Adams Family Correspondence, volume 7
481
Chronology
Chronology
Chronology
482
483
Chronology
The Adams Family, 1786–1787
| 1786 | 4 Jan. – 8 Feb. | CA, a Harvard freshman, spends his winter vacation in Braintree and Haverhill, where JQA and TBA are being tutored by their uncle, Rev. John Shaw. |
| 1786 | 10 Jan. | JQA visits New Hampshire for the first time on an evening sleigh ride to Hampstead. |
| 1786 | 9 Feb. | AA and AA2 attend the queen's birthday celebration, accompanied by Col. David Humphreys, and the birthday ball, with WSS, at St. James' Palace. |
| 1786 | 16–20 Feb. | JA meets with Ambassador Sidi Haggi 'Abd-ur-rahman Aga of Tripoli to negotiate a commercial treaty. |
| 1786 | 21 Feb. | WSS departs London for Paris, dispatched by JA to confer with Thomas Jefferson on the treaty negotiations with Tripoli. |
| 1786 | 28 Feb. | Lord Carmarthen responds to JA's Nov. 1785 demand that British troops be withdrawn from U.S. territory, stating that Britain will fulfill its treaty obligations when America does the same. |
| 1786 | 11 March | WSS and Thomas Jefferson arrive in London, the latter coming to help negotiate commercial treaties with Tripoli, Portugal, and Great Britain. |
| 1786 | 14 March | JQA leaves Haverhill for Cambridge. On the 15th he is examined and admitted to Harvard as a junior sophister. |
| 1786 | 15 March | JA presents Jefferson to King George III. |
| 1786 | 18–22 March | JQA visits the Cranches in Braintree. |
| 1786 | 22 March | JQA takes up residence at Harvard College. |
| 1786 | 4–10 April | JA and Jefferson tour English gardens, countryseats, and historic sites, including Stratford-on-Avon where they carve a souvenir sliver from what is said to be Shakespeare's chair. |
| 484 | ||
| 1786 | 11–26 April | JQA and CA spend the Harvard spring vacation at Braintree. |
| 1786 | 17 April | JA acquires eleven acres in Braintree's New South Precinct, now Randolph, in settlement of a loan to David Sloan. |
| 1786 | 19 April | JA meets Joseph Priestley. |
| 1786 | 20 April | The Adamses and Jefferson visit the countryseats of Sion House and Osterley Park in Brentford. |
| 1786 | 24 April | The Adamses, WSS, and Jefferson visit the British Museum. |
| 1786 | 25 April | JA and Jefferson conclude negotiations for a commercial treaty with Portugal, a treaty that neither country ever ratified. |
| 1786 | 29 April | In a diplomatic slight, JA is excluded from the annual Royal Academy dinner for foreign ministers. |
| 1786 | 9 May | JA publishes an anonymous letter in a London newspaper denying a report that his salary is paid by the French government. |
| 1786 | 12 May | Commissions held by JA and Jefferson to negotiate commercial treaties expire. |
| 1786 | 11 June | AA2 and WSS are married at the U.S. legation in Grosvenor Square. |
| 1786 | 17 June | CA and his cousins William, Elizabeth, and Lucy Cranch attend the dedication of the bridge connecting Boston and Charlestown. JQA remains at Harvard. |
| 1786 | 20–24 June | The Adamses visit Portsmouth, stopping at the countryseat of Painshill in Surrey and Windsor Castle. |
| 1786 | 30 June | AA2 and WSS depart Grosvenor Square for a residence on Wimpole Street. |
| 1786 | 13 July | Harvard's summer vacation begins, and JQA and CA go to Braintree. |
| 1786 | 20–26 July | TBA visits Braintree. |
| 1786 | 24–28 July | JA, AA, AA2, and WSS visit the Essex estate of Thomas Brand-Hollis. |
| 1786 | 26 July – 5 Aug. | JQA and CA visit Haverhill, participating in a sea-turtle banquet on a Merrimack River island on 28 July. |
| 1786 | 27 July | JA and AA visit Braintree, England, for “the Gratification of Curiosity.” |
| 1786 | 2 Aug. | JA attends a levee with the king to announce his departure for The Hague. On the same day, the king escapes an assassination attempt by a knife-wielding Margaret Nicholson. |
| 485 | ||
| 1786 | 3 Aug. – 6 Sept. |
JA and AA travel to The Hague to exchange ratified copies of the Prussian-American treaty |
| 1786 | 16 Aug. | JQA returns to Harvard for the fall quarter, following CA, who arrived in Cambridge five days earlier to prepare their rooms. |
| 1786 | 17 Aug. | Frederick the Great of Prussia dies and is succeeded by his nephew, Frederick William II. |
| 1786 | 22 Aug. | TBA is examined and admitted to Harvard's freshman class; he boards with Prof. Stephen Sewall in Cambridge. |
| 1786 | 25–28 Aug. | AA2 and WSS visit Salt Hill in Buckinghamshire and Staines in Middlesex. |
| 1786 | 29 Aug. | Shays' Rebellion begins when 1,500 farmers protest rising taxes and foreclosures by occupying the Northampton courthouse. |
| 1786 | Sept. |
JA begins writing what would become his three-volume A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America. |
| 1786 | 11 Sept. | The Annapolis Convention convenes in Maryland to consider federal regulation of commerce but fails to reach a quorum. |
| 1786 | 26 Sept. | JQA and William Cranch debate “Whether inequality among the citizens be necessary to the preservation of the liberty of the whole” at a Harvard College exhibition. |
| 1786 | Oct. |
JA publishes a series of letters he wrote in 1780 to Hendrik Calkoen, an Amsterdam lawyer, as Letters. The book is later retitled Twenty-Six Letters, upon Interesting Subjects, Respecting the Revolution of America. |
| 1786 | 17 Oct. | The Adams sons spend the Harvard vacation in Braintree. CA returns to Cambridge on the 30th; JQA and TBA on 1 November. |
| 1786 | 17 Nov. | The Massachusetts legislature approves bills encouraging domestic manufacture and taxing imported goods. |
| 1786 | 13 Dec. – 7 Feb. | Harvard vacation begins early due to a massive snowstorm and shortages of wood. JQA elects to stay at the college. |
| 1786 | 22 Dec. – 6 Jan. | AA, AA2, and WSS visit Bath while JA remains in London. |
| 486 | ||
| 1787 | 20 Jan. | AA announces to family in the United States that AA2 and WSS are expecting their first child, William Steuben Smith, born 2 April. |
| 1787 | 24 Jan. | JA informs Congress that within a year he will resign his commissions and return to the United States. |
| 1787 | 25 Jan. | JA signs a Treaty of Peace and Friendship with Morocco. |
| 1787 | 21 Feb. | Congress approves a proposal to hold a Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in May. |
| 1787 | 27 Feb. | Shays' Rebellion ends with a final skirmish in Sheffield, Mass. |