Per Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams' diaries as reproduced, with additional notes, in A Traveled First Lady, Margaret A. Hogan, et al, Harvard University Press, March 4, 2014, the chronological section notes that Louisa gave birth to a son on June 22, 1806, who "lived only a few hours", while other researchers record the infant as stillborn, but without supporting documentation.
Louisa had just walked "a long mile", in pain, in near one hundred degree heat, to her sister Harriet Johnson Boyd's home the day before, informed that her newborn was dying, and wishing to assist her, but arrived too late, the infant having already died. She rested, then walked home in the evening, her own labor beginning in the early hours of the next morning, noted as lasting a "very bad" twelve hours, attended by her mother, Catherine Young Nuth Johnson, and a nurse midwife. This had been her eighth pregnancy.
Few additional details have been found to date by this author, but the infant appears not to have been named. What is known is that Louisa was at this time living with her first cousin and brother-in-law, Walter Hellen Jr., in his townhouse on K Street in Georgetown. The John Quincy Adams family, John, Louisa, and at times their two sons had moved in with Walter's family in October of 1803 after John was elected to the senate. Walter's wife, Ann "Nancy" Johnson Hellen, was Louisa's older sister. The Adamses would continue to live with the Hellens when congress was in session until 1808, when John resigned from that body.
John Quincy Adams was not in Washington at the time of this child's birth, the Adams family usually spending summers at home in Massachusetts with John's parents, but largely due to the expense and hardship of travel at the time, the family was sometimes split. As Louisa was late in her pregnancy, she would certainly have not traveled. Other summaries of Louisa's diaries also note that John was absent at the births of two other of their offspring due his family and career demands. John had also been selected to the first Boylston professorship of rhetoric and oratory at Harvard and began his lectures there in the summer of 1806, that appearing to have been shortly before this birth.
Historian Paul C. Nagel in his book, Descent from Glory: Four Generations of the John Adams Family, 1983, also made mention of this birth and John Quincy's response upon learning of it: "When, in June 1806, Louisa gave birth in Washington to a baby that soon died, the news overpowered John Quincy in Boston. As soon as possible he went to his room "...and there yielded to the weakness which I had so long strove to conceal and restrain." It took several days "to subdue my feelings" and he wrote Louisa, "If the tears of affliction are unbecoming to a man, Heaven will at least accept those of gratitude from me for having preserved you to me."
Nagel also noted Louisa, upon a sufficient recovery from her ordeal, traveling north to be with John Quincy and her sons in Boston.
An additional record was found some years ago by researcher Paul Dickinson* in "William King's Mortality Books: Volume I, 1795 – 1832", a record of cabinetmaker William King of Georgetown noting over seven thousand caskets made, their date, and for whom.
In that book, a "mahogany coffin" was ordered on June 23, 1806, for "a child of John Quincy Adams", who placed the order not recorded, but almost certainly Walter Hellen.
No other birth, death, or burial records have been found. Given the time, the infant was most likely quickly buried somewhere in Washington, transport of the coffin back to Massachusetts in summer out of the question, although later reinternment may have been possible. There are no known records of that either, however.
It is speculated that he may have been buried in Rock Creek Cemetery, Walter Hellen then a member of the associated Saint Paul's Episcopal Church, he already owning a plot there where he had buried two of his own children by that time, and Walter noted as wealthy, generous, and John Quincy's "faithful friend". There are, however, again, no cemetery records found to support that speculation.
Louisa is recorded as having had a number of miscarriages during her marriage, this infant son, however, coming to full term, and interred, so is added here.
This memorial has been created, without full information, to both add to the story of the exceptional lives, too often tragic, of John and Louisa Adams, and to simply record this infant son, who would otherwise likely remain only a footnote in a small number of reference books.
Allan Garner - Rev: Aug 3, 2021.
__________________________________________________________________________________
There are numerous well researched biographies of John Quincy and Louisa Catherine Adams, plus several books containing diary entries of both, and those of their youngest son, Charles Francis Adams, all providing extensive personal accounts (or as later recounted) over decades. Extensive information may also be found on the Adamses online from the MA Historical Society. This author has not personally read or specifically researched all of these to date for this infant, so additional information may be available from portions of those, or other sources. As time permits, all those sources will be checked, and this memorial updated as required. In the interim, those contributors who may find additional information may contact me with that, and their source documentation, if wishing to modify this memorial.
As of July 2021, an updated map has been attached to this memorial, and showing the purported location of the Hellen townhome, per Paul Nagel and one doctoral dissertation on John Quincy Adams, per all related research, appearing correct. Although east of Rock Creek, this was still considered Georgetown.
