Overtook Judge Cushing in his old curricle and two lean horses, and Dick, his negro, at his right hand, driving the curricle. This is the way of travelling in 1771;— a judge of the circuits, a judge of the superior court, a judge of the King’s bench, common pleas, and exchequer for the Province, travels with a pair of wretched old jades of horses in a wretched old dung-cart of a curricle, and a negro on the same seat with him driving. But we shall have more glorious times anon, when the sterling salaries are ordered out of the revenue, to the judges, &c. as many most ardently wish, and the judges themselves, among the rest, I suppose.

When you’re trying to recreate the cultural life of a day that is, we have to admit, beyond recreation, the check list of questions and interpretations is almost endless:

1. Who was Judge Cushing?
2. What does an “old curricle” say about him?  Was he thrifty, or poor, or miserly?
3. What would qualify as a “lean horse” in 1771?  What breed?
4. Was it common for a judge in New England to have a servant?
5. Adams knew the black servant’s name, but how familiar was the conversation between them all?   Would Adams have greeted them both or just Judge Cushing?
6. What would a curricle look like?   How could a curricle also be a dung cart?  Or is Adams just engaging in a figure of speech to report on its decrepitude?
7. Judge Cushing held quite a few posts:  judge of King’s bench, common pleas, superior court.  He was exchequer for the province.  Mental note:  find out how King’s Bench and Superior court differed.
8. Was it abject humility or New England thrift to be riding on a cart with your servant on the same bench?  There must have been something overly threadbare about this picture, or else why would Adams have made the observation?
9. Observation:  the New Englanders were worried about judges being paid from “the revenue.”  Unlike Governor John Wentworth, of New Hampshire, who believed government would be made more efficient, and more powerful, by paying all officials out of the royal revenue, Adams was worried about local judges being paid by money from the home office.   Not only would they be less accountable to their neighbors, their trappings would be more “glorious anon.”  There seems, in this lament, to be a bit of the impartial patriot and a bit of Adam’s natural ambition.

Returning to Adam’s Journal:

Stopped at Martin’s, in Lynn, with Judge Cushing; oated and drank a glass of wine, and heard him sigh and groan the sighs and groans of seventy-seven, though he kept active. He conversed in his usual, hinting, insinuating, doubting, scrupling strain.

Which gives us more to ponder:

1. Adam’s almost always refers to a tavern just by the name of the proprietor.  He stopped at “Martin’s.”  Does that say something about how they felt to the customer as well?   More like someone’s home?
2. Oated?  Adam’s makes this reference a lot when he’s travelling.  The assumption is that he was gassing up his horse with oats, but it would be interesting to see how much this cost, who took care of the feeding, etc.
3. “Drank a glass of wine.”  Fine with me.   What kind?  French?  Domestic?
4. “The sighs and groans of seventy-seven.”  But Old Judge Cushing was still working the circuit court.  Lots of room for a senior ensemble in Courage, New Hampshire.
5. “..hinting, insinuating, doubting, scrupling strain.”  It sounds like Adams wasn’t the only New England to be a tad judgmental.   If Judge Cushing was “insinuating” enough to set off John Adam’s tripwires, he must have had a special kind of cloying going for him indeed.

Still more from Adams:

Rode with King, a deputy sheriff, who came out to meet the judges, into Salem; put up at Goodhue’s. The negro that took my horse soon began to open his heart; — he did not like the people of Salem; wanted to be sold to Captain John Dean, of Boston; he earned two dollars in a forenoon, and did all he could to give satisfaction, but his mistress was cross, and said he did not earn salt to his porridge, &c. and would not find him clothes, &c. Thus I find discontents in all men; — the black thinks his merit rewarded with ingratitude, and so does the white; the black estimates his own worth and the merit of his services higher than anybody else, so does the white. This flattering, fond opinion of himself, is found in every man.

And that makes more work for the research department: