Title: 20 Wednesday.
From: Adams, John
To:

       At Colledge, a most Charming and Beautifull Scene is this morning displayed. All nature wears a Chearfull garb, after so plentifull a Shower as we were favoured with the Last night, receving an additionall lustre from the sweet influences of the Sun.—This Day, I (in the religious Phylosopher) read the following experiment, (viz) that the filings of iron, mix’d with sulphur and kneaded to a Dough By the addittion of Cold water will in a few hours Become warm, and at last Be set on fire. Which is undoubtedly true, and if so I think that it affords a very probable method of solving the phaenomina of subterraneous fires. For it is highly probable that there are abundance of the particles of iron, Sulphur, and water which, (By the flux of water perhaps in the subterraneous Caverns,) may Be Brought together, and then it appears By the precedent experiment, that this effect (viz a fire) will Be produced. At 2 o’Clock heard Mr. Winthrop’s lecture in the Hall, in which he was employed in evincing the sphaeroidall form of the earth, which he Did, from the vibrations of pendula, the precession of the aequinox, and from actual mensuration of Degrees at the aequinox and the poles. —After which I extracted the following Hydrostatical Laws from the religious Phylosopher (viz) 1st: if a Body is to be Carried upwards in any liquor, an equall Bulk of said liquor must gravitate or weigh more than such a Body.  2ndly. that in order to Cause a Body to sink in a liquor, an equal Bulk of said liquor must weigh less than the Body. 3rdly. if you would have the Body, neither to rise or fall But preserve it’s place in any part of the liquor, an equal quantity of the said liquor must weigh equally with the Body.


Title: 21 Thurdsday.
From: Adams, John
To:

       At Colledge, a warm morning, and Something windy, about Sunset Came up a very hard shower attended with some Thunder, and very Sharp lightning.


Title: 22 Fryday.
From: Adams, John
To:

       At Colledge, a Charming, pleasant morning, read Dr. Niewentyts Demonstration Concerning the rays of light emitted from a Burning Candle in a second of time, which he Computes to Be 418660 39/: Particles.


Title: 23 Saturday.
From: Adams, John
To:

       At Colledge, a Clowdy morning, and in the afternoon, Came up a Clowd of thunder and lightning. Towards night fell a very hard shower.


Title: 24 Sunday.
From: Adams, John
To:

       At Colledge, a Cloudy morning, heard Mr. Cotton of New-town vociferate from the 19. of Proverbs 2nd verse. In the afternoon, from those words in the 37th. Psalm and 4th. verse, Delight thyself in the Lord and he shall give thee thy Desires.


Title: 25. Monday.
From: Adams, John
To:

       At Colledge, a very rainy, morning, at 11 o’Clock Disputed from the question assigned us last tuesday But on which we Did not then Dispute By reason of Mr. Mayhews Being employed in taking an account of the Books and other things, Contained in the Library in order to the Printing a new Catalogue thereof.


Title: 26 Tuesday.
From: Adams, John
To:

       At Colledge, a very rainy Day, as it has remained since yesterday-morning. By reason of my illness omitted Disputing from this question, generalia aestuum phaenomina solvuntur ab atractione solis et lunae.


Title: 27 Wednesday.
From: Adams, John
To:

       At Colledge. A Clowdy morning. Afternoon, together with Lock, took a ride to Watertown-Bridge and from thence round through Brookline Back to Colledge again.


Title: 28. Thurdsday.
From: Adams, John
To:

       At Colledge, a Clowdy-Day.


Title: 29 [June 1753–January 1754?].
From: Adams, John
To:

       Sat out from Boston, home where having tarried 7, or 8 Days I set out on a journey together with Mr. Adams to Piscataqua, to which I went By way of Litchfeild, going firstly from Boston over Charlston ferry through Charlestown, Mistick, Menotomy, Lexington, Bedford, Bilerica, Chensford, Dracut to which I passed from Chensford over the river. From Dracut I proceeded to Nottingham, Londonderry, Hamstead, Kingston, Kensington, Hampton, Greenland, Newington where having tarried about a fortnight and vizitted Portsmouth, I returned home and at the appointed time return’d to Colledge where I have been ever since, save that I went home once for a fortnight.


Title: [February 1754]
From:
To:

       February 1754.

       This winter, we had a vacation.
       In the winter of 1754 we had no snow at all save a smattering or two, But perpetuall rains and warm weather thro’ought the whole.

   In the academic year 1752–1753 there had been no winter vacation at the College. This was because during 1752 the number of instructional days had been greatly diminished, in the spring by the closure necessitated by a smallpox epidemic, in the fall by the loss of eleven days (3–13 Sept.) through the Act of Parliament in 1751 (24 Geo. 2, c. 23) providing for a change from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar in 1752. From 22 April all college exercises, including commencement, had therefore been suspended, not to be resumed until 14 (i.e. 3, old style) September.

   Moreover, the permanence of the vacation on the College calendar was in some doubt. A winter vacation of five weeks beginning the first Wednesday in January had been authorized in 1749 and renewed for a further trial period of three years in 1751. Upon the expiration of that period the Overseers refused to accept the Corporation’s vote for a further extension of five years and approved a continuance only “for the year current.” In 1754 the vacation period was from 2 Jan. to 6 February. (MH-AR: Corporation Records, College Book No. 7; Overseer’s Records 1744–1768; Meetings of 1 Oct. 1751, 4 May, 3 Oct. 1752, 1 Oct. 1754).

   JA’s recollection of the weather during recent months is confirmed in a general way by the daily meteorological observations in Professor John Winthrop’s Meteorological Journal, 1742–1759 (MS, MH-Ar). He records snow on two days in January and one day in February, none heavy, and “a little” snow on three days in February. There were rains on nine days in January and seven days in February. The Fahrenheit thermometer reached a high of 54° in January, 52.5° in February. The low was 3° in January, 12° in February. The mean morning and afternoon readings, 29°–38°, were somewhat higher than in immediately preceding years.


Title: March [1754].
From: Adams, John
To:

       Beginningof March Had a small flurry of snow.


Title: March 8th.
From: Adams, John
To:

       A Clowdy morning. I am now reading my lord Orrerys letters to his son Concerning Dr. Swift and his writings, which for softness and delicacy of style, accuracy and serenity of sentiment, are absolutely inimitable. Reading also the last volume of Monsieur Rollin’s Belles Lettres which are worth their weight in gold.—for his excellent reflections on every remarkable event that occurs in history he informs his readers of the true source  of every action and instructs them in the method of forming themselves upon the models of virtue to be met with in History.


Title: [17? March 1754.]
From: Adams, John
To:

       Kept sabath at Cambridge. March about the middle.


Title: March 18th.
From: Adams, John
To:

       In the Evening we had several very sharp flashes of lightning, attended with a Distant grumbling of thunder.


Title: 19 [March 1754].
From: Adams, John
To:

       This morning is beyond description, Beautyfull, the Skie bespangled with Clouds which shed a lustre on us by the refraction of the rays of light, together with the healthy and enlivening air, which was purifyed By the thunder, afford most spirited materials for Contemplation. The gaiety of the weather is equally delightfull to the phylosopher, Poet and the man of Pleasure. The Phylosopher finds his passions all Calm, serene, and Pliable so that he finds no Difficulty in subjecting them to the subserviency of his reason, he can now contemplate all the gaudy appearances of nature and like Pythagoras bring Phylosophy down from heaven and make her conversible to men. The Poet thinks this the Best time to Converse with his muse and Consequently gives himself up wholly to her directions. His whole soul is at her disposal!l and he no more retains the government of himself. While the man of pleasure find such delicacys arising from the objects of sence as are adapted to produce the highest sensations of delight in him.


Title: April 1st. 1754.
From: Adams, John
To:

        Then, Mr. Winthrop began a Course of Experimental


Title: [April 1754]
From:
To:

      April 1st. 1754.

        Then, Mr. Winthrop began a Course of Experimental

   Written in JA’s experimental hand of 1754–1756, with this fragmentary line canceled and the date heading certainly intended to be. This false beginning of JA’s notes on Winthrop’s lectures heads p. {7} of the MS and was lined out, presumably at once, because JA supposed that he would need more space than he had left for his (unwritten) journal entries for the last dozen days of March; see note on entry of 19 March 1754, above. For the true beginning of the lecture notes, see the second entry of 1 April 1754, p. 60, below.


Title: [Rules for Determining the Excellence of a Language, October–December 1758.]
From: Adams, John
To:

       What are the Rules, Criteria, to determine the Merit or Excellence of a Language?—Suppose you was to examine, which was the best, and which the worst of the Languages, Greek, Latin, french and English? How would you decide.
       One Excellence of a Language, is Conciseness. That Language is to be preferred in which Ideas and Thoughts may be clearly conveyed to the Hearer or Reader in the fewest Words.—But Q. whether Conciseness is not a Property, a Talent of the Writer rather than of the Language. Would Dean Swift if he had been as great Master of french as he was of English, have expressed himself as concisely as he has in English?—Some Languages have Technical Words to express certain Collections of Ideas, that cannot be expressed, in another, without a Periphrasis. A Man may write more concisely, in french on fortification and Gunnery, and Cookery and Dancing, than he can in English. In Italian, upon Musick, Statuary, Painting, than in any other. In Greek on Anatomy, Physick &c.
       2. Copiousness, i.e. Variety of Words to express the same Idea. For as Eloquence and Poetry, are wrote in Measure, feet, Numbers, often times a Dissillable or a Trissilable will be wanted to round a Period, or compleat a Line. Now, if there is a Monasyllable, and a Dissillable or a Trissillable, in the same Language to express the same Idea, the Writer or Speaker may select that which fits his Measure. Another Advantage of Variety of Words is this. When one Word cannot be so easily or emphatically pronounced, after another, out of several one may be chosen, that will exactly answer.
       3. A proper Distribution of Consonants and Vowells, that a Language may neither be effeminately soft, nor brutally rough and grating to the Ear.

       4. A Connection or Analogy between the sound of the Words and the Things signified by them. Thus, the great and sublime Objects should be signified by Words of a loud grand sound. Slow Actions should be expressed by slow heavy Words. But quick swift Actions by Words that require, and occasion an impetuous Pronunciation.
       5. As one considerable Design of Poetry and Eloquence is to move the Passions, a similarity between the sound of Words separately or in Combination and the Passions of the mind. For there is a peculiar sound to every one of the Passions.—These Hints may lead me into a large field of Speculation and Inquiry.
       Inference. One Language may be the best adapted, for Poetry and Eloquence, another for Philosophy and science, and another for Drollery and Humour. But that Language will be the best, which has most of these Characteristicks.


