Diary of John Quincy Adams, volume 1

9th.

11th.

10th. JQA

1785-08-10

10th. Adams, John Quincy
10th.

In the forenoon I went, and sat about an hour with Mr. King. Mr. Gerry was sitting at the grand Committee of Congress in the City Hall. I left 50 french louis d'ors, which Mr. Gerry wishes to have for bank Bills on Boston. Dined at the Presidents in a large Company, Mr. van Berkel, Mr. Jay, Mr. Paine,1 Dr. Gordon,2 Dr. Witherspoon, &c. After Dinner young Mr. van Berkel, and Major L'Enfant, went out to drink tea with the Miss Bayard's. Mr. Harrison went and introduced me to the two Miss Kortright's, who I find, are the Sisters of Mrs. Heiliger, whom I was well acquainted with in Copenhagen, and to whose Husband I was under many obligations, while I was there. These young Ladies are very agreeable, and the youngest (Eliza)3 is beautiful. I afterwards left Mr. Harrison, and pass'd the evening in Company with the officers of the Packet and Mr. Fontfreyde, who intends to leave town to-morrow at noon, for Albany where he is settled.

1.

Thomas Paine, who was living in Bordentown, N.J., and New York until his return to Europe in 1787 ( DAB ).

2.

William Gordon, historian of the Revolution, who had left England in 1770 out of sympathy for the American cause and returned there in 1786 ( DAB ).

3.

Elizabeth Kortright, daughter of New York merchant Lawrence Kortright, married James Monroe in Feb. 1786 (Edward T. James and others, eds., Notable American Women, 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary, 3 vols., Cambridge, 1971).