crafted wording masterfully communicated this to an anxious father, who was, again, the American envoy to the Court of Louis XVI of France, John Adams, an important and influential individual, both in Europe and America.
The second phrase of this particular letter, though, introduces a new approach to the sentiments of John Adams. Captain William Jackson includes the names of a two other more senior officers when he states that "...Colonel Searle, Colonel Trumbull, and myself propose going to France on board a frigate which will sail in twelve or fourteen days ...". Captain Jackson has again allayed the fears of a potentially distraught father that his young and defenseless son is in proper hands by directly stating that he has consulted with two other more senior officers of the Continental army and decisively decided to leave the frigate South Carolina and travel by other means to America. He has also clearly asserted that he would decisively take the second son of John Adams with him on this voyage towards America, thereby assuring the care and concern of Charles Adams to the anxious concerns of John Adams, father of the supposedly "missing" child, being that they had no word of the the child in several months.
The final phrase of the letter stresses the concern that Captain William Jackson has for the well-being and happiness of his young charge. Jackson goes on the enumerate the boys continued education in the aforementioned areas of study while under his care. He concludes by stating that Charles Adams is of the quality of character that would make any father proud of him, primarily by endearing himself to the others also on board the frigate South Carolina.
The second letter of William Jackson to John Adams, that dated November 12, 1781, is more brief in its references to Charles Adams than the first letter. Just before the end of the letter, the phrase appears that:
"Your dear little Boy is very well -- he wrote to you this morning by Mr. Bromfield, who returns to Amsterdam.".