Title: [Winthrop’s Lectures on Experimental Philosophy.] April 1st. 1754.
From: Adams, John
To:

       Mr. Winthrop began a series of Experimental Phylosophy, and in the 1st place he explained to us the meaning, nature, and excellence of natural phylosophy, which is, (he says) the knowledge of those laws by which all the Bodys, in the universe are restrained, it being evident that not only those great masses of matter the heavenly Bodys, but all the minutest combinations of matter in each of them are regulated by the same general laws. For instance it is plain that all the planets observe exactly the same uniform rules in their revolutions round the sun, that every particle of matter observes on the surface of the earth.—As to the usefulness of natural phylosophy, to be convinced of that, it is necessary only to reflect on the state of all the Civilized nations of Europe, compared to many nations, in affrica, of as quick natural parts as Europeans, who live in a manner very little superiour to the Brutes.—The first Cause, and indeed the alpha and omega of natural phaenomena, is motion, their being an utter impossibility that any effect should be produced in a natural way without motion, and this motion or rather Bodys in motion are subject to the following laws, 1st two bodys of different velocitys or swiftnesses, but aequal masses which motion is subject to Certain laws which he explained, and I have forgot. But thus much I remember, that motion, produced by gravity, was universally in right lines, from the body acted upon by gravity, to the Center of gravity, as the Center of the earth, for instance, or the like. He explained also, powers, weights, the line of direction of powers and weights, the Center of gravity, Center of  magnitude, and Center of motion, with the several methods of finding them, some of which I’ve forgot, and the rest he showed us examples of which cant easyly be exhibited. But by reason of some of these laws (he tells us) there are two famous towers in Italy, the one at Bolognia, and the other at Pisa, each near an hundred feet high which are not in a perpendicular position, but inclined to the horizon to a Certain degree, so as not to have the line of direction fall without the Base, because if the line of direction fell not within the Base, the buildings would inevitably fall. After this and many other things and Terms relating to motion, velocity &c. explained he dismiss’d us for the first time.—He touch’d also upon the advantages of gunpowder in war, above those of the Battering ram. For says he, the Battering ram was a hugh, and unweildy peice of timber or rather combination of timbers, with an iron head much in the shape of a rams head, whence it drew its name, commonly weighing near forty thousand Pounds, and consequently required a 1000 men to manage it, a man being scarce able to handle more than 40 lb. with velocity enough to do execution. Now one of our cannon, by the almost irresistable force of rarifyed vapour will discharge a 36 pounder so as to make as large a Breach in a wall, as the Battering ram, and requires but about 6 5 or 6 men to order and direct it. Therefore 6 men can do as much execution now with a Cannon as 1000 could with a Battering ram, and the momenta are equal the velocity of the Cannon exceeding  that of the ram, as much as the ram exceeds the Cannon in weight, that is as 36:40000.


Title: April 3d. 1754.
From: Adams, John
To:

       The second lecture, which was wholly taken up in explaining the Propertys of the Centers of gravity and motion, which were applyed to the instruments, Cheifly in use in Common life, such as, the lever, pulley, Ballance axis in peritrocheo, &c. But the Ballance was principally insisted on. The reason of it was fully explained and the method of weighing, viz the distances of the Bodys from the Center of motion, must be precisely in a reciprocall proportion of their quantitys of matter or weights, always alowing for the weight of the Beam on which they are suspended, as well as friction, and the falsity of the supposition, that radii proceeding from the center of the earth are parrellel. Mr. Winthrop also demonstrated to us that all the advantages arising from any of the engines in use, resulted from the different possion position of them, with relation to force and velocity, thence he shew’d the famous problem of Archimedes viz, to move any weight however great by any force however small.—I had like to have forgot that he applied the doctrines of the center of gravity to the heavenly Bodys, shewing us the affections of the sun and planets with respect to their Centers of gravity, and instructed us in the manner of finding the Common Center of gravity of any 2 of ’em e.g. earth and moon, viz By this proportion as the quantitys of matter in Both added together is to the quantity of matter in the one separtely so is the distance of their centers to the distance of the Center of the other, from the Common Center sought. And to find the common Center of gravity of 3, 4 or 5 or any given number of Bodys, having found the common center of any 2, from that said Center draw a line to another of said Bodys and find the common Center of gravity of these two respecting the  common Center of gravity of the former 2 as a Body containing a quantity of matter equal to Both said Bodys.


Title: April 5th. 1754.
From: Adams, John
To:

       The theory of the Ballance, scales, steel-yard &c. and all and the 3 species of lever’s continued to which (viz) the lever he referred allmost all the instruments in life, and universally. To make a aequilibrium, the product of the quantity of matter in the weight multiplyed into its distance from the Center of motion, must be equal to the quantity of matter in the power, multiplyed into it’s distance from said Center.


Title: April 6th. 1754.
From: Adams, John
To:

       The phaenomina of The nature of the Pulley, axis in peritrochaeo, and inclined Plane explained, which all depend on the laws before laid down (viz) that the quantity of matter in the weight bears the same proportion to the quantity of matter in the power, as the distance of the power from the Center of motion, to the distance of the weight from said Center.


Title: April 8th. 1754.
From: Adams, John
To:

       The Theory of simple machines and in particular of the inclined plane, of the wedge and screw, and other machines compounded of these simple ones, finish’d.


Title: April 9 1754.
From: Adams, John
To:

       Sir Isaac Newtons three laws of nature proved and illustrated, together with the application of them to the planets, which are kept in their orbits by two forces acting upon them, viz that of gravity and that which is call’d their Centrifugal force whereby it they strives to recede from the Center of their orbits, and fly off therefrom in tangents.


Title: April 10, 1754.
From: Adams, John
To:

       The theory of Centrifugal forces, continued; and aplyed to the Cases of the planets; and from this Centrifugal force, Mr. Winthrop confuted the hypothesis of vortices, from this also arises the spheroidal form of the earth.


Title: [Letters to Three Friends on Studying Law, October–November 1758.]
From: Adams, John
To: Wentworth, John,Dalton, Tristram,Quincy, Samuel

       To John Wentworth.

        Mon Ami

       My letters, for the future will come to you, not from a School House but from the Cell of an Hermit. I am removed from Worcester to Braintree where I live secluded from all the Cares and Fatigues of busy Life in a Chamber which no mortal Visits but myself except once in a day to make my Bed. A Chamber which is furnished in a very curious manner, with all sorts of Hermetical Utensils.
       Here, no Idea of a Lady, of Diversions, of gay Life Business or of Pleasure ever enters. Here I read, smoke, think, and sleep. Old Roman Lawyers, and dutch Commentators are my constant Companions. What ample Provision have I here accumulated for lasting Felicity! The only Thing I fear is, that all my Passions, which you know are the Gales of Life, as Reason is the Pilot, will go down into an everlasting Calm. And what will a Pilot signify, if there is no Wind.
       To prevent this I must intreat you to redouble your Letters, which always raise a full Gale of Love, sometimes almost a Tempest of Emulation and some times a Breeze of Envy, and will be sufficient, in Addition to those of a few other Friends, to waft the Vessell, tho she is not the best of sailors, with full Speed, along the Voyage.—But what, and where is the Port of my Destination? In sincerity I am afraid to tell you. Tis however a Harbour, where every Vessell may ride securely. A Harbour, in which, tho Tempests rage around, and Thunders roll above, and Earthquakes shudder beneath, neither the Vessell, her Cargo or her Crew, ever receive any Damage.
       But to be plain, I am beginning Life anew. I have new Friendships to make, new Employments to follow, new Concerns, Prospects and Studies, opening before me. And now I have mentioned Studies, I find my self entering an unlimited Field. A Field in which Demosthenes, Cicero, and others of immortal Fame have exulted before me! A Field which incloses the whole Circle of Science and Literature, the History, Wisdom, and Virtue of all ages.—Shall I dare to expatiate here in full Career, like the nobler Animals, that range at large, or shall I blindly, basely creep, like the mole, or the weezell?—Tell me.

       To Tristram Dalton.
       How long is it my Friend, since I either received a Letter from you or you from me? Some years I believe. And how long will it be, e’er another Letter passes between us? Why If I may judge of the future by the past, I shall receive one from you about 6 months hence, and then an Intermission of 2 or 3 years will succeed. This has been the Course of our Correspondence, and perhaps you would be as well pleased, if the Intermission should be of 2 or 3 Centuries, or inperpetuo instead of 2 or 3 years. You need not hope however to escape so. Whenever I am fatigued with roman Lawyers and Dutch Commentators, I will set down, and discharge the Vapours of the Brain, upon Paper, and send it away to you write to you, as Painters turn their Eyes to a green mild pleasant Green Colour after long Attention to black in order to ease and Relieve the Eye. This is said, (by the Way) in Conformity to the common Place Cant of the present Day that The study of Law is the most dry, unentertaining study in the World, which I take to be full as wise as Lady ——s Contempt of Shakespears Tragedies in the Lethe of Mr. Garrick. You have heard many Persons say that the study of Mathematicks and of Physicks is dry. Others can find no Beauties in Poetry. And I believe them, as undoubtingly as I believe some others, when they say that Law is dry. Every Thing, my Friend, is dry in Proportion as it is not understood, and I shall not be at all surprised to hear a young Spark whose whole Attention is dissipated among Horses and Ladies, (heaven forgive me) fiddles and frolicks, Cards and Romances, say that the Law is dry.
       But to examine this Matter a little, can no Pleasure be found in tracing to their original sources in Morality, in the Constitution of human Nature, and the Connections and Relations of human Life, the Laws which the Wisdom of perhaps fifty Centuries, has established for the Government of human Kind. No Pleasure in studying the Eloquence of Greece and Rome in those stupendous Monuments of it which have loeen the Wonder and Delight of every Age, to the present Day? No Pleasure in the Study of those Remains, those prescious Remains of grecian and roman Eloquence, which have been the wonder and delight of preserved to the Admiration of all Ages, down to the present day? Far otherwise, So far otherwise that I assure you, even the most Common Law of England, and the precedents and Statutes of former Times, which are most venomously misused at this day, when once their  Language is understood, afford us all the Pleasure of Reasoning in as great Perfection as your favourite science of Mathematicks with the Exception only that we have not always that absolute Certainty, that we have in Mathematicks.
       Tis true, we are not able to attain, in every Case of Law, that total Certainty which you have in some Problems and Theorems, nor have you in Mathematicks, the success in every Problem which you have in some.

       To Samll. Quincy.

        How surprizingly we how inviolably

       How resolutely, how inviolably, how surprizingly we have preserv’d and pursued The Resolution we took of writing each other upon Law. Points of Law, which we took at Weighmouth.—But Oh my Friend how easily we are bro’t fired to lawdable Determinations! But oh proh Dolor, how soon are such Determinations forgot?—Quite as suddenly as the Vows of perpetual Constancy made by a young Fellow, when in the most violent Hurry. This has some how or other recalled to my Memory a Pice of Advice, which Polonius gives to his Daughter in Shakespears Hamlet.

