Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 2

Thursday. 27th.

Saturday 29th.

Friday. 28th. CFA

1827-09-28

Friday. 28th. CFA
Friday. 28th.

Morning at the Exchange to see my father. Had a great deal of conversation with John about our family affairs particularly in reference to George. Also with Dr. Welsh who thought he ought to go to my father, which I recommended. I then went to Cambridge with my Father to see the Botanic Garden, calling at the houses of the Miss Danas,1 President Kirkland and Dr. Waterhouse2 on the way. A visit so formal prevented any thing like serious attention to the subject. Returned to town with Antoine in advance of the President, being invited to dine at Mr. R. D. Shepherd’s.3 An agreeable party. Sidney and Gorham Brooks, George and William Slocum, two Messrs. Le Branch of New Orleans, Mr. J. Coolidge Junr. and Mr. John L. Gardner.4 Miss Shepherd is an only daughter and consequently much doted upon. She is tolerably pretty. I rose from dinner to go to a party at Medford. It was rather dull. My acquaintance was almost entirely confined to the members of the family. My spirits were completely worn out by the continual excitement during the day and some little deviations from what I thought propriety in Abby made me feel quite unhappy. Too much so considering how trifling they were.

1.

Elizabeth Ellery Dana (1789–1874) and Sarah-Ann Dana (1791–1866), daughters of the late Francis Dana, chief justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts (Paige, History of Cambridge, Massachusetts, p. 529).

2.

Benjamin Waterhouse (1754–1846), Hersey professor of the theory and practice of physic at Harvard from 1783 to 1812 and an old friend of JQA’s ( DAB ).

3.

Resin D. Shepherd, a Boston merchant, had married Lucy Gorham and was thus a relative of Abigail Brown Brooks. His daughter, Ellen Shepherd, subsequently married Gorham Brooks. See entry for 6 Dec. 1828, below; Boston Directory, 1829–1830; New England Historic Genealogical Society, Memorial Biographies, 2 (1881):470–472; and Adams Genealogy.

4.

John Lowell Gardner (1804–1885), Harvard 1821, was one of the last of the great East India merchants in Boston (Crawford, Mass. Families , 1:83).