* Many thanks to Paul for sharing this information, without which little would be known of this infant, seemingly overlooked by most researchers.
And also my thanks to contributor Donna for her generous sponsorship of this memorial.
Louisa had just walked "a long mile", in pain, in near one hundred degree heat, to her sister Harriet Johnson Boyd's home the day before, informed that her newborn was dying, and wishing to assist her, but arrived too late, the infant having already died. She rested, then walked home in the evening, her own labor beginning in the early hours of the next morning, noted as lasting a "very bad" twelve hours, attended by her mother, Catherine Young Nuth Johnson, and a nurse midwife. This had been her eighth pregnancy.
Few additional details have been found to date by this author, but the infant appears not to have been named. What is known is that Louisa was at this time living with her first cousin and brother-in-law, Walter Hellen Jr., in his townhouse on K Street in Georgetown. The John Quincy Adams family, John, Louisa, and at times their two sons had moved in with Walter's family in October of 1803 after John was elected to the senate. Walter's wife, Ann "Nancy" Johnson Hellen, was Louisa's older sister. The Adamses would continue to live with the Hellens when congress was in session until 1808, when John resigned from that body.
John Quincy Adams was not in Washington at the time of this child's birth, the Adams family usually spending summers at home in Massachusetts with John's parents, but largely due to the expense and hardship of travel at the time, the family was sometimes split. As Louisa was late in her pregnancy, she would certainly have not traveled. Other summaries of Louisa's diaries also note that John was absent at the births of two other of their offspring due his family and career demands. John had also been selected to the first Boylston professorship of rhetoric and oratory at Harvard and began his lectures there in the summer of 1806, that appearing to have been shortly before this birth.
Historian Paul C. Nagel in his book, Descent from Glory: Four Generations of the John Adams Family, 1983, also made mention of this birth and John Quincy's response upon learning of it: "When, in June 1806, Louisa gave birth in Washington to a baby that soon died, the news overpowered John Quincy in Boston. As soon as possible he went to his room "...and there yielded to the weakness which I had so long strove to conceal and restrain." It took several days "to subdue my feelings" and he wrote Louisa, "If the tears of affliction are unbecoming to a man, Heaven will at least accept those of gratitude from me for having preserved you to me."
Nagel also noted Louisa, upon a sufficient recovery from her ordeal, traveling north to be with John Quincy and her sons in Boston.
An additional record was found some years ago by researcher Paul Dickinson* in "William King's Mortality Books: Volume I, 1795 – 1832", a record of cabinetmaker William King of Georgetown noting over seven thousand caskets made, their date, and for whom.
In that book, a "mahogany coffin" was ordered on June 23, 1806, for "a child of John Quincy Adams", who placed the order not recorded, but almost certainly Walter Hellen.
No other birth, death, or burial records have been found. Given the time, the infant was most likely quickly buried somewhere in Washington, transport of the coffin back to Massachusetts in summer out of the question, although later reinternment may have been possible. There are no known records of that either, however.
It is speculated that he may have been buried in Rock Creek Cemetery, Walter Hellen then a member of the associated Saint Paul's Episcopal Church, he already owning a plot there where he had buried two of his own children by that time, and Walter noted as wealthy, generous, and John Quincy's "faithful friend". There are, however, again, no cemetery records found to support that speculation.
Louisa is recorded as having had a number of miscarriages during her marriage, this infant son, however, coming to full term, and interred, so is added here.
This memorial has been created, without full information, to both add to the story of the exceptional lives, too often tragic, of John and Louisa Adams, and to simply record this infant son, who would otherwise likely remain only a footnote in a small number of reference books.
Allan Garner - Rev: Aug 3, 2021.
__________________________________________________________________________________
There are numerous well researched biographies of John Quincy and Louisa Catherine Adams, plus several books containing diary entries of both, and those of their youngest son, Charles Francis Adams, all providing extensive personal accounts (or as later recounted) over decades. Extensive information may also be found on the Adamses online from the MA Historical Society. This author has not personally read or specifically researched all of these to date for this infant, so additional information may be available from portions of those, or other sources. As time permits, all those sources will be checked, and this memorial updated as required. In the interim, those contributors who may find additional information may contact me with that, and their source documentation, if wishing to modify this memorial.
As of July 2021, an updated map has been attached to this memorial, and showing the purported location of the Hellen townhome, per Paul Nagel and one doctoral dissertation on John Quincy Adams, per all related research, appearing correct. Although east of Rock Creek, this was still considered Georgetown.
* Many thanks to Paul for sharing this information, without which little would be known of this infant, seemingly overlooked by most researchers.
And also my thanks to contributor Donna for her generous sponsorship of this memorial.