          I do know
          When the Blood burns, how prodigal the soul
          Lends the Tongue Vows. These Blazes oh my Daughter
          Giving more Light than Heat, extinct in both,
          You must not take for Fire.

         The soul is no less Prodigal in lending the Tongue Vows, when the Blood glows with Ambition of getting Learning or Virtue, than when it burns with a very different Passion, the Passion alluded to in these Lines. And perhaps the Protestations of the Lover, are as sincere as the Resolutions of the scholar. And as the generous Lover, who by such Vows, has deceived and deflowered an innocent, virtuous Lady, would think him self bound in Honour, and in Conscience, to fullfill his Promises, so should the generous Schollar esteem it a violation of his Conscience, a base, ungenerous, debauching and ruining of himself, to forget his Vows of Industry.
       For my own Part, my Conscience reproaches me with a long series of such Self Perfidy! I start sometimes, and shudder at myself, when the Thought comes into my mind how many million Hours I have squandered in a stupid Inactivity neither furnishing my mind nor exercising my Body. Yet new Reflections continue to arise, and I every Day determine to begin a new Course of Life tomorrow. My Resolutions are like bubbles, they are perpetually rising to the surface of the stream and then are broke and vanish by every puff of Wind. Yet new ones rise and die in perpetual succession.
       In order to connect the preceeding Letter with this, let me add that to taste this Pleasure, active Industry, and not now and then a sudden Resolution alone, is necessary.—And now I have mentioned Resolutions how unwilling and remainder missing


Title: [On Some Friends Who Nourish Wounds in Their Hearts, October–December 1758.]
From: Adams, John
To:

       Vulnus alit Venis, et caeco carpitur igni.
       Alo, alere, alui, alitum, to nourish. Vulnus, a Wound or Hurt.
       Carpo, carpere, carpsi, carptum, to waste away. Carpor to be troubled. Carpitur, is consumed, wasted.
       He nourishes a Wound in his Veins, and is consumed with a blind hidden fire.—Warner, Fessenden, Clark, Cranch, Quincy. All of them cherished by their incessant Thinking, the Wound in their Hearts, and all consume, with a hidden internal flame.


Title: Editorial Note on the Case of Field v. Lambert: By L. Kinvin Wroth and Hiller B. Zobel
From:
To:

       A number of the later entries in the newly discovered Diary Fragment add precious scraps of information to the relatively little known of the very beginnings of John Adams’ career as a lawyer. Much the most important among them are the notes and drafts, scattered and disorderly but substantial, that Adams prepared for his first case, Field v. Lambert. In combination with several entries in the DiaryDiary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols. as published in 1961, these materials permit a detailed examination of this crucial and traumatic episode.
       The new materials on Field v. Lambert appear in three separate entries in the MS of the Fragment. In keeping with the editorial policy throughout this volume, they are printed in their original order at pages 89–90, 93–94, and 94–96, below. Within these entries five separate items may be distinguished. In the first entry are a brief discussion of the calling and name of mason and a list of queries concerning the declaration in the case. The second entry is a draft of the declaration. The third entry contains an alternative or revised passage from the declaration and some further notes and queries on it.

       The case arose on 10 October 1758, when two of Luke Lambert’s horses broke into Joseph Field’s Braintree meadow “and lay there some time, damage feasant.” When Lambert discovered the horses, he entered the meadow himself, anxious to avoid paying for any harm that they had done. Despite Field’s active protests, Lambert “waved his Hat, and Screamed at” the horses, driving them away, “without tendering Feild his Damages.” Field, who had been unable to collect damages in an earlier similar incident, now brought suit against Lambert by making complaint before Justice Josiah Quincy, Adams’ Braintree friend and neighbor. The defendant apparently did not appear when summoned, because Field obtained a warrant of contempt, “directed to the Constable, who brought the Offender before the Justice, attended with the Complainant, and the Witnesses ordered to be summoned.” Adams was present at the hearing on the warrant, held on 13 October. He was apparently not of counsel in the case, but sat in as friend, not only of the court, but of the only attorney who seems to have appeared, and presumably of the parties as well.
       The legal gist of Field’s case was that Lambert was guilty of a “Rescous,” or rescue, an unlawful taking of property from one who is lawfully detaining it. Field’s position was that he had been in the process of driving the offending animals to the town pound, where by law they could be boarded at the owner’s expense. His claim was based on a Province statute which provided that a person rescuing from one “about to drive them to the pound” animals which had been “taken up” after being “found damage-feasant in any . . . inclosure” should forfeit the sum of 40s. to the poor of the town and be liable for “all just damages” suffered by the rescuee.
       Justice Quincy never reached the merits of the case. Before he could proceed, his son Samuel, Adams’ contemporary at the bar, “took Exception on the Warrant” in Lambert’s behalf. In effect young Quincy was saying that his client could not be held in contempt, because the Justice had lacked jurisdiction in the original suit. The grounds of the exception were, first, that the total sum claimed in the suit (40s. forfeiture and 9s. damages) exceeded the statutory limit of 40s. placed on the jurisdiction of a single justice, and, second, that an action under the statute could be brought only in a “court of record” and that the court of a single justice was not such a court. Justice Quincy forthwith ordered an adjournment that he might “inform himself” upon the two points raised.
       In his Diary, following his account of the proceeding, Adams noted several questions involved in the court-of-record problem. These notes support his subsequent assertion that he had been the first to suggest the lack of jurisdiction. Nearly a month later Justice Quincy reported that he had learned from a fellow justice of the peace that his was indeed not a court of record. Quincy boasted of the acumen of his son “Sammy,” who “was all along of that Opinion,” but affected not to remember Adams’ position on the question. Adams squirmed under the slight, asking himself, “Was forgetfulness, was Partiality, or was a cunning Design to try if I was not vain of being the Starter of the Doubt as to jurisdiction, the true Cause of” it? No record has been found, but the Diary entries indicate that, whoever raised them, these jurisdictional issues were the basis for a dismissal of Field’s action.
       Thereafter, Adams was retained by Field to bring a new action against Lambert. On 18 December he delivered to his client “a Declaration in Trespass for a Rescue,” about which he expressed manifold misgivings:  I was obliged to finish it, without sufficient examination. If it should escape an Abatement, it is quite indigested, and unclerklike. I am ashamed of it, and concerned for it. If my first Writt should be abated, if I should throw a large Bill of Costs on my first Client, my Character and Business will suffer greatly. It will be said, I dont understand my Business. No one will trust his Interest in my hands. I never Saw a Writt, on that Law of the Province. I was perplexed, and am very anxious about it.... How this first Undertaking will terminate, I know not. I hope the Dispute will be settled between them, or submitted, and so my Writt never come to an Examination. It is Adams’ draft of this declaration, seeking 40s. forfeiture and 20s. damages, which appears in the Diary Fragment in the second of the entries that relate to Field v. Lambert.
       The court in which Adams intended to enter the action cannot be determined with certainty on the basis of present evidence. The most likely possibilities are (1) that it was to be a suit in the Suffolk County Inferior Court of Common Pleas and (2) that it was simply to be a new proceeding before Justice Quincy or another local justice of the peace.

       If Field’s first action before Quincy was in fact disposed of upon jurisdictional grounds, it seems unlikely that Adams would have proceeded again before a justice of the peace. There is other evidence that the second action was in the Suffolk Inferior Court. The fact that the declaration sought damages in the lump sum of £3 suggests that Adams was not overly concerned with monetary limits on jurisdiction. Moreover, 18 December was the day before the deadline for the service of writs to be returned to the January 1759 Suffolk Inferior Court, which sat on 2 January. This fact might explain the necessity for hasty drafting which Adams lamented in the Diary entry just quoted. The importance which Adams attached to the matter in that Diary entry also suggests that he was about to walk upon a stage broader than that of a justice’s court. That he did at least some business at the January Inferior Court, appears from his writ in Adams v. Penniman, dated 19 December, which was entered at that term. Finally, in his later queries about the writ, appended to the first Field v. Lambert entry in the Diary Fragment, Adams spoke of the alternative possibility of filing “an Information ... vs. Lambert this Court,” which could well have meant at the then current term of the Inferior Court in which the civil action was pending.
       The only difficulty with this hypothesis is that no entry for Field v. Lambert has been found in the Minute Book of the Suffolk Inferior Court for the January 1759 term. If the case was in fact decided by that court, either it was omitted from the Minute Book through clerical error, or the questions raised by the plea in abatement on which it was disposed of were decided by the court prior to entry. It is possible that there was some such informal proceeding before the start of the term, established by rule of court to save litigants some of the costs of proceeding in vain cases, but no other evidence of its existence has been uncovered.
       In view of these problems, it is possible that the action was brought before a justice of the peace, despite the jurisdictional objections which had seemed to prevail against Field’s first action. Lambert, or his counsel, may simply have agreed to waive the jurisdictional questions so that the matter could be disposed of without the expense and delay of a trial in the Inferior Court. Or Adams may have convinced his adversaries that in a new proceeding he could successfully argue that the case was within the jurisdiction of a single justice. In October he had made note of authorities from which he might have contended that a justice’s court was a court of record. Perhaps he was also prepared to urge that the 40s. limit on the jurisdiction was not exceeded when damages were sought on two separate grounds, each of which alone was within the limit.
       In the days following his delivery of the writ, Adams’ misgivings continued to mount. He noted endless queries on points of detail in the first and third entries bearing on the case in the Diary Fragment, until, at last exhausted, he asked himself, “What have I been doing. Only drawing a Writt.” Finally, Lambert’s plea in abatement was filed. The grounds for the plea may have included the failure of the writ to allege Lambert’s “addition,” or calling, correctly. On this point Adams prepared a fairly elaborate note which is a part of the first Field v. Lambert entry in the Diary Fragment. This was probably only preliminary research or thought on the question, but could possibly have been part of an argument. Whether such an argument was ever delivered has not been determined. At length the writ abated, apparently on the different ground that Adams had omitted “the County, in the Direction to the Constables of Braintree,” a slip which he had earlier noted in his first list of queries as perhaps constituting “a fatal omission.”
       The self-doubt apparent in Adams’ initial worries about his draftsmanship burst forth again in his reaction to the unfortunate news. He expressed his fears that the affair would make him a laughingstock, then went on to a thorough analysis of his failings:
         Impudence, Drollery, Villany, in Lambert, Indiscretion, Inconsideration, Irresolution, and ill Luck in me, and Stinginess as well as ill Luck on the Side of Field, all unnite in this Case to injure me....
         Let me Note the fatal Consequences of Precipitation. My first Determination, what to do in this affair was right. I determined not to meddle. But By the cruel Reproaches of my Mother, by the Importunity of Field, and by the fear of having it thought I was incapable of drawing the Writt, I was seduced from that determination, and what is the Consequence? The Writt is defective. It will be said, I undertook the Case but was unable to manage it. This Nonsuit will be in the mouth of every Body. Lambert will proclaim it....
         An opinion will spread among the People, that I have not Cunning enough to cope with Lambert. I should endeavor at my first setting out to possess the People with an Opinion of my subtilty and Cunning. But this affair certainly looks like a strong Proof of the Contrary.

