How to read the John Quincy Adams family tree
The John Quincy Adams family tree is drawn around John Quincy Adams, the sixth President, in the second row. Above him are his parents, beside him his sister and two brothers, and below him the four children he had with Louisa Catherine Johnson.1
A double frame is the centre
John Quincy Adams is the centre of the chart.
A line joins a couple
Three marriages are drawn, in 1764, 1797 and 1829.
A silhouette is a missing likeness
John Adams 2d and the infant Louisa Catherine have no known free portrait.
John and Abigail Adams, the parents
John Adams was born in the North Precinct of Braintree, now Quincy, on 30 October 1735. Abigail Smith was born at Weymouth on 11 November 1744, the daughter of the Reverend William Smith and Elizabeth Quincy. They married on 25 October 1764.1 His long absences at the Continental Congress and abroad left Abigail to raise the children and run the farm.1
John Adams was Vice President for eight years and President from 4 March 1797. He and Abigail were the first presidential couple to live in the house later called the White House. Abigail died at Quincy on 28 October 1818, and John died there on 4 July 1826, fifty years to the day after the Declaration of Independence.1
The sister and brothers on the John Quincy Adams family tree
| Child | Born | Married |
|---|---|---|
 Abigail, known as Nabby | 14 July 1765 | William Stephens Smith, 1786 |
 John Quincy | 11 July 1767 | Louisa Catherine Johnson, 1797 |
 Charles | 29 May 1770 | Sarah Smith, 1795 |
 Thomas Boylston | 15 September 1772 | Ann Harrod, 1805 |
Sources1
Nabby went to Europe with her mother at eighteen and married Colonel William Stephens Smith, secretary of the legation in London, in June 1786. She died of cancer at her parents' home in August 1813.1 Charles began to drink at Harvard, practised law in New York and married Sally Smith, the sister of Nabby's husband. He lost money entrusted to him by John Quincy and died on 30 November 1800.1
Thomas Boylston served as his brother's secretary in Europe from 1794, practised law in Philadelphia and married Ann Harrod in 1805. They had seven children, and none of them had children.1
John Quincy and Louisa Catherine Adams
John Quincy Adams was born on 11 July 1767 and sailed for France with his father at ten. He was minister to the Netherlands from 1794, and in London in 1795 he met Louisa Catherine Johnson, the daughter of the American consul Joshua Johnson. They married at All Hallows Barking on 26 July 1797.1
Louisa was born in London on 12 February 1775 and went with her husband to Berlin, St. Petersburg and London.1 She crossed Europe from Russia to France in 1815, a journey that won the respect of Abigail Adams.2 After service as senator, envoy and Secretary of State, John Quincy was chosen President by the House of Representatives in 1825, and Louisa presided at the White House.15
From 1831 he sat in the House for Massachusetts. He collapsed at his seat on 21 February 1848 and died in the Capitol two days later. Louisa died in Washington on 15 May 1852.1
The children on the John Quincy Adams family tree
George Washington Adams was born in Berlin on 12 April 1801. He practised law in Boston and sat in the Massachusetts House, but fell into alcoholism and ill health. On 30 April 1829 he was lost from the steamboat Benjamin Franklin in Long Island Sound.1
John Adams 2d, born on 4 July 1803, was his father's private secretary in the White House and married his cousin Mary Catherine Hellen there on 25 February 1828. He died on 23 October 1834 of complications of alcoholism.1 Their sister Louisa Catherine was born in St. Petersburg and died in infancy.12
Charles Francis Adams and his four sons
Charles Francis Adams, the third son, was born in Boston on 18 August 1807 and spent six childhood years in St. Petersburg. He married Abigail Brown Brooks of Medford on 3 September 1829. The deaths of his two brothers left him to carry the family into public life.1
He was the Free Soil candidate for Vice President in 1848 and a member of Congress from 1858. Lincoln sent him to London as minister in 1861, and he stayed until 1868. He also edited the papers of his grandparents and father, and died in Boston on 21 November 1886.13 The National Park Service names his four sons as the railroad reformer Charles Francis Jr., the politician John Quincy II, the writer Henry Adams and the historian Brooks Adams.36
The Old House at Peace field
John and Abigail Adams bought the Old House in Quincy in 1788, and four generations of the John Quincy Adams family tree lived there until 1927.4 Abigail Brooks Adams died there on 6 June 1889.1
Where the records of the John Quincy Adams family tree disagree
The Massachusetts Historical Society dates the infant Louisa Catherine 1811 to 1812, while the Adams National Historical Park writes that she was born in August 1809 and lived a year. The chart follows the Society, since the family reached Russia only in October 1809.12 The same Society gives the wedding of Nabby as 12 June 1786 in one sketch and 11 June in another, so this page gives the month alone.1
Questions about the John Quincy Adams family tree
Who were the parents of John Quincy Adams
John Adams, the second President, and Abigail Smith Adams.
How many children John Quincy Adams had
Four children with Louisa Catherine Adams. Three sons lived to be adults, and only Charles Francis outlived his father.
People and sources
A page of its own lists all 16 people on the chart, each with a short note and the sources for it, and the six numbered sources this article cites. It also gives the credits of the portraits and this page as a reference in the APA, MLA, Chicago and Harvard styles, ready to copy.