Diary of John Quincy Adams, volume 1

338 10th.<a xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0" href="#DQA01d885n1" class="note" id="DQA01d885n1a">1</a> JQA

1785-10-10

10th. Adams, John Quincy
10th.1

At about 12 o'clock, I went down to Mr. Thaxter's Office. And soon after I went with him, and paid a visit to Judge Sargeant, who return'd last Friday. He and his Lady were, both of them very polite: and invited me to come often to their house. Mrs. Sargeant,2 has in her countenance, all that placid mildness, which so much becomes a Lady at that time of Life. If I mistake not, I also perceived in it, a small degree of Melancholy, which always strikes me, and makes a person more interesting to me. Dined at home. Miss Nancy spent the afternoon and Evening out, as indeed she always does. I intended to have gone down to Master White's; but a thunder shower came up a little before dark, and prevented me. It lasted about two hours, and the lightening was exceeding sharp, though, the Thunder was not hard. Mr. Ben Blodget came home with Nancy, but staid only a few minutes. I am apt to believe he is another admirer of her Charms, and I tell her she has the gantlet to run through that family. Indeed she seems to have ingrossed the attentions of almost every youth in Haverhill. The girl has surely something bewitching in her, for she treats them all very ill.

1.

In the MS, “10th” appears to be marked over “9th”; JQA's letter to AA2, 1–22 Oct. (Adams Papers), under the part written on 12 Oct., confirms the former date.

2.

Mary Pickering Leavitt Sargeant, sister of Timothy Pickering, who was later secretary of state, and mother of Mrs. Sarah Leavitt White Payson, also of Haverhill (Harrison Ellery and Charles Pickering Bowditch, The Pickering Genealogy: Being An Account of the . . . Pickering Family of Salem, Mass. . . ., 3 vols., Cambridge, 1897, 1:112–118, 133).

11th. JQA

1785-10-11

11th. Adams, John Quincy
11th.

The weather begins to grow Cold: and the winter is advancing with hasty strides. In the afternoon I went down to Mr. White's, but they were all gone out: Went and spent half an hour at Mr. Blodget's, then return'd home. I accompanied the inseparables Nancy, and Debby, to Judge Sargeants, where we remain'd all the evening. Those two girls in particular, ate such a quantity of peaches, as astonished me. I should not have thought that five persons could devour so many in one Evening. From thence we went to see Miss Perkins home, and after staying there a quarter of an hour, retired to our Respective Stations. Mr. Osgood accompanied Miss Nancy home, and I Miss T. Sargeant, who spends a great part of her time with Mrs. Payson her Sister, who 339is in poor Health. I expect to hear to morrow that Miss Nancy cannot leave her Chamber. Oh! Prudence, what a charming virtue art thou! But how few are so happy as to possess thee!