       Time has proved Adams’ fears unfounded, but he seems to have learned at least one lesson that would help him to avoid similar setbacks in the future. “Let me never undertake to draw a Writt,” he wrote, “without sufficient Time to examine, and digest in my mind all the Doubts, Queries, Objections that may arise.”
       That Adams had spent enough time after this writ was drawn in examining “Doubts, Queries, Objections” appears from his many queries concerning it. One group of problems, pertaining to the writ proper, has already been mentioned. They dealt with the defendant’s “addition” and the omission of the word “county” from the direction to the constables. These matters would have appeared in the formal part of the writ embodied in the printed portion of the form usually used and so are not found in Adams’ draft of the declaration. They seem to have been the only questions actually considered by the court.
       A second group of problems concerned the declaration. Adams was worried that many specific allegations were defective. For example, he feared that the words “taken up” were too specific a description of Field’s discovery of the horses and thus might lead to a fatal variance between pleading and proof; that “Damage feasant” was too vague an allegation of the activities of the horses prior to Field’s attempt to impound them; that the damage done by the horses should have been pleaded specially; and that whether the forfeiture was to the poor of the precinct or of the town should have been specified.
       A more fundamental difficulty lay in Adams’ confusion as to whether the action should have been in debt or in trespass. The action of debt lay for the recovery of a sum certain and was the usual form of proceeding for a penalty recoverable by statute. Such actions were usually “qui tam” in form—that is, brought by a private individual “who sues as well in behalf of” whoever was beneficiary of the penalty “as for himself.” Trespass, on the other hand, was the proper remedy for damages occasioned by the defendant’s direct physical act against the person, property, or lands of the plaintiff. Perhaps Adams may be forgiven his confusion: the statute provided both a fixed penalty, such as was commonly sued for in debt, and actual damages of the sort for which trespass might have been said to lie.
       If it was necessary to choose between the two forms, debt probably would have been the better alternative. Recovery of the forfeiture to the poor in trespass does not seem in accord with the direct-injury-damages rationale of that action as it was known in the 18th century. Recovery of the actual damages in debt, on the other hand, seems easier to rationalize, on the theory that the damages, equally with the forfeiture, were owing by virtue of the statute. Contemporary Massachusetts forms and later authority suggest that debt’s requirement of a sum certain was relaxed in such statutory actions. Perhaps still another course would have been wiser. If the statute could have been read to permit it, Adams might have brought separate actions of debt for the forfeiture and trespass on the case for the damages. This method, which avoids the conceptual difficulties presented by a single action, was adopted in a revision of the statute enacted in 1789.
       Many, if not most, of Adams’ “Doubts, Queries, Objections” probably would have had more force in the realm of speculation than in the reality of the courtroom—especially in a jurisdiction not given to excessive formality in pleading. Nevertheless, they are of interest, showing, as they do, not only the excessive legalism of the new-hatched lawyer, but also the painful doubts which can assail even an experienced practitioner who has just concocted pleadings that are slightly out of the ordinary.


Title: [The Case of Field v. Lambert, December 1758.]
From: Adams, John
To:

       The Mistery of Masonry not Freemasonry, comprehends the Plaistering of Walls and Cielings, as well as the Laying of Bricks and building Chimneys, so that it is more extensive than the Addition of Bricklayer. Masonry deals in Cement, in every Thing which requires the Use of the Trowell, and was an Art, an Occupation before the society that goes by that name was ever heard of in the World, for this society took its Name from that Trade by reason of The Trowell which was an Instrument common to these Gentlemen and their less honourable brethren, the Bricklayers, and Mortar managers. This Society has been called Lobronorum, ficto nomine, generosa, compacta societas, which shews it was a Nick name borrowed from these manual Artificers and applied to that Society.
       Query. Is not the omission of the County, in the Direction to the Constables of Braintree, a fatal omission.
       2. Should it I not have been added, after “said Joseph,” these Words, “who sues as well in Behalf of the Poor of the North Precinct, in Braintree, as for him self.”
       3. Would not the Word “found” have been more proper than “taken up” and if Defendant pleads not guilty modo et forma, will not a failure to prove that Field had taken the Horses up i.e. that he had bridled or haltered them or else had begun to drive them towards the Pown, be a failure to prove the Declaration? Or in other Words, will Evidence Proof by Witnesses that he had seen the Horses, been to his Neighbours House to borrow a Halter, and then into his own to get a Hand to assist him in catching the Horses, be sufficient Evidence of his taking up the Horses according to the Words of the Declaration.
       4. Should there not have been a more express and positive Averrment that the Horses broke into his Close and did Damage there than that which is implied in the Words, “rescu’d 2 Horses which the Plaintiff had taken up Damage feasant,” there?
       5. Should it not have been averred, that Lambert entered the Close subtilly and craftily, intending and contriving, to prevent the said Field from driving them to Pound, and of consequence to defraud Field of his Recompence for the Damages the Horses had done him?
       6. The Declaration begins in Trespass, but it concludes in Debt, “which sums so forfeited and due,” the Defendant has refused to pay. This sounds like Debt for some certain sum that is compleatly due by force of some Law of the Province. These sums may be said to be compleatly due, but the Damages, that Field was to recover for himself, were quite uncertain. Now Query whether this is not in some sort blending together Debt and Trespass, and Q. whether such a blending is not fatal?
       7. It is concluded ad Damnum of said Joseph the whole sum Damages and forfeiture and all.—Q. will not this be fatal.
       8. Is Mason a good Addition?
       9. Should there not have been a more particular Averment of the Value of the Damages the Horses did, in breaking Fence, trampling and eating Grass &c.
       10. What is the Method of Proceedings on an Information? Can an Information be filed vs. Lambert this Court?
       11. Should the forfeiture be sett forth to be to the Poor of the North Precinct or to the Poor of the Town of Braintree.
        Close against the Road, from which the Horses broke in was  in that Place where the Horses broke in  Difference, as the Horses had no Right to go in  Road?
        And Query Whether that Entry and driving away, is a Rescous. Field had not actually taken up the Horses, i.e. had not bridled nor haltered them.


Title: [A Letter to William Crawford Telling “How I Live,” October 1758.]
From: Adams, John
To: Crawford, William

       To William Crawford
       How it is with you I know not, but if I am rightly informed, I am yet alive and not dead. And to prove it to you, I will tell you how I live. I sleep, 12 or 13 Hours, Smoke 10 or 12 Pipes, read 5 or 6 Pages, think of 19 or 20 Ideas, and eat 3 or 4 Meals, every 24 Hours. I have either mounted above or sunk below, I have not Penetration enough to say which, all Thoughts of Fame, Fortune, or even Matrimony. You must not conclude from all this, that I am in the Vapours. Far otherwise. I never was in much better Health, or higher Spirits in my Life. Both my mind and Body are in a very easy situation, tortured with no Pain, disturbed by no Anxiety, and transported with no Pleasure. The strongest Desire I have left, is that of seeing my friends at Worcester, But when or how that desire will be gratified, I know not. and the only Passion I have left, is Envy of the Pleasure You enjoy in living so near B.G.—Remind the Dr. and his Lady of my sincere friendship, Mr. Putnam and his Lady,Col. Gardiner and his Lady of the same and Betsy Green, of the sighs, Wishes, Hart Ach, Hopes, Fears, that in spight of the vain Boast of stoical Tranquility, above expressed, continually attend the Remembrance of her.
       Pray let me know e’er long within this 12 months, whether you live, as I am at this present Writing, and whether you remember me, or not. Oh Lethe, either Spare my friends, or drown me and my friends together, for I will not bear to entertain a fruitless Remembrance of them, after they have quite forgotten me.—Adieu, write to me, as soon as you can.

        J.A.

       Contemptu Famae, contemni Virtutem. A Contempt of Fame generally begets or accompanies a Contempt of Virtue.—Iago makes the Reflection, that Fame is but breath, but vibrated Air, an empty sound. And I believe Persons of his Character, are most inclined to feel and express such an Indifference about fame.
       Crooked Richard says all men alike to some loved Vice incline, Great men choose greater sins—Ambitions mine! Some such Reflections and Excuses, I suppose, the worst men always make to justify, or palliate to them selves and others, their own worst Actions. Making such a Reflection is throwing Conscience a bone to pick.
       Iago. Reputation is an idle and false Imposition, oft got without Merit and lost without deserving.


Title: [October 1758]
From:
To:

       A Letter to William Crawford Telling “How I Live,” October 1758.

       To William Crawford
       How it is with you I know not, but if I am rightly informed, I am yet alive and not dead. And to prove it to you, I will tell you how I live. I sleep, 12 or 13 Hours, Smoke 10 or 12 Pipes, read 5 or 6 Pages, think of 19 or 20 Ideas, and eat 3 or 4 Meals, every 24 Hours. I have either mounted above or sunk below, I have not Penetration enough to say which, all Thoughts of Fame, Fortune, or even Matrimony. You must not conclude from all this, that I am in the Vapours. Far otherwise. I never was in much better Health, or higher Spirits in my Life. Both my mind and Body are in a very easy situation, tortured with no Pain, disturbed by no Anxiety, and transported with no Pleasure. The strongest Desire I have left, is that of seeing my friends at Worcester, But when or how that desire will be gratified, I know not. and the only Passion I have left, is Envy of the Pleasure You enjoy in living so near B.G.—Remind the Dr. and his Lady of my sincere friendship, Mr. Putnam and his Lady,Col. Gardiner and his Lady of the same and Betsy Green, of the sighs, Wishes, Hart Ach, Hopes, Fears, that in spight of the vain Boast of stoical Tranquility, above expressed, continually attend the Remembrance of her.
       Pray let me know e’er long within this 12 months, whether you live, as I am at this present Writing, and whether you remember me, or not. Oh Lethe, either Spare my friends, or drown me and my friends together, for I will not bear to entertain a fruitless Remembrance of them, after they have quite forgotten me.—Adieu, write to me, as soon as you can.

        J.A.

       Contemptu Famae, contemni Virtutem. A Contempt of Fame generally begets or accompanies a Contempt of Virtue.—Iago makes the Reflection, that Fame is but breath, but vibrated Air, an empty sound. And I believe Persons of his Character, are most inclined to feel and express such an Indifference about fame.
       Crooked Richard says all men alike to some loved Vice incline, Great men choose greater sins—Ambitions mine! Some such Reflections and Excuses, I suppose, the worst men always make to justify, or palliate to them selves and others, their own worst Actions. Making such a Reflection is throwing Conscience a bone to pick.
       Iago. Reputation is an idle and false Imposition, oft got without Merit and lost without deserving.

