| 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. |
| 439 |
| 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. |