Per Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams' diaries as reproduced, with additional notes, in A Traveled First Lady, Margaret A. Hogan, et al, Harvard University Press, March 4, 2014, the chronological section notes that Louisa gave birth to a son on June 22, 1806, who "lived only a few hours", while other researchers record the infant as stillborn, but without supporting documentation.
Louisa had just walked "a long mile", in pain, in near one hundred degree heat, to her sister Harriet Johnson Boyd's home the day before, informed that her newborn was dying, and wishing to assist her, but arrived too late, the infant having already died. She rested, then walked home in the evening, her own labor beginning in the early hours of the next morning, noted as lasting a "very bad" twelve hours, attended by her mother, Catherine Young Nuth Johnson, and a nurse midwife. This had been her eighth pregnancy.
Few additional details have been found to date by this author, but the infant appears not to have been named. What is known is that Louisa was at this time living with her first cousin and brother-in-law, Walter Hellen Jr., in his townhouse on K Street in Georgetown. The John Quincy Adams family, John, Louisa, and at times their two sons had moved in with Walter's family in October of 1803 after John was elected to the senate. Walter's wife, Ann "Nancy" Johnson Hellen, was Louisa's older sister. The Adamses would continue to live with the Hellens when congress was in session until 1808, when John resigned from that body.
John Quincy Adams was not in Washington at the time of this child's birth, the Adams family usually spending summers at home in Massachusetts with John's parents, but largely due to the expense and hardship of travel at the time, the family was sometimes split. As Louisa was late in her pregnancy, she would certainly have not traveled. Other summaries of Louisa's diaries also note that John was absent at the births of two other of their offspring due his family and career demands. John had also been selected to the first Boylston professorship of rhetoric and oratory at Harvard and began his lectures there in the summer of 1806, that appearing to have been shortly before this birth.
Historian Paul C. Nagel in his book, Descent from Glory: Four Generations of the John Adams Family, 1983, also made mention of this birth and John Quincy's response upon learning of it: "When, in June 1806, Louisa gave birth in Washington to a baby that soon died, the news overpowered John Quincy in Boston. As soon as possible he went to his room "...and there yielded to the weakness which I had so long strove to conceal and restrain." It took several days "to subdue my feelings" and he wrote Louisa, "If the tears of affliction are unbecoming to a man, Heaven will at least accept those of gratitude from me for having preserved you to me."
Nagel also noted Louisa, upon a sufficient recovery from her ordeal, traveling north to be with John Quincy and her sons in Boston.
An additional record was found some years ago by researcher Paul Dickinson* in "William King's Mortality Books: Volume I, 1795 – 1832", a record of cabinetmaker William King of Georgetown noting over seven thousand caskets made, their date, and for whom.
In that book, a "mahogany coffin" was ordered on June 23, 1806, for "a child of John Quincy Adams", who placed the order not recorded, but almost certainly Walter Hellen.
No other birth, death, or burial records have been found. Given the time, the infant was most likely quickly buried somewhere in Washington, transport of the coffin back to Massachusetts in summer out of the question, although later reinternment may have been possible. There are no known records of that either, however.
It is speculated that he may have been buried in Rock Creek Cemetery, Walter Hellen then a member of the associated Saint Paul's Episcopal Church, he already owning a plot there where he had buried two of his own children by that time, and Walter noted as wealthy, generous, and John Quincy's "faithful friend". There are, however, again, no cemetery records found to support that speculation.
Louisa is recorded as having had a number of miscarriages during her marriage, this infant son, however, coming to full term, and interred, so is added here.
This memorial has been created, without full information, to both add to the story of the exceptional lives, too often tragic, of John and Louisa Adams, and to simply record this infant son, who would otherwise likely remain only a footnote in a small number of reference books.
Allan Garner - Rev: Aug 3, 2021.
__________________________________________________________________________________
There are numerous well researched biographies of John Quincy and Louisa Catherine Adams, plus several books containing diary entries of both, and those of their youngest son, Charles Francis Adams, all providing extensive personal accounts (or as later recounted) over decades. Extensive information may also be found on the Adamses online from the MA Historical Society. This author has not personally read or specifically researched all of these to date for this infant, so additional information may be available from portions of those, or other sources. As time permits, all those sources will be checked, and this memorial updated as required. In the interim, those contributors who may find additional information may contact me with that, and their source documentation, if wishing to modify this memorial.
As of July 2021, an updated map has been attached to this memorial, and showing the purported location of the Hellen townhome, per Paul Nagel and one doctoral dissertation on John Quincy Adams, per all related research, appearing correct. Although east of Rock Creek, this was still considered Georgetown.