   No clue as to the date of this letter is furnished by its position among the entries relating to the case of Field v. Lambert, because the order in which those entries were written is very uncertain. However, the general tone of the letter, with its many references to Worcester friends, suggests that it was written reasonably soon after JA had moved from Worcester to Braintree early in Oct. 1758 and before the second letter to Crawford, p. 99, below.

   William Crawford (1730–1776), College of New Jersey 1755, A.M. Harvard 1761, preached in Worcester and vicinity in the summer of 1756, kept school there in 1758 (see note 4, below), and served as chaplain and surgeon in Wolfe’s campaign against Quebec in the following year. Thereafter he practiced medicine in Worcester but finally settled at Fort Pownall on the Penobscot in Maine as chaplain, surgeon, and schoolmaster. (JA, Diary and AutobiographyDiary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols., 1:10, 33, 37, 43–44; Sibley-Shipton, Harvard GraduatesJohn Langdon Sibley and Clifford K. Shipton, Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge and Boston, 1873– ., 13:561–563.)

   These initials are helpfully filled out by JA below. “Betsy” was probably Elizabeth (b. 1736), daughter of Col. Thomas and Elizabeth (Church) Greene, of Bristol, R.I., whose family JA had visited in 1757 when he carried dispatches during the siege of Fort William Henry. This Betsy Greene was a sister of Hannah (Greene) Chandler (1734–1765), wife of Col. Gardiner Chandler of Worcester, mentioned immediately below. See JA, Diary and AutobiographyDiary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols., 3:268, and references in note 6, below.

   Presumably Dr. Nahum Willard (1722–1792) and his wife, the former Elizabeth Townsend, of Bolton. JA boarded with the Willards at the cost of the town when he first kept the school in Worcester (JA, Diary and AutobiographyDiary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols., 1:9; 3:263–264). In 1758, probably at the time this letter was written, Crawford “taught the village school, and boarded at Dr. Willard’s, 47½ weeks at 6 shillings a week’” (D. Hamilton Hurd, History of Worcester County, Massachusetts, Phila., 1889, 2:1554–1555).

   James Putnam (1726–1789), Harvard 1746, married Elizabeth Chandler, of Worcester, in 1754. Putnam had settled in Worcester in 1749 and “for twenty years ... had no trained competitor in the practice of law.” It was under Putnam’s tutelage that JA read law from 1756 to 1758. Even though he was later called “the best lawyer of North America” by Joseph Willard, JA had reservations about Putnam’s abilities. See Sibley-Shipton, Harvard GraduatesJohn Langdon Sibley and Clifford K. Shipton, Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge and Boston, 1873– ., 12:57–64; JA, Diary and Autobiography,Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols.1:5 and passim; 3:264–272; William Lincoln, History of Worcester, Massachusetts, Worcester, 1837, p. 227–228.

   MS apparently reads: “C Gadr. and his Lady.” Without much question JA is referring to Col. Gardiner Chandler (1723–1782) and his wife, the former Hannah Greene. Chandler was selectman and treasurer of Worcester and JA’s closest friend among the numerous and influential Chandler clan in that town. A sister of the Colonel’s wife was Betsy Greene, mentioned above and identified in note 3. See JA, Diary and Autobiography,Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols.1:2 and passim; George Chandler, The Chandler Family ..., Boston, 1872, p. 140, 259–263; George S. Greene and Louise B. Clarke, The Greenes of Rhode Island ..., New York, 1903, p. 144–145, 241.

   Source not identified.

   The source of this couplet has not been found. It is not in any of Shakespeare’s historical plays nor in Colley Cibber’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s Richard III (1700), although JA’s Literary Commonplace Book (M/JA/8, Adams Papers) contains a passage from the Cibber version.


Title: [The Case of Field v. Lambert, Continued, December 1758.]
From: Adams, John
To:

       2 Horses—10th. of Octr. 1758. One Pound L.M.
       To answer Joseph Field &c. in a Plea of Trespass, for that the said Luke Lambert, at Braintree aforesaid, on the 10th of last Octr. with Force and Arms entered the said Joseph’s Close there, and there and then with force and Arms drove away and rescued from the said Joseph Two Horses which the said Joseph had taken up in his Close aforesaid, Damage Feasant, and was about to drive to the public Pound in said Braintree, which Rescous is against the Law of the Province, made in the Tenth Year of the Reign of William the 3rd, intituled an Act for Providing of Pounds and to prevent Rescous and Pound Breach, whereby amongst other Things it is enacted, That if any Person shall rescue any Horses, taken up damage-feasant, out of the Hands of a Person being about to drive them to the Pound; whereby the Party injured may be liable to lose his Damages and the Law be eluded; the Party so offending shall for such Rescous forfeit and pay the sum of 40s. to the Use of the Poor of the Town or Precinct where the offence is committed; besides all just Damages unto the Party injured; and an Action hath arisen to the said Joseph to recover the said 40s. aforesaid forfeiture to the Poor, and the Damages which he the said Joseph hath sustained by the said Rescous which he says is equal to Twenty shillings more of the said Luke, which sums so forfeited and due, the said George Luke, tho often requested, hath not paid nor either of them, but unjustly refuses to do it, to the Damage of the said Joseph as he saith Three Pounds.


Title: [On Indigence at Home, December 1758.]
From: Adams, John
To:

          haud facile emergunt quorum Virtutibus obstat
          res angusta domi.

         They will hardly emerge from Obscurity, whose Virtues are obstructed by Indigence at home. To whose Virtues, a narrow Thing at home opposes.


Title: [December 1758]
From:
To:

       On Indigence at Home, December 1758.

          haud facile emergunt quorum Virtutibus obstat
          res angusta domi.

         They will hardly emerge from Obscurity, whose Virtues are obstructed by Indigence at home. To whose Virtues, a narrow Thing at home opposes.

   This brief entry is written in a very fine hand just above the middle of {24} and is largely obscured by the two more or less continuous parts of JA’s draft declaration, which so crowd it from above and below as nearly to efface it. Placed as it is at the center of his struggle over his very first case as a professional lawyer, this tag from Juvenal (Satire III, lines 164–165) had an obvious appeal for JA and may be considered a cry from the heart.


Title: [The Case of Field v. Lambert, Continued, December 1758.]
From: Adams, John
To:

       For that the said Luke, on the 10th of Octr. last, at with force and Arms and against entered the said Josephs Close there in Braintree aforesaid, and then and there with force and Arms drove away, and rescued from the said Joseph tho the said Joseph then and there  Two Horses which the said Joseph had taken up in his Close aforesaid Damage Feasant, and was about to drive to the public Pound in said Braintree, which Rescous is against our Peace and the Law of this Province, made in the Tenth Year of the Reign of William the 3d.
       Am I sensible of the Importance of the Hazard, I run? I risque my Character and of Consequence my Business, on the fate of this Writt. I am in doubt about the sufficiency of it. I am in doubt whether Trespass will lie upon that Act. Whether the Damages done by the Horses to Fields fences and Grass should not have been more Specially sett forth? Whether it is right to declare, for the forfeiture to the Poor ad damnum of Field. It was desirable that somebody should sue for that forfeiture, and who so proper as the Party injured. How could Debt have been laid for his Damages, when it is disputable how much they amounted to? The Act says just Damages, but the Act has not asserted how much is just Damage in this Case. But may not Debt lie, where trespass lies Can Damages be given and assessed by a Jury in Debt.

       If one declares in an Action of Trespass for the taking away of his Cattle, or one particular Thing, he ought to say, that he took away his Cattle or other Thing Praetii so much. I have not declared for taking away the Horses pretii so much, but I have declared that Field sustained so much damage by the Rescous and by the Trespass of the Horses. But if he declares for taking away Things without Life, he ought to say ad Valentiam so much.
       Damages are frequently given to the Party and a fine to the King in Trespass. Why then may not damages be recovered to Field and the forfeiture to the Poor in Trespass? In all Trespass there must be a voluntary Act and also a Damage, otherwise Trespass will not lie. Lamberts Entry and driving his Horses were voluntary Acts, and the Damage to Field was the Breach of his fence and destroying his Grass and  his .
       I declared ad Dampnum of Field. How could I have expressed ad dampnum of him and the Poor too.
        Query. Whether Debt is not a more proper Action than Trespass?
       Should not the Damages the Horses did to the Fences, Grass &c. have been Specially shewn, als. how can Defendant make his Defence.
       Does not this Declaration shift from Trespass into Debt?
       Can Defendant know without a Special Shewing of the Damage done by the Horses to the Fences, Grass &c., how to combat the Plaintiff, what Evidence to produce.
       That heterogeneous Mixture of Debt and Trespass, still perplexes me.
       Trespass, Entry, Rescous, forfeiture. Can a Forfeiture be demanded by Plaintiff in Right of another, in an Action for Trespass.
       Trespass for Damages, and Debt for forfeiture to the Poor.
       Upon the Commission of that Offence, the forfeiture becomes compleatly due to the Poor.—Should not something have been said of his suing in Behalf of the Poor, for the forfeiture.
       What have I been doing. Only drawing a Writt.
       When a particular Act of the Province is declared on should that Passage of it which is particularly to the Purpose be shewn in haec Verba.


Title: [A List of Pleadings, October–December 1758.]
From: Adams, John
To:

       Bond to give Deed.
       † Trespass on the Case vs. Sherriff for the Default of his Deputy.
       † Case by Baron and feme vs. Executor, on a Promise made to the feme while solelater.
       † Indebitatus Assumpsit for service done at a customary Price.
       Plea, in abatement, that the service was insufficient.
       Ind. Ass. for keeping a Horse to Hay. 3.
       Scire facias vs. Bail. 4.
       If it was a  Writ, I’d lay a Quantum Meruit as much as he deserved. Can Book be sworn to on Q.M.
       Ind. Ass. on a Note of Hand.
       †Debt to the Clerk of the Company. On Province Law.

        Trespass on the Case, by an Infant

       Quantum Valebant for Cyder sold by Infant, suing by his father, his guardian or next friend.
       Trespass for breaking a Cows leg. 6.
       †Trespass upon the Case for refusing Marriage after Promise. 7.
       †Trespass upon the Case on a protested Order vs. Drawer.
       †Trespass upon the Case for not Building a good Barn according to Order.
       Covenant broken, for not warranting Land, according to Cov.
       Trespass. Quare Clausum fregit. 9.
       Trover and Conversion of a Kettle belonging to Executor.
       Partition. 10.
       Trespass Q.C.F. & D.f. 10.
       Writ, for declaring at a Bargain unruly Oxen to be orderly. 10.
       Quant. Mer. and Ind. Ass. 2 Counts, for Work and service. 11.
       Debt  by Farmer of Excise qui tam for selling Rum without Licence.
       Trespass on the Case by 2d. Indorser vs. 1st Indorser for the original Drawer his  Absence from the Province and 2d. Indorser unable to pay the Debt. 13.
       Trespass on the Case for Breach of Promise of Marriage. 14.
       Ejectment vs. Disseisor.
       Joindre of Ind. Ass. and Insimul Computassent.

