John Adams was born in the North Precinct of Braintree (now Quincy), Massachusetts, on October 30, 1735, the eldest son of John and Susanna (Boylston) Adams. After graduating from Harvard College in 1755, he studied and practiced law, and married Abigail Smith of Weymouth on October 25, 1764. Although already active in the Patriot cause, in 1770 Adams and Josiah Quincy, Jr., defended the British soldiers charged in the Boston Massacre Trials, successfully winning acquittals or reduced sentences for all the defendants.
From 1774 to 1777 Adams served in the Continental Congress. He passionately urged independence for the colonies, and in 1776 he was appointed to the committee that would draft a declaration of independence. His copy of Thomas Jefferson's draft of the Declaration of Independence is the earliest known draft in existence.
After a prolific diplomatic career, which kept him in Europe for many years, Adams became the first vice president of the United States (1785–1797) and then the second president (1797–1801). His presidency, fraught with difficulties, lasted only one term, after which Thomas Jefferson succeeded him in the office. John Adams retired from public life to his farm in Quincy. He died on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1826.
For more information about the Adamses and an extended biography of John Adams, please visit The Adams Papers on the MHS website.
Abigail Smith Adams was born November 11, 1744, in Weymouth, Massachusetts, to the Reverend William and Elizabeth (Quincy) Smith. She had no formal schooling, but her education included reading works by Shakespeare, John Milton, and Alexander Pope. On October 25, 1764, she married John Adams, then a young lawyer in Braintree. The couple had five children, four of whom lived to adulthood, including future president John Quincy Adams. John Adams's protracted absences from home (first while traveling the court circuits and later while at the Continental Congress and on diplomatic assignments abroad) often left Abigail with the children to raise, a farm to manage, the household and tenants to supervise, and extended family and friends to care for—all while the Revolution in Boston unfolded on her doorstep.
The letters she exchanged with John and other family members reveal her cares and worries, her frank opinions and advice, and give an extraordinary view of civilian life during the Revolution. She also took an active interest in the political events of her day; in her letter to John on March 31, 1776, she made one of the earliest known arguments for women's political rights in U.S. history. Abigail Adams died October 28, 1818, at home in Quincy.
For more information about the Adamses and an extended biography of Abigail Adams, please visit The Adams Papers on the MHS website. You can also view a facsimile of the March 31, 1776, letter she wrote to John Adams.
John Quincy Adams, the second child and eldest son of John and Abigail (Smith) Adams, was born July 11, 1767. As a young boy Adams accompanied his father on his diplomatic missions to Europe, where he attended school and university before returning to America. He graduated from Harvard College in 1787 and went on to practice law in Boston. His diplomatic career began in 1794, when President Washington appointed him minister to the Netherlands. In London in 1797, he married Louisa Catherine Johnson, the daughter of the U.S. consul there. Adams served with distinction in a number of capacities, both abroad and at home, including an appointment as secretary of state in the administration of Pres. James Monroe (1817–1825).
Adams's one term as president (1825–1829) was not so successful. He struggled as a minority president and received little support for an ambitious program of national improvements. Although he was defeated for reelection in 1828 by rival Andrew Jackson, Adams soon returned to national politics as a Massachusetts representative, serving in Congress from 1831 to 1848. He became an increasingly vocal opponent of slavery and its expansion; in 1841 he defended the Amistad captives before the Supreme Court. On February 21, 1848, Adams collapsed at his seat in the House and was carried to the Speaker's Room in the Capitol, where he died on February 23.
For more information about the Adamses and an extended biography of John Quincy Adams, please visit The Adams Papers on the MHS website. You can also read his March 29, 1841, diary entry about the Amistad case.
Born in England, Joseph Palmer emigrated to America in 1746 with a brother-in-law, and the two pursued a variety of manufacturing ventures together. In 1752 they built a glassworks in Germantown, now a part of Quincy, where they went on to build a chocolate mill and spermecetti and salt factories as well. By the 1770s he had become an ardent supporter of American independence: he fought at Lexington and served both in the Massachusetts Provincial Congress and on the Cambridge Committee of Safety. His military service included commissions as a colonel in the Massachusetts militia and later as brigadier for Suffolk County, both in 1776. He also undertook intelligence-gathering missions in Vermont and Rhode Island and, as brigadier-general, led a failed attack on Newport, Rhode Island. After the war, Palmer returned to his factories, but poor health and heavy financial debt plagued him such that he could not work and had to leave Germantown. He started a salt factory on Boston Neck in 1784 and died four years later at his home in Dorchester.
Sources: Johnson, Allen and Dumas Malone, eds. Dictionary of American Biography. New York: Scribner's, 1937.
Mercy Otis Warren was born in Barnstable, Massachusetts, where she lived until 1754, when she married James Warren and moved to Plymouth, Massachusetts. There, Mercy Otis Warren found herself at the center of a lively Patriot family: both her husband and her brother James Otis took active parts in Massachusetts politics, and the Warren home became a common meeting place for revolutionaries. She also participated in the Patriot cause, beginning with the 1772 publication of her play The Adulateur, the first in a long line of similar propagandistic pieces published anonymously. She developed friendships with Abigail and John Adams at this time and corresponded with both throughout her life. Warren continued to write and publish after the war, issuing a volume of poetry under her own name in 1790 and in 1805 publishing her three-volume History of the Rise, Progress and Termination of the American Revolution.
Sources: Garraty, John A. and Mark C. Carnes, eds. American National Biography. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
James, Edward T., Janet Wilson James, and Paul S. Boyer, eds. Notable American Women, 1607-1950: A Biographical Dictionary. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1971.
