Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 2

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Chronology

Charles Francis Adams’ Life, 1807–1829

1807	Aug. 18	Born in Boston in the family house which stood across from the Common on the southeast corner of the present Tremont and Boylston streets, occupying part of the site of the present Hotel Touraine.
1809	Aug.—Oct.	Travels with his parents aboard the Horace to St. Petersburg, where his father serves as Minister to Russia until May 1814. His brothers, GWA and JA2, remain in Boston.
1813	July	Begins attending Mr. Fishwick’s school in St. Petersburg.
1815	Feb.—March	Travels overland from St. Petersburg to Paris with his mother to join his father after completion of the latter’s work at Ghent as an American commissioner to negotiate peace with England. In Paris during part of “the Hundred Days,” where he sees Napoleon shortly before Waterloo.
1815	May	Travels with his parents from Paris to London, where his father serves as American Minister to England. His brothers rejoin the family.
1815	Aug.	Moves with his family from Cavendish Square to a country house in the suburb of Ealing. CFA and JA2 are placed in Dr. Nicholas’ boarding school in Ealing.
1817	June—Aug.	Upon the appointment of his father by President Monroe as Secretary of State, returns with his family to New York aboard 438the Washington. They sail on the packet Fame from New York to Providence and proceed by stage to Quincy, arriving on CFA’s tenth birthday, 18 August.
1817	Sept.	Enrolled in Benjamin A. Gould’s Boston Public Latin School with his brother JA2; they live with Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Welsh.
1818	Oct. 28	His grandmother, Abigail Adams, dies at the Old House in Quincy.
1819	Sept.	Moves to Washington to live with his family.
1819	Oct.	Enrolled in George E. Ironside’s school.
1820	Jan. 1	His surviving “Index” Diary begins.
1821	Feb.	Matriculates in Harvard College.
1824	April	Records his membership in the Society of the Knights of the Order of the Square Table, a Harvard club which later merged with the Porcellian Club.
1824	June	Elected president of the Lyceum Club, an informal organization of Harvard students who boarded together. Appointed second commandant in the Harvard Washington Corps.
1825	Feb.	Failing to win a majority of electoral votes in the November election, JQA is elected President by a bare majority in the House of Representatives.
1825	March	Attends the inauguration of his father as President.
1825	April	Takes part in a Harvard Exhibition.
1825	July	Returns to Washington to read law under his father’s tutelage.
1825	Aug.	Receives his A.B. degree in absentia.
1826	Feb. 11	Records his first meeting, at a Washington ball, with Abigail Brown Brooks, daughter of Peter Chardon Brooks of Medford, Mass.
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1825	July 4	His grandfather, John Adams, dies at the Old House in Quincy during the jubilee celebration of national independence.
1827	Feb. 10	In Washington, proposes marriage to Abigail Brooks.
1827	March	Becomes engaged to Abigail Brooks. Their courtship correspondence begins.
1827	Aug.	Returns to Boston to read law in Daniel Webster’s office.
1827	Oct.	His father consents to correspond with him to guide his career. Becomes a member of a Moot Court in Boston, established by a “Society of Students at Law.”
1828	Feb. 25	His brother JA2 marries Mary Catherine Hellen in Washington, and they make their permanent home there.
1828	Aug.	Attends Harvard commencement and receives his M.A. degree.
1828	Nov.	His father is defeated for reelection to the Presidency by Andrew Jackson. CFA is admitted a member of the Boston Debating Society, a private group. His first newspaper contribution, signed “A Lover of Justice,” is published in the (Boston) Massachusetts Journal.
1829	Jan.	Admitted to the Suffolk County Bar, and begins to practice in the Court of Common Pleas.
1829	Feb.	Earns his first fee as a lawyer.
1829	April 30	His brother GWA is drowned by falling or jumping overboard from the steamship Benjamin Franklin in Long Island Sound.
1829	June	JQA returns to Quincy; LCA remains in Washington. CFA succeeds GWA as JQA’s business agent.
1829	Sept. 3	Marries Abigail Brown Brooks at Medford and occupies with her a house provided by her father at 3 Hancock Avenue, “under the shadow of the State House,” on Beacon Hill in Boston.