       Case by Guardian to non Compos for Labour done by non Compos.
       Money lent sued for by Administrator. 16.
       Case for Money received to Plaintiff by a demand for Money lent. 16.
       Case on a Note for 24 Gallons of Rum. 16.
       Ejectment of a Mortgagor by Mortgagee.
       Account by Administrator de bonis non vs. Administrator of the Administrator of him to whom the 1st Administration was committed.
       Case on an Order accepted and payed by Plaintiff at Defendants Request 18.
       Case on a Bill protested or refused to be accepted. 18.
       Case vs. a Carrier for suffering Goods to be spoiled. 18.
       Warrantia Chartae vs. Heir at law. 19.
       Debt vs. Executor for not exhibiting a ful Inventory. 19.
       Town Treasurer vs. a Person for entertaining a Tenant without giving Notice to select men, whereby Charge arose to the Town. 20.

        Town Treasurer vs.

       Case vs. Town Treasurer by Town Treasurer vs. Constable 20.
       Case for Bail vs. Principal for Security. 21.
       Case on an order accepted by Defendant.
       Debt for Rent. 21.
       Trespass on the Case, for not rendring an Account of Oxen received to kill and sell.
       Warrant to Constable to convey a Pauper to next Town.
       Presentment vs. . . . Officer? 22.
       Presentment for a Riot. 23.
       Presentment, for Administering an Oath without Authority.
       Complaint, by Farmer of Excise, vs. one for not giving an Account of distilled Liquors and Lemons taken in and sold.
       Case, for Mony had and received to Plaintiffs Use. 24
       Case by surviving Creditor. 24.
       Debt on a Judgment of Court. 25.
       Presentment for selling fat, instead of Butter. 25.
       Debt, by Town Treasurer vs. a Person for receiving and entertaining a Pauper. 26.
       Complaint to a Justice, vs. one for writing scandalous Words, and Warrant thereon 27.
       Action for scandalous Words. 28.
       Case vs. Defendant for taking away his Son from Plaintiff with whom he lived to learn his Trade, before the Time agreed on was out. 28.

       Trover of a Pice of Timber.
       Equity of Redemption in a Mortgage Deed. 29.
       Debt vs. one for not maintaining his half of a Partition fence, between him and Plaintiff, on 10th of Wm. 3. Chapt. 18.
       Case, for not maintaining &c. on the same Law. 29.

        Ejectment

       Trespass and Ejectment, by Plaintiff Heir to Devisor after Estate Tail ended. 29.
       Ejectment. 30.
       Trespass on the Case for drowning Plaintiffs Meadow by a Mill dam. 30.
       Ejectment. Declaration on Plaintiffs own seizin &c. 30.
       Complaint to Justice, vs. Dear Killer. 31.
       , Caption of a Petition to Gen. Court. 31.
       Imparlance, Prayer for one. 32. in Ejectment.
       Warrant of Town Treasurer vs. Collector. 32.


Title: [A Letter to William Crawford, Describing a Visit to Boston, October–November 1758.]
From: Adams, John
To:

        Mr. Crawford.

       Am returned from Boston, and according to my Promise sett down begining to write you a Discription or a History of what I saw, and heard, &c.
       I distrust my Capacity, without an Invocation, but am afraid to make one, for I know the Muses are not fond of such Work. Take it then in the plain Language of common sense.
       My Eyes were entertained with Objects, in every figure and Colour of Deformity, from the Blacksmith in his darksome Shop to the Chimney Sweeper rambling in the Streets. My Ears were ravished with every actual or imaginable sound, except harmonious sounds, from the Hurley burley upon Change, to the Rattling and Grumbling of Coaches and Carts &c. The fragrance of the Streets, were a continual feast to my Nostrils.—Thus Pleasure entered all my senses, and roused in my Imagination, scenes of still greater tumult, Discord, Deformity, and filth.
       As for Reason, what Entertainment could that find, among these Crouds? None.
       Thus you see the whole Man, the Senses, Imagination and Reason were all, equally, pleased. Was I not happy?
       But all this is the dark side.—In reward of this Pain, I had the Pleasure to sit and hear the greatest Lawyers, orators, in short the greatest men, in America, harranging at the Bar, and on the Bench. I had the Pleasure of Spending my Evenings with my friends in the silent Joys of serene sedate Conversation, and perhaps it is worth my while to add, I had the Pleasure of seeing a great many, and of feeling some very pretty Girls.


Title: [Further Notes on Civil Law, December 1758–January 1759.]
From: Adams, John
To:

       Judicial stipulations are those which proceed from the mere Office of a Judge, as Surety vs. fraud  pursuing a servant, who is in flight. Surety concerning fraud is required, when the Danger is, lest an Adversary commit a fraud upon things of ours. Surety concerning pursuing a servant, is that when an Heir promises the Legatary, that he will pursue at his own Expense a servant which is given as a Legacy, who is running away, and restore either servant or his Value. Praetorial Cautions are those which proceed from the mere Office of the Praetor, as a surety of Damage, that is  and of Legacies. Damage is all Diminution of our Patrimony. A Damage not done, is that which is not yet done but which we fear will be done. A surety of a Damage, not done, is that by which, the owner of decayed Buildings engages to his Neighbor that he will repay thereafter what ever Loss or Damage shall happen by the fault of his buildings. A surety of Legacies is that by which the Heir, having given Bondsmen, engages to a Legatary to whom a Legacy is bequeathed on Condition, or at a certain day, that he on the fulfilment of the Condition, or  of the day, will pay the Legacy . But if the owner will not give the said sureties to the Neighbor, nor the Heir to the Legatary, the Neighbour is put into possession of the decayed House by the Praetor and the Legatary into possession of the hereditary Things. It is peculiar to the Pretors Cautions to need Bondsmen. Conventional Cautions are those which are conceived by the Agreement of either Party. There are as many Kinds of these as there are of things to be contracted. Common are those which proceed as well, from the Office of Praetor, as of that of Judge, as that the Estate of a Pupill shall be safe, which is given by Tutors; and a Surety, by which, he who manages the Business of another when he doubts of a Command, he engageing that the Master shall have  due. Of useless Stipulations. An useless stipulation is one that has no Effect in Law. Stipulations are useless, either by Reason of the Thing, or of the fact included in the Stipulation, or by Reason of the Contractor, or by Reason of the form or manner of the Contract. A stipulation is useless by Reason of the Thing, if any one stipulate a Thing, which neither is, nor can be, in the nature of Things; allso a Thing which is not in Commerce, as a Thing sacred, holy, religious, public, a free man, or at least beyond the Commerce of the stipulator. Also if any one stipulate a property purely, or even the Thing plainly incertain. If any one shall promise the fact Act of another, without any Penalty annexed, also anything that is impossible, either in nature or Morals. By Reason of the Contract, if they are unqualified, as dumb, deaf, mad, infant; also, as made between a father and a son or servant and Master; also if any one shall stipulate to Another than himself unless it shall be to him to whom it is , or a Penalty is annexed.
       Let me get a clear Knowledge of the Proceedings in the Courts of Probate. Executor, who accepts the Trust is accountable to the Judge of Probate. A Judge of Probate, by Warrant under his Hand and seal, directed to sherriff &c. to cause such suspected Person to be apprehended, and brought before such Judge to be examined and proceeded with. A Person suspected of convaying or imbezzling Part any Part of the Estate of any Person deceased, shall have been cited, pursuant to Law sentence unfinished


Title: [Shakespeare’s Characters and Figurative Language, October–December 1758.]
From: Adams, John
To:

       Shakespeare, in the Character of Lady Mackbeth, and of Gertrude, the Wife of old Hamlet, and afterwards of King Claudius, and in the Character of Lady Anne in King Richard, has shewn a sense of the Weakness of Woman’s Reason, and strength of their Passions.
       The Horror of both divine and Human Vengeance, that attends guilty minds is strongly represented in the Characters of Mackbeth and his Lady. He grows daily more and more timorous of the Nobility, and of every man of Respect in their Realm. At last, they are afraid that the stones and trees, and Birds will reveal their Murder and demand Revenge. Blood for Blood.
       Shakespears vicious Characters are aggravated beyond Life. He draws Ingratitude, Treason, Hypocrisy, Murder, in the strongest Colours of Horror.—In Thinking of any Thing, every Image that can resemble it, rises at once in strong Colours in Shakespears mind. When the News of his Ladies death is brought to Mackbeth, he turns his Thoughts upon Life.

        Out out brief Candle!
        Lifes but a walking Shadow, a Poor Player
        That struts and frets his Hour upon the Stage
        And then is heard no more! It is a Tale
        Told by an Ideot, full of Sound and Fury
        Signifying Nothing.

       Here he compares Life, 1st to a Candle, then to a Shadow, an Image taken from scripture, then to a Player on the stage of Life. Now to a Tale told by an Ideot, another scripture similitude.—Persons in Mackbeths situation are very apt to make these Reflections and Comparisons. After having committed every Vice and folly, in order to attain the Goods of this Life, they find that these Goods are all Trifles, light vain, idle Toys, and then they compair Life to such Things with great Wisdom. Oh the Horror and despair, the Distress and Anguish of a guilty mind.
       Richard, Claudius, Mackbeth and his Wife and Iago are Characters of Fiends, not of men. The times have been, that when the Brains were out, the man would die, and there an End, but now they rise again with 20 mortal murders on their Crowns, and push us from our stools. Malcolm and Donalbain when they find their father murthered and a bloody Dagger laid near their Bed, and their own Hands stained with Blood, concluded that the Design was to charge the Murder on them, and to avoid the consequences they fled to England, and a faulcon towering in her Pride of Place, was by a mousing Owl haukt at and killed. The faulcon is Duncan, the mousing Owl is Mackbeth. The old man observed the Omen. Rosse takes Notice of another Omen that preceded Duncans Death. Duncans Horses, beauteous and swift, the Minions of their Race, turned wild in Nature, broke their stalls, flung out, contending gainst Obedience, as they would make War with man. Thriftless Ambition that will raven up thy own lifes means.
       Mackbeth kills the others that lay in the King’s Chamber out of pretended Rage at their Murder of the King and tells the Lords and Attendants, their faces and Hands were besmeared in blood and that an unwiped Dagger laid by the Bed side. Not only Omens preceded, but sympathy in Nature attended Duncans Death. Chimneys were blown down.

