Adams Family Correspondence, volume 7

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Chronology

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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	Lord Carmarthen responds to JA's Nov. 1785 demand that British troops be withdrawn from U.S. territory, stating that Britain will fulfill its treaty obligations when America does the same.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.
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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.
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1786	3 Aug. – 6 Sept.	JA and AA travel to The Hague to exchange ratified copies of the Prussian-American treaty with Baron von Thulemeier . While in Holland, the Adamses visit Rotterdam, Leyden, Haarlem, Amsterdam, Delft, and Utrecht.
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.
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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.