* Many thanks to Paul for sharing this information, without which little would be known of this infant, seemingly overlooked by most researchers.
And also my thanks to contributor Donna for her generous sponsorship of this memorial.
Louisa had just walked "a long mile", in pain, in near one hundred degree heat, to her sister Harriet Johnson Boyd's home the day before, informed that her newborn was dying, and wishing to assist her, but arrived too late, the infant having already died. She rested, then walked home in the evening, her own labor beginning in the early hours of the next morning, noted as lasting a "very bad" twelve hours, attended by her mother, Catherine Young Nuth Johnson, and a nurse midwife. This had been her eighth pregnancy.
Few additional details have been found to date by this author, but the infant appears not to have been named. What is known is that Louisa was at this time living with her first cousin and brother-in-law, Walter Hellen Jr., in his townhouse on K Street in Georgetown. The John Quincy Adams family, John, Louisa, and at times their two sons had moved in with Walter's family in October of 1803 after John was elected to the senate. Walter's wife, Ann "Nancy" Johnson Hellen, was Louisa's older sister. The Adamses would continue to live with the Hellens when congress was in session until 1808, when John resigned from that body.
John Quincy Adams was not in Washington at the time of this child's birth, the Adams family usually spending summers at home in Massachusetts with John's parents, but largely due to the expense and hardship of travel at the time, the family was sometimes split. As Louisa was late in her pregnancy, she would certainly have not traveled. Other summaries of Louisa's diaries also note that John was absent at the births of two other of their offspring due his family and career demands. John had also been selected to the first Boylston professorship of rhetoric and oratory at Harvard and began his lectures there in the summer of 1806, that appearing to have been shortly before this birth.
Historian Paul C. Nagel in his book, Descent from Glory: Four Generations of the John Adams Family, 1983, also made mention of this birth and John Quincy's response upon learning of it: "When, in June 1806, Louisa gave birth in Washington to a baby that soon died, the news overpowered John Quincy in Boston. As soon as possible he went to his room "...and there yielded to the weakness which I had so long strove to conceal and restrain." It took several days "to subdue my feelings" and he wrote Louisa, "If the tears of affliction are unbecoming to a man, Heaven will at least accept those of gratitude from me for having preserved you to me."
Nagel also noted Louisa, upon a sufficient recovery from her ordeal, traveling north to be with John Quincy and her sons in Boston.
An additional record was found some years ago by researcher Paul Dickinson* in "William King's Mortality Books: Volume I, 1795 – 1832", a record of cabinetmaker William King of Georgetown noting over seven thousand caskets made, their date, and for whom.
In that book, a "mahogany coffin" was ordered on June 23, 1806, for "a child of John Quincy Adams", who placed the order not recorded, but almost certainly Walter Hellen.
No other birth, death, or burial records have been found. Given the time, the infant was most likely quickly buried somewhere in Washington, transport of the coffin back to Massachusetts in summer out of the question, although later reinternment may have been possible. There are no known records of that either, however.
It is speculated that he may have been buried in Rock Creek Cemetery, Walter Hellen then a member of the associated Saint Paul's Episcopal Church, he already owning a plot there where he had buried two of his own children by that time, and Walter noted as wealthy, generous, and John Quincy's "faithful friend". There are, however, again, no cemetery records found to support that speculation.
Louisa is recorded as having had a number of miscarriages during her marriage, this infant son, however, coming to full term, and interred, so is added here.
This memorial has been created, without full information, to both add to the story of the exceptional lives, too often tragic, of John and Louisa Adams, and to simply record this infant son, who would otherwise likely remain only a footnote in a small number of reference books.
Allan Garner - Rev: Aug 3, 2021.
__________________________________________________________________________________
There are numerous well researched biographies of John Quincy and Louisa Catherine Adams, plus several books containing diary entries of both, and those of their youngest son, Charles Francis Adams, all providing extensive personal accounts (or as later recounted) over decades. Extensive information may also be found on the Adamses online from the MA Historical Society. This author has not personally read or specifically researched all of these to date for this infant, so additional information may be available from portions of those, or other sources. As time permits, all those sources will be checked, and this memorial updated as required. In the interim, those contributors who may find additional information may contact me with that, and their source documentation, if wishing to modify this memorial.
As of July 2021, an updated map has been attached to this memorial, and showing the purported location of the Hellen townhome, per Paul Nagel and one doctoral dissertation on John Quincy Adams, per all related research, appearing correct. Although east of Rock Creek, this was still considered Georgetown.
* Many thanks to Paul for sharing this information, without which little would be known of this infant, seemingly overlooked by most researchers.
And also my thanks to contributor Donna for her generous sponsorship of this memorial.