          Lamentings heard i’the air, strange screams of Death.
          Of dire Combustion and confusd Events
          New hatchd to the woeful time.
          The obscure bird clamourd the livelong night
          Some say the Earth was feverous and did shake.

         Mackbeths Imagination was struck and afraid, was as lively and teemed with Notions, a Thousand thoughts came into his Head when he was remainder missing
       His imagination created 100 things, a Voice crying, Sleep no more, Mackbeth doth Murder Sleep; the innocent Sleep. Sleep is the Idea now. What Thoughts does this call up. Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleeve of Care, the Death of each days Life. As Death is to a mans whole Life, so is Sleep to a day each nights Sleep to us, sore Labours Bath, Bath of Labour, Balm of Hurt minds, great natures second Course, chief Nourisher in Lifes feast. The Eye of remainder missing


Title: [On a Petition from Braintree Troops Enlisted for the Expedition against Canada, December 1758–January 1759.]
From: Adams, John
To:

       The general Court agreed to raise 7000 men, to cooperate with his Majesties Forces, for the Reduction of Canada. Agreed, consented by a Vote an Order not by a Law an Act. They make Acts to raise money and clothe the soldiers when raised. But the King, in the british Constitution, and of Consequence the Governor in ours, has the sole Direction of Peace and War. Inlisting men, sending them out, proclaiming War, negociating Peace, concluding Peace, are all with the sovereign’s Power. But the Parliament must raise supplies.
       The Court direct and impower the Treasurer to borrow £28,000, and they enact that the said £28,000 whensoever borrowed, shall be issued by the Governor, with Advice of Council, for the levying and cloathing the said 7000 men, pursuant to the Order of this Court, and for no other use.—By Order of Court, and with Advice of Councill.
       Cur i.e. Court will grant these Petitions, that People may be encouraged to list next Spring, even after the time limited for Inlistments, when the officers are impowered to impress, and not to be so obstinate as some were last Spring. Some refused to the last to inlist, and were dragged into the Service at last. If Money was issued by the Governor to the Officers of this Company or Regiment, to be given as a Bounty to these men, who inlisted after the 2d of May as well as to those before, and the Officers have defrauded them of it, should not this Petition represent the fraud and pray an Order on the officers to make Satisfaction?—Is the Governor, or Coll. Lincoln or Coll. Quincy or Captain Bracket to blame in this Affair. If there was an Order of the Generall Court that such as should inlist after the 2d of May should have the Bounty, as well as those who inlisted before, and the Governor paid Money accordingly, one of them is to blame.


Title: [Titlepage and Cover]
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       AJournalAJournal By MeJ Q AVol:1st


Title: 1779 November Friday 12th.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This Morning at about 11 o clock I took leave of my Mamma, my Sister, and Brother Tommy, and went to Boston with Mr. Thaxter, in order to go on board the Frigate the Sensible of 28 twelve Pounders. We arrived at Boston at about 1 o clock; dined at my uncle Smiths’, we expected to go on board in the afternoon but We could not conveniently—till to morrow.


Title: Saturday 13th.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       To day at about 1 o clock Pappa, and my Brother Charles, came to town, and at about 5 o clock we all went came on board and took our lodgings. My Brother Charles is to lodge with My Pappa and I with Mr. Thaxter.


Title: Sunday 14th.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This morning a great number of Gentlemen came on board, and amongst others Col Johonnot, with a son, of his who is a going to France with us. There are a great number of Passengers and the Frigate is very well mann’d. Col Johonnot introduced me to his son, with whom I hope I shall form, an acquaintance, which will be very agreable to me and I hope I shall endeavour to make myself agreable to him. This afternoon Captn. Tucker, came on board, and told us that he saw a day or two agone two ships and a brig off Cape Ann: we were very glad he told us of it, so that now we can take proper Measure for shunning them.


Title: Mond 15th.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This morning a brig and a schooner went out I suppose after wood to the eastward. About 8 o clock the Gentlemen went to breakfast. Sammy Charles and I dont breakfast with them. About ten o clock we set sail in company with a brig which is to carry back the Pilot and the Courier De L’Europe who came from France with us. About half after three the Pilot went away from us; he told us he would stay off Cape Ann till eleven o clock next morning.


Title: Friday 19th.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       12 o clock. The Gale continues. Nothing else remarkable. 6 o clock. The wind has abated a great deal. There is now only a fresh breeze of wind.


Title: Saturday 20th.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This morning about 6 o clock spy’d a sail about 2 miles off. We sent the courier de L’europe to speak with her. She put about and run. About nine o clock she set royals studden studding sails and chased us. About one o clock she came up with us and  hoisted american colours. We hoisted french flag and pendant; we spoke with her. She was a brig eight weeks out of Salem. She has taken three prizes. She says she spoke with the ship the Jack belonging to the same owners with her that the ship Jack has taken two prizes since she came out. The mate came on board. He says they saw an english twenty Gun ship and seven sail he suppos’d a going to Cape Breton for coal. He says there is no English cruisers off the banks; I wrote a Letter to my Mamma by her as she is agoing directly to Salem. A clever breeze of wind.


Title: Sunday 21st.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       Nothing remarkable to day except calm all day. 6 o clock. It begins to freshen. We go about 3 knots an hour.


Title: Monday 22d.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       A fresh breeze all day from the SSE. The Captain says we are about fifty Leagues from the Grand Bank.


Title: Tuesday 23d.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       The weather is very much like that of the Bank. The Courier has taken two fish. At twelve o clock we shall Sound. 4 o clock. We have not sounded. Very foggy all this day.


Title: Wednesday 24th.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This morning the Courier lost herself in the fog but at about ten o clock we found her again. I will now give a list of the names of the officers and principal passengers on board the Sensible.
       Captain Bidé de Chavagnes. A chevalier of the order of Saint Louis and captain of his most Christian Majesty’s frigate La Sensible.
       Le Chevalier de Gois briand Goësbriand 2’d in command
       Mr. Riordan Le Chevalier D’Arriardant
       Mr. Painker Le Chevalier de Pincaire
       Mr. Denian

       Mr. Du Breuil Breville auxiliary officers.
       Mr. De La Guérivieres Le Chevalier de Guerivierre
       Mr. De La Roche la Roche de St. André. Midshipmen.
       Mr. le major
       Passengers
       Coll. Fleury, a French Gentleman Coll. in the American army
       Mr. De Moléon
       Mr. De Lancuville
       Mr. Delacolombe other French Gentlemen in the american army
       There are a Great Number of other french Gentlemen whose names I don’t know.
       American Gentlemen
       Mr. Allen
       Mr. Dana
       Mr. Thaxter
       My Pappa
       Boys
       Sammy Cooper Johonnot
       My Brother Charles and myself.

        Sammy Cooper whom I have before spoke of is a very agreable young Gentleman and makes the passage much less tedious to me than it would be if he had not came with us.

       At about 12 o clock we sounded and found bottom at thirty fathom deep. We fish’d a half an hour but caught nothing. Very foggy all day till about 6 o clock PM it clear’d up. 9 o clock. A fresh breeze from the west. Sailors say that when there is a bad wind drink a bowl of punch upon the Captson and the wind will come right. Mr. Dana Mr. Allen and Mr. Thaxter try’d the experiment and the wind changed and came fair; there’s super stition for you.


Title: Friday 26th.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This Morning a very fresh breeze from the N.W. 7 o clock. We now go 12 knots an hour; every face is fill’d with contentment.


Title: Sunday 28th.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       6 o clock. Calm and cloudy. 9 o clock. It begins to freshen. 6 o clock P.M. A very fresh breeze. I beleive that we shall have no other sail but our fore sail sot set to night.


Title: Mon 29th.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       The ship is very leaky. The passengers are all called to the Pump four times per day. 8 o clock AM, 12 o clock, 4 o clock PM, and 8 o clock PM.


Title: [November 1779]
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       Titlepage and Cover

       AJournalAJournal By MeJ Q AVol:1st

   Titlepage and cover for JQA’s early Diary, designated D/JQA/1 by Adams editors to indicate the first of the individual Diary books, booklets, or miscellaneous fragments. This Diary booklet, which measures approximately 7″ × 4¾″, consists of eleven leaves of paper folded over and stitched. Bound in with the sheets is a paper cover, and each page has been ruled off with a margin by JQA, in which space he has placed the dates for his entries. On this titlepage, and the revised titlepage which follows, there is a scrawled design at the bottom of the page which is repeated throughout this Diary booklet.

   With the exceptions of D/JQA/7, 9, and 13, all of the Diary volumes or booklets published in these two volumes contain a roman numeral affixed in pencil on either the cover or titlepage. Because they were probably added by CFA while assembling his father’s papers in the 19th century, these have been deleted throughout.

       Revised Titlepage

       A Journal by J Q AFrom AmericatoSpain VOL. Ist.begun Friday12th. of November1779

   Revised titlepage located on the inside front cover of D/JQA/1. This titlepage and the first page of entries in the Diary are reproduced in this volume (see the Descriptive List of Illustrations, No. 1).

      1779 November Friday 12th.

       This Morning at about 11 o clock I took leave of my Mamma, my Sister, and Brother Tommy, and went to Boston with Mr. Thaxter, in order to go on board the Frigate the Sensible of 28 twelve Pounders. We arrived at Boston at about 1 o clock; dined at my uncle Smiths’, we expected to go on board in the afternoon but We could not conveniently—till to morrow.

   It was not until 30 July 1784 that JQA next saw AA and AA2, when he met them in London en route to France, where his father, JA, was serving as a commissioner to negotiate treaties of amity and commerce with various European and African nations. JQA did not see TBA again until his return to America in 1785 (JA, Diary and AutobiographyDiary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols., 3:167–169).

   John Thaxter Jr. (1755–1791), a second cousin to JQA through the marriage of AA’s aunt Anna Quincy. After graduation from college he had studied law in JA’s office, served as tutor to the Adams boys, and now accompanied JA to Europe as his private secretary. Thaxter returned to America in 1783 after the signing of the Definitive Treaty with Great Britain and settled in Haverhill, Mass., where he practiced law (same, 2:402). JQA renewed his friendship with Thaxter there in late 1785, when he came to live with his uncle and aunt, Rev. John and Elizabeth (Smith) Shaw, while preparing himself for admission to Harvard in the spring of 1786.

   JQA did not carefully distinguish between his uncles and great-uncles, aunts and great-aunts, but the person referred to here is his great-uncle Isaac Smith Sr. (1719–1787), a Boston merchant and uncle of AA. A sketch and portrait of Smith appear in Adams Family CorrespondenceAdams Family Correspondence, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1963- ., 2:x–xi and facing 103.

      Saturday 13th.

       To day at about 1 o clock Pappa, and my Brother Charles, came to town, and at about 5 o clock we all went came on board and took our lodgings. My Brother Charles is to lodge with My Pappa and I with Mr. Thaxter.