Born and raised in Plymouth, Massachusetts, James Warren graduated from Harvard in 1745. In 1754 he married Mercy Otis Warren, the sister of Patriot leader James Otis, and in 1757 he succeeded his father as Plymouth County sheriff. Warren became involved in state politics during the Stamp Act crisis of 1765; he began a 12-year term in Massachusetts General Court the following year. An outspoken opponent of British rule, Warren became an active Patriot and associated with John and Abigail Adams and Samuel Adams. After Joseph Warren's death at the Battle of Bunker Hill, Warren succeeded him as president of the Provisional Congress; he also served during the war first as Paymaster General, where he worked with George Washington in Cambridge, then as a member of the Continental Navy Board. After the war, Warren's fear that the ideals of the Revolution were being forgotten in the formation of the new government put him at odds with many leaders, particularly Gov. John Hancock, and made it increasingly difficult for him to gain election to state office.
Sources: Garraty, John A. and Mark C. Carnes, eds. American National Biography. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Boatner, Mark Mayo III. Encyclopedia of the American Revolution. New York: David McKay Company, 1966.
Born in London and educated at Westminster School, John Burgoyne was 15 years old when he entered the military. Burgoyne saw active foreign service during the Seven Years' War and won an important British victory in Portugal in 1762. During the ensuing years he became increasingly involved in social and political life. Promoted to major general in 1772, Burgoyne sailed to America as a reinforcement to General Gage in 1775, arriving in time to learn of the battles at Concord and Lexington. He witnessed the Battle of Bunker Hill, but frustrated at his lack of authority, he went home to England soon thereafter. Burgoyne returned to North America in 1776 as second-in-command to Guy Carleton in Canada, but he again left the army in frustration. In 1777 Burgoyne received command of a large army in Canada and led an invasion of New York designed to isolate New England from the rest of the colonies. The campaign ended with Burgoyne's defeat at Saratoga. Returning to England while his army marched into captivity, he met with considerable criticism and retired from active service.
Sources: Garraty, John A. and Mark C. Carnes, eds. American National Biography. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Stephen, Leslie and Sidney Lee, eds. The Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1921-1922.
Israel Putnam was born in Salem Village (now Danvers), Mass. to a prosperous farming family. In 1740, Putnam left Massachusetts for northeast Connecticut where land was cheaper and easier to obtain. He served with the Connecticut militia during the French and Indian Wars beginning in 1755 and rose to the rank of major by 1758. Putnam led a regiment in the attack on Fort Ticonderoga in 1759 and was part of the expedition that captured Havana, Cuba in 1762. Around the time of the Stamp Act crisis in 1766, Putnam was elected to the Connecticut General Assembly and was one of the founders of the Connecticut Sons of Liberty. Shortly after the Battle of Lexington, Putnam led the Connecticut militia to Boston and was named major general in the Continental Army. Putnam was one of the primary figures at the Battle of Bunker Hill, both in its planning and on the battlefield. After the British left Boston, Putnam went to New York and assumed command there until George Washington arrived. Putnam was involved in the planning of the Battle of Long Island in 1776, which resulted in a sound American defeat. Putnam was often at odds with George Washington and served only until December 1779 before he suffered a stroke, which forced him to end his military career.
Sources: Garraty, John A. and Carnes, Mark C., eds. American National Biography. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Stephen, Leslie and Lee, Sidney, eds. The Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1921-1922.
Joseph Warren was born in Roxbury in 1741, son of Joseph and Mary (Stevens) Warren. He graduated from Harvard in 1759 and married Elizabeth Horton in 1764. He studied medicine with Dr. James Lloyd and practiced in Boston. As a Freemason, he joined St. Andrews Lodge, a newly organized group, which included many political agitators. A radical leader in activities leading to the Revolution, he delivered addresses commemorating the Boston Massacre in 1772 and 1775, and drafted the Suffolk Resolves. Elected to the Provincial Congress in 1774, he served as president pro tem and was chairman of the Provincial Committee of Safety. He was commissioned second major-general in 1775, but served as a volunteer in the battle at Bunker Hill in which he was killed in 1775.
Sources: Sibley's Harvard Graduates. Vol.14, pages 510-527. Massachusetts Historical Society.
Portraits in the Massachusetts Historical Society. Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1988.
Peter Brown, of Westford, Mass., enlisted in the Continental Army on April 19, 1775. He served under William Prescott at the Battle of Bunker Hill. No further information is known about Brown. His letter to his mother, dated June 25, 1775, is one of the most complete accounts of the Battle written by a soldier.
Source: Massachusetts. Secretary of the Commonwealth. Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War: A Compilation from the Archives. Boston: Wright and Potter Printing Co., State Printers, 1896-1908. 27 vols.
John Waller was the Adjutant of the 1st Battalion of Marines (later the Royal Marines) sent to Boston in the spring of 1775. His detailed account of the Battle of Bunker Hill, an action "very fatal to the 1st Battalion" clearly was written to a friend or fellow officer familiar with the officers of the battalion. After the battle, the 1st Battalion manned a fortification that the British built on Bunker Hill.
Nathaniel Ober, a shoemaker of Wenham, Mass. first marched with the Continental Army during the Lexington Alarm, April 19, 1775. He formally enlisted in early May 1775 and served at least through October of that year.
Source: Massachusetts. Secretary of the Commonwealth. Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War: A Compilation from the Archives. Boston: Wright and Potter Printing Co., State Printers, 1896-1908. 27 vols.