Founding Father John Adams' intimate letter to 'sincere friend' teenage bride sold for $40,000

An intimate testament to love and to home written and signed by Founding Father John Adams was sold for $40,000 by auction house Raab Collection on Wednesday.

The heartfelt letter from the then-elderly former president to a teenage bride-to-be had been kept in a private family collection for nearly 200 years. 

Its existence was unknown to scholars who have spent more than two centuries poring through the voluminous letters from the giant of global political history for insight into the founding of the United States of America. 

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"I rejoice at your prospect of an intimate connection with the family of my excellent friend Judge Peters, and his excellent lady Miss Robinson, both of whom I shall remember with affectionate respect as long as I live," Adams wrote to neighbor Ellen Maria Brackett on Dec. 14, 1824.

He added, "With my most sincere wishes that you may be attended with every prosperity through life, I subscribe myself your sincere friend."

The president was 89 years old and living out his final days at Peacefield, his farmhouse estate, in Quincy, Massachusetts, next to Boston, when he wrote the marriage wishes.

His jagged signature betrays the struggles of age; it lacked the smooth strokes Adams used in his signature on the Declaration of Independence 48 years earlier. 

"My most sincere wishes that you may be attended with every prosperity through life." — John Adams

Brackett, a neighbor from a prominent local family, was 19 years old and on the eve of marrying Thomas Robinson. 

The "Miss Robinson" referenced in the letter is believed to be the sister of the future groom. 

Judge Richard Peters, also cited, was a federal judge for the District of Pennsylvania appointed by President George Washington, for whom Adams served two terms as vice president before becoming the nation's second president. 

Brackett apparently asked her famous neighbor for a testament to include in her keepsake.

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The letter is part of a larger leatherbound "friendship album," which contained over 50 different mementos of the lives of the young couple. 

The autographed letter from the Founding Father and former president is clearly its most valuable artifact.

The album was brought to market on Tuesday and sold to an unnamed buyer the following day. 

"We've never seen an earlier letter from a president in a document like this," auctioneer Nathan Raab of Raab Collection told Fox News Digital. 

"I hope you will carry with you wherever you go an affectionate remembrance of the place of your birth, and the worthy character of your fellow citizens."

"It's incredible to imagine an elderly John Adams sitting there sharing his thoughts with this young woman. It's touching to see the personal connection."

Adams was one of the leading firebrands of the American Revolution and the architect of constitutional government known around the world today. 

He wrote voluminously during his lifetime, offering for history remarkable details into the hard work of nation building. 

His most notable writing came in a lifelong correspondence with his wife, Abigail, and also during a longtime late-life pen-pal relationship with fellow Founding Father and ex-president Thomas Jefferson. 

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Adams’ letters are a vital primary source into the founding of the United States and have been the subject of nearly 250 years of intense scholarship. 

Despite his reputation as an overly intellectual and combative revolutionary, Adams displayed a romantic streak throughout his life — most notably in his letters to his wife.

"By the same token that the bearer hereof sat up with you last night," Adams wrote of himself to Abigail while courting her in 1762, "I hereby order you to give him as many kisses, and as many hours of your company after nine o'clock, as he pleases to demand, and charge them to my account."

The discovery of new words of love from a towering figure in the American narrative provides additional insight into his life and worldview. 

"It's incredible to imagine an elderly John Adams sitting there sharing his thoughts with this young woman. It's touching to see the personal connection."

The president’s letter in the marriage album includes an impassioned plea to Brackett to never forget her roots as she prepared to move to Philadelphia with her future husband.

"Descended as you are from one of the most ancient and respectable inhabitants of the town of Braintree and having [passed] your life in that part of it now called Quincy, where you acquired your amiable accomplishments, I hope you will carry with you wherever you go an affectionate remembrance of the place of your birth, and the worthy character of your fellow citizens."

Those "fellow citizens" of Quincy of "worthy character" included Adams’ devoted and patriotic wife Abigail; boyhood chum and fellow revolutionary John Hancock; and his own son, President John Quincy Adams. 

More recently, the community’s worthy characters in the cause of the United States include retired Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford, who served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 2015 to 2019; and current Army Chief of Staff James McConville.

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"There is something very special about this community that dates back to the inspiration of the Adams family," Quincy Mayor Tom Koch told Fox New Digital. 

"Despite being an international figure, he [John Adams] remained firmly entrenched here in his hometown. He referred to it in letters as ‘that remarkable place’ even as he traveled in Europe."

The city is working to open the Adams Presidential Center in 2026 which, the mayor said, "will tell the story of the American Revolution through New England eyes."

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Bride Ellen Brackett died in Philadelphia at age 39. 

The album was passed down through generations of females in her family before its contents, including the historic letter from Adams, were revealed to the public this week.