   Immediately after Charles’ name, JQA placed a superscript number, the first of a series following the names of those referred to in the entries of 13–15 and 20 Nov. Such numbers, which have been deleted from this edition, were apparently used as a counting device for the index JQA constructed on the back cover of the Diary booklet. See after the entry for 31 Dec. (below). Unlike most indexers, however, JQA was interested in the frequency with which a name appeared rather than its location in the Diary booklet.

      Sunday 14th.

       This morning a great number of Gentlemen came on board, and amongst others Col Johonnot, with a son, of his who is a going to France with us. There are a great number of Passengers and the Frigate is very well mann’d. Col Johonnot introduced me to his son, with whom I hope I shall form, an acquaintance, which will be very agreable to me and I hope I shall endeavour to make myself agreable to him. This afternoon Captn. Tucker, came on board, and told us that he saw a day or two agone two ships and a brig off Cape Ann: we were very glad he told us of it, so that now we can take proper Measure for shunning them.

   Col. Gabriel Johonnot, grandson of a French Huguenot, was a Boston merchant prominent in boycott activities before the Boston Tea Party. During the Revolution he served as lieutenant colonel in the 14th Regiment of the Continental Army (NEHGR,New England Historical and Genealogical Register. 7 [1853]: 141–142; 44 [1890]: 57).

   Samuel Cooper Johonnot, usually referred to in JQA’s Diary entries as “Sammy,” was being sent to Europe for schooling, first at Passy and later at Geneva. After graduation from Harvard, he studied law under James Sullivan and began a practice in Portland, Maine, in 1789, but returned to Boston in 1791. From there he went to Demerara, British Guiana (now Georgetown, Guyana), upon what JQA termed “a speculation,” but soon became U.S. consul there, where he later died (same, 7 [1853]: 141–142; 22 [1868]: 9; JA, Diary and AutobiographyDiary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols., 2:418; JQA, Diary, 3 April 1791).

   Samuel Tucker, captain of the Continental frigate Boston, the ship which carried JA and JQA to France in Feb. 1778 on JA’s first mission to Europe (DABAllen Johnson and Dumas Malone, eds., Dictionary of American Biography, New York, 1928-1936; 20 vols, plus index and supplements.).

      Mond 15th.

       This morning a brig and a schooner went out I suppose after wood to the eastward. About 8 o clock the Gentlemen went to breakfast. Sammy Charles and I dont breakfast with them. About ten o clock we set sail in company with a brig which is to carry back the Pilot and the Courier De L’Europe who came from France with us. About half after three the Pilot went away from us; he told us he would stay off Cape Ann till eleven o clock next morning.

   A chasse marée, which accompanied La Sensible back to France until dismasted and presumably lost at sea in a violent storm less than two weeks later (entry for 27 Nov., below; Dana, Journal, 26 Nov.).

      Tuesday 16th. Thursday 18th.

       Yesterday and day before there was nothing remarkable only that all day yesterday there was a calm but last night it freshen’d and now we have a Gale of wind.

      Friday 19th.

       12 o clock. The Gale continues. Nothing else remarkable. 6 o clock. The wind has abated a great deal. There is now only a fresh breeze of wind.

      Saturday 20th.

       This morning about 6 o clock spy’d a sail about 2 miles off. We sent the courier de L’europe to speak with her. She put about and run. About nine o clock she set royals studden studding sails and chased us. About one o clock she came up with us and  hoisted american colours. We hoisted french flag and pendant; we spoke with her. She was a brig eight weeks out of Salem. She has taken three prizes. She says she spoke with the ship the Jack belonging to the same owners with her that the ship Jack has taken two prizes since she came out. The mate came on board. He says they saw an english twenty Gun ship and seven sail he suppos’d a going to Cape Breton for coal. He says there is no English cruisers off the banks; I wrote a Letter to my Mamma by her as she is agoing directly to Salem. A clever breeze of wind.

   The General Lincoln, a privateer from Salem, commanded by Capt. John Carnes (Dana, Journal; Joseph B. Felt, Annals of Salem, 2d edn., 2 vols., Salem, 1845–1849, 2:270).

   Adams Family Correspondence,Adams Family Correspondence, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1963- . 3:238–239.

      Sunday 21st.

       Nothing remarkable to day except calm all day. 6 o clock. It begins to freshen. We go about 3 knots an hour.

      Monday 22d.

       A fresh breeze all day from the SSE. The Captain says we are about fifty Leagues from the Grand Bank.

      Tuesday 23d.

       The weather is very much like that of the Bank. The Courier has taken two fish. At twelve o clock we shall Sound. 4 o clock. We have not sounded. Very foggy all this day.

      Wednesday 24th.

       This morning the Courier lost herself in the fog but at about ten o clock we found her again. I will now give a list of the names of the officers and principal passengers on board the Sensible.
       Captain Bidé de Chavagnes. A chevalier of the order of Saint Louis and captain of his most Christian Majesty’s frigate La Sensible.
       Le Chevalier de Gois briand Goësbriand 2’d in command
       Mr. Riordan Le Chevalier D’Arriardant
       Mr. Painker Le Chevalier de Pincaire
       Mr. Denian

       Mr. Du Breuil Breville auxiliary officers.
       Mr. De La Guérivieres Le Chevalier de Guerivierre
       Mr. De La Roche la Roche de St. André. Midshipmen.
       Mr. le major
       Passengers
       Coll. Fleury, a French Gentleman Coll. in the American army
       Mr. De Moléon
       Mr. De Lancuville
       Mr. Delacolombe other French Gentlemen in the american army
       There are a Great Number of other french Gentlemen whose names I don’t know.
       American Gentlemen
       Mr. Allen
       Mr. Dana
       Mr. Thaxter
       My Pappa
       Boys
       Sammy Cooper Johonnot
       My Brother Charles and myself.

        Sammy Cooper whom I have before spoke of is a very agreable young Gentleman and makes the passage much less tedious to me than it would be if he had not came with us.

       At about 12 o clock we sounded and found bottom at thirty fathom deep. We fish’d a half an hour but caught nothing. Very foggy all day till about 6 o clock PM it clear’d up. 9 o clock. A fresh breeze from the west. Sailors say that when there is a bad wind drink a bowl of punch upon the Captson and the wind will come right. Mr. Dana Mr. Allen and Mr. Thaxter try’d the experiment and the wind changed and came fair; there’s super stition for you.

   As he himself wrote his name (Adams Family CorrespondenceAdams Family Correspondence, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1963- ., 3:223–224).

   The editorial insertions for this and the names listed above are taken from JA’s less phonetically written and probably more correctly spelled listing of officers of La Sensible (Diary and AutobiographyDiary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols., 2:395).

   The ship’s medical officer, or surgeon major, M. Bergèrac (same, 2:395; entry for 15 June 1785, below).

   François Louis Teissèdre de Fleury, a French volunteer in the American Revolution, who had distinguished himself in numerous early battles, for which he received a congressional medal (Lasseray, Les français sous les treize étoilesAndre Lasseray, Les français sous les treize étoiles (1775-1783), Macon and Paris, 1935; 2 vols., 2:425–433).

   Louis Saint Ange, Chevalier Morel de La Colombe, a French officer participating in the American Revolution (same, 1:324; La Colombe to JA, 21 June 1780, Adams Papers). His name appears to have been added to JQA’s listing at some later time.

   Jeremiah Allen, a Boston merchant, whom JA described as “travelling with a View of establishing a private commerce in Spain as well as in France” (JA to the Governor of La Coruña, 18 Dec., LbC, Adams Papers).

   Francis Dana, lawyer, member of the Massachusetts Council and of the Continental Congress, 1777–1778, accompanied JA as secretary to the peace commission. Two years later JQA served as Dana’s personal secretary and French interpreter for a year when Dana was appointed minister to Russia; Dana left there in 1783, frustrated and unrecognized by the government of Catherine the Great. Dana’s Journals, kept on this trip to Paris and his subsequent journey in 1781 to St. Petersburg and now at MHi, are an important supplement to JQA’s Diary (JA, Diary and AutobiographyDiary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols., 4:191; Sibley-Shipton, Harvard Graduates,John Langdon Sibley and Clifford K. Shipton, Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge and Boston, 1873- . 15:204–217).

      Thursday 25th.

       This morning about nine o clock the courier lost her foretopmast. About twelve o clock she got it up. 6 o clock. We lay to for her she being a stern of us. She came up with us and we again set sail.

      Friday 26th.

       This Morning a very fresh breeze from the N.W. 7 o clock. We now go 12 knots an hour; every face is fill’d with contentment.

      Saturday 27th.

       I could not write any more yesterday because a Gale of wind came on which hinder’d me but to day it has abated a great deal. Nothing very remarkable to day. O! I had like to have forgot that last night the Courier lost her foremast and we were obliged to leave her.

      Sunday 28th.

       6 o clock. Calm and cloudy. 9 o clock. It begins to freshen. 6 o clock P.M. A very fresh breeze. I beleive that we shall have no other sail but our fore sail sot set to night.

      Mon 29th.

       The ship is very leaky. The passengers are all called to the Pump four times per day. 8 o clock AM, 12 o clock, 4 o clock PM, and 8 o clock PM.

      Tues 30th.

       To day a middling breeze from the S.E or SSE. At 12 o clock to day being at the Pump there being very little water the beam struck my head and hurt me a little.

   The remainder of the page in the Diary contains a drawing of a bird and several designs by JQA, probably used as filler since he begins his entries for the new month at the top of the following page.


Title: 1779 December Wed 1st.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       We housed all the Guns to day because she rolled a great deal. A fresh breeze from the S.S.E. Nothing remarkable to day.


Title: Thur 2d.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       A fresh breeze from the South. Continual Squalls thunder and lightning. 6 o clock PM. The weather has cleared up.


Title: Satur 4th.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       A middling breeze from the SW. This afternoon about four o clock a land Bird came a hovering over the frigate; she being so tired we Caught her. Nothing very remarkable to day.


Title: Sun. 5th.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       A middling breeze from the S.W. We replaced our guns. We took in the Main, and forsails in order to get the Anchors ready. The Captain expects to spy Land tuesday.


Title: Mon 6th.
From: Adams, John Quincy
To:

       This morning my brother Charles look’d out of Pappa’s window and said he saw a flock of Wild fowl. A fine breeze from the South. About twelve o clock being in my Pappa’s room I heard a noise upon deck. I went out and was told by one of the Gentlemen that we saw a sail. I immediately went up to the Main cross trees and saw a brig. The Gentlemen conjecture that she is a cruizer and intends to come and reconnoitre us she having but Very little sail set. I o clock. I thought she was a brig but I hear she is a ship which has lost her Main mast. 2 o clock P M. She has got almost out of sight. 4 o clock. She has got Quite out of sight.