bloom, âbut we are thinking of September. Jamie writes that he willbe relieved of duty in Constitution in early summer, so he should be home long before then. Uncle Agreen will be here, and Uncle Hugh and Aunt Phoebe are planning to arrive in Boston sometime in June or July. You and Father will be home from Barbados in May, so that gives us the entire summer to plan the wedding. Peter says that he sees no reason why his family canât all be here in September. It seems the ideal time.â
âIt does indeed. Fall is a beautiful time in Hingham, and Iâm happy to think that youâll be married in the same month as your father and I were. I say we get right to it and start making a list. Those from far away will need plenty of time to plan their travel. Iâll get pen and paper.â She made to rise.
âShouldnât we wait on that, Mother?â Diana said, she the one now offering a cautionary note. âMight that not be pressing our luck? Perhaps after Peter has talked to Father and everything is official . . . I do so worry that something will go wrong. Itâs not that I donât believe every word youâve told me. I do. But too often things go wrong just when it seems they shouldnât.â
Katherine smiled. âPerhaps, my dear. But not this time.â
F OUR DAYS LATER , two days after Richard Cutler returned home from business in Boston, formal word was sent to Cutler family members in Massachusetts, England, and Barbados announcing the betrothal of Diana Cutler to Peter Archibald Sprague. Two weeks after that, details of the proposed wedding were sent to the society pages of local and city newspapers. The ceremony was set for Saturday, September 20, and would take place at First Parish, the Cutler family church in Hingham where Will Cutler and Adele Endicott had been married. Wedding banns would be published in the church for three consecutive Sundays beginning on August 10.
All of Hingham rejoiced over the announcement; the Cutlers and the Spragues were among the villageâs oldest and most admired families. But if there was one person whose joy might have eclipsed even that of the newly betrothed couple, it was Lizzy Cutler Crabtree, whose husband returned home from sea at last on a crisp sunny day in mid-February.
Other than a brief conversation on the afternoon of Agreenâs arrival, Richard allowed thirty-six hours to pass before paying his first officer a formal visit, understanding Agreenâs need to be alone with Lizzy and Zeke. âWelcome home again, Lieutenant,â he said as the two sat in the snug little parlor of the Crabtree home on Pleasant Street.
âItâs damn good tâ be home, Richard,â the wiry and wizened man of forty-five years replied. He and Richard had become fast friends during the war with England while serving together in the Continental navy, first as midshipmen in the sloop of war Ranger and then, after their escape from Old Mill Prison in England, as acting lieutenants in Bonhomme Richard , both vessels under the command of Capt. John Paul Jones. Their friendship continued after the Peace of Paris in 1783. Richard had hired Agreen as sailing master in the Cutler & Sons vessel Falcon to accompany him to North Africa to try to ransom Caleb Cutler and his shipmates from an Algerian prison. At the onset of the Quasi-War with France almost a decade ago, Agreen, now married to Richardâs first cousin Lizzy Cutler, had joined the fledgling U.S. Navy as a lieutenant in Constitution at the same time Richard was serving in a similar capacity in Constellation . Together they had spearheaded an attack against a privateer base on the French West Indies island of Marie-Galante. When war with Tripoli erupted two years later and Richard was given command of the 36-gun frigate Portsmouth , he never considered anyone other than Agreen as his first officer.
âIâd almost forgotten the simple pleasure of just
âIt does indeed. Fall is a beautiful time in Hingham, and Iâm happy to think that youâll be married in the same month as your father and I were. I say we get right to it and start making a list. Those from far away will need plenty of time to plan their travel. Iâll get pen and paper.â She made to rise.
âShouldnât we wait on that, Mother?â Diana said, she the one now offering a cautionary note. âMight that not be pressing our luck? Perhaps after Peter has talked to Father and everything is official . . . I do so worry that something will go wrong. Itâs not that I donât believe every word youâve told me. I do. But too often things go wrong just when it seems they shouldnât.â
Katherine smiled. âPerhaps, my dear. But not this time.â
F OUR DAYS LATER , two days after Richard Cutler returned home from business in Boston, formal word was sent to Cutler family members in Massachusetts, England, and Barbados announcing the betrothal of Diana Cutler to Peter Archibald Sprague. Two weeks after that, details of the proposed wedding were sent to the society pages of local and city newspapers. The ceremony was set for Saturday, September 20, and would take place at First Parish, the Cutler family church in Hingham where Will Cutler and Adele Endicott had been married. Wedding banns would be published in the church for three consecutive Sundays beginning on August 10.
All of Hingham rejoiced over the announcement; the Cutlers and the Spragues were among the villageâs oldest and most admired families. But if there was one person whose joy might have eclipsed even that of the newly betrothed couple, it was Lizzy Cutler Crabtree, whose husband returned home from sea at last on a crisp sunny day in mid-February.
Other than a brief conversation on the afternoon of Agreenâs arrival, Richard allowed thirty-six hours to pass before paying his first officer a formal visit, understanding Agreenâs need to be alone with Lizzy and Zeke. âWelcome home again, Lieutenant,â he said as the two sat in the snug little parlor of the Crabtree home on Pleasant Street.
âItâs damn good tâ be home, Richard,â the wiry and wizened man of forty-five years replied. He and Richard had become fast friends during the war with England while serving together in the Continental navy, first as midshipmen in the sloop of war Ranger and then, after their escape from Old Mill Prison in England, as acting lieutenants in Bonhomme Richard , both vessels under the command of Capt. John Paul Jones. Their friendship continued after the Peace of Paris in 1783. Richard had hired Agreen as sailing master in the Cutler & Sons vessel Falcon to accompany him to North Africa to try to ransom Caleb Cutler and his shipmates from an Algerian prison. At the onset of the Quasi-War with France almost a decade ago, Agreen, now married to Richardâs first cousin Lizzy Cutler, had joined the fledgling U.S. Navy as a lieutenant in Constitution at the same time Richard was serving in a similar capacity in Constellation . Together they had spearheaded an attack against a privateer base on the French West Indies island of Marie-Galante. When war with Tripoli erupted two years later and Richard was given command of the 36-gun frigate Portsmouth , he never considered anyone other than Agreen as his first officer.
âIâd almost forgotten the simple pleasure of just
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