Diary of John Quincy Adams, volume 2
1786-04-24
It seems as if there is to be no end of this Stormy weather. It does not look more likely to clear up, than it did, a week agone; Charles and myself lodg'd down at our house; it is almost 7 years since I pass'd a night there before this.
1786-04-25
Weather still the same. Mr. Wibird spent the afternoon at Mr. Cranch's. I went with my brother down, and drank tea at my Uncle Adams's. Had some difficulty to get horses to go to Cambridge with to-morrow. Mr. H. Hayden, died last night of a wound he received by a gun going off, while he was fowling, about 3 weeks agone.
1786-04-26
The Vacation being at end; Charles and I left Braintree at about 10 o'clock. My Cousin has been unwell, with a bad Cough several days, and therefore intends to stay till Saturday. The weather, for the first Time these ten days was favorable, which was a lucky circumstance to us. We got to College, at about 1. just after Commons. I dined on bread and cheese; there were only 40 scholars, in at Prayers, this afternoon. Put my name in at the Buttery. At the end of each Vacation, every scholar, must go in Person, and give his name to the Butler; any scholar who stays away after the expiration of the Vacancy, unless, he gives good reasons for it, forfeits 1 sh. 6d. every night. Spent the Evening at Mr. Dana's, where I found a Mr. and Mrs. Buckminster, from Portsmouth.
1786-04-27
A List of the Present, junior Sophister Class1
William Lovejoy Abbot.
*Abiel Abbot
*John Quincy Adams.
Jonathan Amory
Samuel Angier
*William Amherst Baron
*Benjamin Beale
*James Bridge.
*Josiah Burge
John Chandler.
Thomas Chandler
*Gardner Leonard Chandler
Caleb Child
22*William Cranch
*Joshua Cushman
Peter Eaton
*Oliver Fiske
John
Bossinger
**Nathaniel Freeman
Timothy Fuller
Thomas Hammond
*Thaddeus Mason Harris
Walter Hunnowell
Joseph Jackson
Asa Johnson
Ephraim Kendall
Nathaniel Laurence
Ebenezer Learned
*Moses Little
James Lloyd
James Lovell.
William Mason
Daniel Mayo
Samuel Mead
Ephraim Morton
*Hezekiah Packard
Nathaniel Shepherd Prentiss.
Samuel Putnam
Isaac Rand.
John Sever
Solomon Vose
John Jones Waldo
Francis Welch
Leonard White
Richard Whitney
Samuel Willard.
Samuel Williams.
No reciting this day, nor indeed this week. The Scholars that live near Cambridge, commonly come and enter their names in the Buttery, and then go home again, and stay the remainder of the Week. I went down to the President's in the morning to carry a Letter to him. Spent my Time in writing, reading, and playing on the flute. Lodg'd with my brother.
JQA's classmates are identified under the “character sketches” which he included in the diary entries of his senior year. In addition to those listed here, the class of 1787 included three other students—William Samuel Judd, Samuel Kellogg, and John Phelps, who were transfer students from Dartmouth and Yale. They entered Harvard in the months following this entry. The asterisks apparently denote members of the Harvard chapter of Phi Beta Kappa inducted before 11 Dec. 1786. Putnam and White were also members, but their names are unmarked and were presumably missed because the list continues on the verso of the Diary page. The meaning of the double asterisk before Freeman's name is uncertain (MH-Ar: Phi Beta Kappa Records, 1 :passim).