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- !She is the granddaughter of Colonel John Quincy.
Note: - Information from James Thompson via Prodigy indicates she had 4children with William Stephens Smith. (ADA048)- Sailed with daughter,Abigail, to Europe on 20 June 1784 on the ship "Active." ("The AdamsChronicles," pg. 114).
!Amer. Desc. of Henry LUCE of Martha's Vineyard-pg. 1821-A - Abigail SMITH and Pres John ADAMS were 3rd Cousins.
Abigail Smith (1764-1818); was a third cousin to her husband, John Adams. They are both great-great grandchildren of Thomas Boylston. Historians do not know if they were aware of this fact when they were married. See the portrait of First Lady Abigail (Smith) Adams, by Gilbert Stuart. Abigail was the first First Lady to occupy the White House. Wife of John Adams, second president of the United States, and mother of John Quincy Adams, the sixth president. She was born in Weymouth, Massachusetts, the daughter of the Reverend William Smith, minister of the Congregational church there. Through her mother, Elizabeth Quincy (1721-75), she was descended from the 17th-century Puritan preacher Thomas Shepard (1605-49) of Cambridge. Although she had little formal education, she was among the most influential women of her day, especially as a fashion leader and social arbiter. During and after the American Revolution she was separated for long periods of time from her husband, who was first a delegate to Congress and later a diplomat in Europe. Her letters to him present a vivid picture of the time. After 1800 she lived in Washington, D.C., and thereafter in Braintree, Massachusetts. The Familiar Letters of John Adams and His Wife, Abigail (2 volumes, 1876), published with a memoir by their grandson, Charles Francis Adams, and later collections of her letters show that she was perceptive, sagacious, warmhearted, and generous.
Notes handwritten by Margaret Elizabeth (Olive May Wiley) Gunn Leonard: Abigail Smith of Weymouth, Mass. Mother was a Quincy, her father was a minister and taught a sickly Abigair the basices at home. She read thru her father's library and then larger library of Grandfather Quincy. At 20 married John Adams, farmer, lawyer and lived on his Braintree farm south of Boston.Ran John's law office and the farm and reared 4 children while John was working for his country. Two other children died when infants. Sometimes did not see John for years when he was sent abroad on diplomatic missions. John became 1st Ambassador to Great Brittain, then V. Pres. and in 1797 the 2nd president of the U.S. She lived to see her son John Quincy Adams become Secy. of State, but died before he became our sixth president. Excerpt from newspaper (name unknown) clipping: Abigail Adams John Quincy Adams said his mother was an angel upon the earth. She a minister of blessings to all within her sphere of action. Her heart was the abode of heavenly purity. She had no feelings but of kindness and beneficence, yet her mind was as firm as her temper was mild and gentle. She had known sorrow but her sorrow was silent. Had she lived to the age of the patriarchs, evry day of her life would have been filled with clouds of goodness and of love. Additional notes written by MGL, appear to have been taken from some published work: Abigail Adams by Ewing Stone 1. Abigair Smith daughter of Pastor at 17 she became friend of John Adams. Married when she was 19, he was 28. "Sometimes I think the bottom of me is more important than the top." At 19 married. 1. Abigail; 2. John Quincy; 3. Charles; 4. Tommy; 5. Susanne (died 1 year old). Reared as delicate, but she became strong when "I married John Adams I had to be." He was in France 9 months with 2 boys and never wrote Abigail a word.
!New Eng Gen Vol I,Fam Grp Sh by Maj George Wallace Hanks, Salt Lake City. Also info from Encyclopedia of Biography for Mass,p179 daug of William and Elizabeth Quincy Smith.
Notes for Abigail Smith: Biography: Inheriting New England's strongest traditions, Abigail Smith was born in 1744 at Weymouth, Massachusetts. 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 Massach usetts 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. Abigail died in 1818, and is buried beside her husband in United First Parish Church. She leaves her country a most remarkable record as patriot and First Lady, wife of one President and mother of another.
BIRTH: Also shown as Born 22 Nov 1744
DEATH: Also shown as Died Quincy, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States.
BURIAL: Also shown as Buried United First Parish Church Cemetery, Quincy, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States.
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1744 - 1818 (73 years)