I stumbled across this in D. C.’s Daily National Republican for January 17, 1871. At the time, Mary Lincoln had just won a pension and was in England, soon to return to America with Tad. There is evidence that former gardener John Watt at times showed her letters around to the press and possibly tried to blackmail her with them, but somehow they never made it out, except this one. At one point his office burned down and he may have lost them, or someone bought them up and destroyed them. Looks like he might have sold off little notes like this. Not sure what she meat by “the family is less on Saturday,” unless she was talking about a specific week. Possibly this was very early on, when her relatives were staying with her and maybe went out socializing on Saturdays.
Odds and Ends
Odds and Ends
Odds and Ends
I stumbled across this in D. C.’s Daily National Republican for January 17, 1871. At the time, Mary Lincoln had just won a pension and was in England, soon to return to America with Tad. There is evidence that former gardener John Watt at times showed her letters around to the press and possibly tried to blackmail her with them, but somehow they never made it out, except this one. At one point his office burned down and he may have lost them, or someone bought them up and destroyed them. Looks like he might have sold off little notes like this. Not sure what she meat by “the family is less on Saturday,” unless she was talking about a specific week. Possibly this was very early on, when her relatives were staying with her and maybe went out socializing on Saturdays.