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Abigail Smith

Abigail Smith

Female 1744 - 1818  (73 years)    Has more than 100 ancestors and 47 descendants in this family tree.

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  • Name Abigail Smith 
    Birth 22 Nov 1744  Weymouth, Norfolk, Massachusetts, USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Female 
    Death 28 Oct 1818  Quincy, Norfolk Co. Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Burial United First Parish Church Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Person ID I74738  Geneagraphie
    Last Modified 29 Aug 2000 

    Father Rev. William Smith,   b. 1706-1707   d. 1783 (Age 76 years) 
    Mother Elizabeth Quincy   d. 1775 
    Family ID F30478  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family 2nd President John Adams,   b. 30 Oct 1735, Quincy, Norfolk Co. Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 4 Jul 1826, Quincy, Norfolk Co. Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 90 years) 
    Marriage 25 Oct 1764  Weymouth, Norfolk, Massachusetts, USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Children 
     1. Abigail Adams,   b. 14 Jul 1765, Quincy, Norfolk Co. Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 10 Jun 1816, Lebanon, New York, USA Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 50 years)
    +2. 6th President John Quincy Adams,   b. 11 Jul 1767, Braintree, Middlesex, Massachusetts, USA Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 23 Feb 1848, Speaker's Room, Congress, Washington, District of Columbia, USA Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 80 years)
     3. Susanna Adams,   b. 28 Dec 1768, Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, USA Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 4 Feb 1770, Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, USA Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 1 year)
    +4. Charles Adams,   b. 29 May 1770, Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, USA Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 30 Nov 1800, New York, New York, USA Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 30 years)
    +5. Thomas Boylston Adams,   b. 15 Sep 1772, Quincy, Norfolk Co. Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 13 Mar 1832 (Age 59 years)
    Family ID F30382  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 29 Aug 2000 

  • Notes 
    • On her mother's side she was descended from the Quincys, a family of great prestige in the colony; her father and other forebearers were Congregational ministers, leaders in a society that held its clergy in high esteem.
      Like other women of the time, Abigail lacked formal education; but her curiosity spurred her keen intelligence, and she read avidly the books at hand. Reading created a bond between her and young John Adams, Harvard graduate launched on a career in law, and they were married in 1764. It was a marriage of the mind and of the heart, enduring for more than half a century, enriched by time.
      The young couple lived on John's small farm at Braintree or in Boston as his practice expanded. In ten years she bore three sons and two daughters; she looked after family and home when he went traveling as circuit judge. "Alas!" she wrote in December 1773, "How many snow banks divide thee and me...."
      Long separations kept Abigail from her husband while he served the country they loved, as delegate to the Continental Congress, envoy abroad, elected officer under the Constitution. Her letters--pungent, witty, and vivid, spelled just as she spoke--detail her life in times of revolution. They tell the story of the woman who stayed at home to struggle with wartime shortages and inflation; to run the farm with a minimum of help; to teach four children when formal education was interrupted. Most of all, they tell of her loneliness without her "dearest Friend." The "one single expression," she said, "dwelt upon my mind and played about my Heart...."
      In 1784, she joined him at his diplomatic post in Paris, and observed with interest the manners of the French. After 1785, she filled the difficult role of wife of the first United States Minister to Great Britain, and did so with dignity and tact. They returned happily in 1788 to Massachusetts and the handsome house they had just acquired in Braintree, later called Quincy, home for the rest of their lives.
      As wife of the first Vice President, Abigail became a good friend to Mrs. Washington and a valued help in official entertaining, drawing on her experience of courts and society abroad. After 1791, however, poor health forced her to spend as much time as possible in Quincy. Illness or trouble found her resolute; as she once declared, she would "not forget the blessings which sweeten life."
      When John Adams was elected President, she continued a formal pattern of entertaining--even in the primitive conditions she found at the new capital in November 1800. The city was wilderness, the President's House far from completion. Her private complaints to her family provide blunt accounts of both, but for her three months in Washington she duly held her dinners and receptions.
      The Adamses retired to Quincy in 1801, and for 17 years enjoyed the companionship that public life had long denied them.



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