LOUISA ADAMS
Name: Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams
Born: February 12, 1775
Died: May 15, 1852
Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, born Louisa Catherine Johnson (February 12, 1775
- May 15, 1852), wife of John Quincy Adams, was First Lady of the United States
from 1825 to 1829.
She was born in London to an English mother, Catherine Nuth Johnson, but her
father was American, Joshua Johnson of Maryland who served as United States
consulate general in London after 1790. She had a sister, Caroline, and a
brother, Thomas. Louisa Adams is to date the only foreign-born First Lady. She
was the daughter-in-law of John Adams, the second president of the U.S., and
Abigail Adams, second first lady.
A career diplomat at twenty-seven, accredited to the Netherlands, John Quincy
Adams developed his interest in nineteen-year-old Louisa when they met in London
in 1794. Three years later they were married in All Hallows-by-the-Tower, and
went to Berlin, Prussia, in course of duty. A citizen by birth, she arrived in
the United States for the first time in 1801. Then began years divided among the
family home in Quincy, Massachusetts, their house in Boston, and a political
home in Washington, D.C.
She left her two older sons in Massachusetts for education in 1809 when she took
two-year-old Charles Francis Adams to Russia, where Adams served as a Minister.
Despite the glamour of the tsar's court, she had to struggle with cold winters,
strange customs, limited funds, and poor health; an infant daughter born in 1811
died the next year.
Peace negotiations called Adams to Ghent in 1814 and then to London. To join him,
Louisa had to make a forty-day journey across war-ravaged Europe by coach in
winter; roving bands of stragglers and highwaymen filled her with "unspeakable
terrors" for her son. Happily, the next two years gave her an interlude of
family life in the country of her birth.
When John Quincy Adams was appointed James Monroe's U.S. Secretary of State the
family moved to Washington, D.C., in 1817 where Louisa's drawing room became a
center for the diplomatic corps and other notables. Music enhanced her Tuesday
evenings at home, and theater parties contributed to her reputation as an
outstanding hostess.
The pleasures of moving into the White House in 1825 were dimmed by the bitter
politics of the election, paired with her deep depression. Though she continued
her weekly "drawing rooms", she preferred quiet evenings of reading, composing
music and verse, and playing her harp. The necessary entertainments were always
elegant, however; and her cordial hospitality made the last official reception a
gracious occasion although her husband had lost his bid for re-election and
partisan feeling still ran high.
In his diary for June 23, 1828, her husband records her "winding silk from
several hundred silkworms that she has been rearing", evidently in the White
House. Diary (New York: Longmans, Green, 1929) p. 380.
Louisa thought she was retiring to Massachusetts permanently, but in 1831 her
husband began seventeen years of service in the United States House of
Representatives. The Adamses could look back on a secure happiness as well as
many trials when they celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary at Quincy in
1847.
Her husband died at the U.S. Capitol in 1848; she died in Washington in 1852,
aged 77, and today lies buried at his side, as well as President John Adams and
first lady Abigail Adams, in the United First Parish Church in Quincy,
Massachusetts (also known as the Church of the Presidents).
Name: Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams
Born: February 12, 1775
Died: May 15, 1852
Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, born Louisa Catherine Johnson (February 12, 1775
- May 15, 1852), wife of John Quincy Adams, was First Lady of the United States
from 1825 to 1829.
She was born in London to an English mother, Catherine Nuth Johnson, but her
father was American, Joshua Johnson of Maryland who served as United States
consulate general in London after 1790. She had a sister, Caroline, and a
brother, Thomas. Louisa Adams is to date the only foreign-born First Lady. She
was the daughter-in-law of John Adams, the second president of the U.S., and
Abigail Adams, second first lady.
A career diplomat at twenty-seven, accredited to the Netherlands, John Quincy
Adams developed his interest in nineteen-year-old Louisa when they met in London
in 1794. Three years later they were married in All Hallows-by-the-Tower, and
went to Berlin, Prussia, in course of duty. A citizen by birth, she arrived in
the United States for the first time in 1801. Then began years divided among the
family home in Quincy, Massachusetts, their house in Boston, and a political
home in Washington, D.C.
She left her two older sons in Massachusetts for education in 1809 when she took
two-year-old Charles Francis Adams to Russia, where Adams served as a Minister.
Despite the glamour of the tsar's court, she had to struggle with cold winters,
strange customs, limited funds, and poor health; an infant daughter born in 1811
died the next year.
Peace negotiations called Adams to Ghent in 1814 and then to London. To join him,
Louisa had to make a forty-day journey across war-ravaged Europe by coach in
winter; roving bands of stragglers and highwaymen filled her with "unspeakable
terrors" for her son. Happily, the next two years gave her an interlude of
family life in the country of her birth.
When John Quincy Adams was appointed James Monroe's U.S. Secretary of State the
family moved to Washington, D.C., in 1817 where Louisa's drawing room became a
center for the diplomatic corps and other notables. Music enhanced her Tuesday
evenings at home, and theater parties contributed to her reputation as an
outstanding hostess.
The pleasures of moving into the White House in 1825 were dimmed by the bitter
politics of the election, paired with her deep depression. Though she continued
her weekly "drawing rooms", she preferred quiet evenings of reading, composing
music and verse, and playing her harp. The necessary entertainments were always
elegant, however; and her cordial hospitality made the last official reception a
gracious occasion although her husband had lost his bid for re-election and
partisan feeling still ran high.
In his diary for June 23, 1828, her husband records her "winding silk from
several hundred silkworms that she has been rearing", evidently in the White
House. Diary (New York: Longmans, Green, 1929) p. 380.
Louisa thought she was retiring to Massachusetts permanently, but in 1831 her
husband began seventeen years of service in the United States House of
Representatives. The Adamses could look back on a secure happiness as well as
many trials when they celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary at Quincy in
1847.
Her husband died at the U.S. Capitol in 1848; she died in Washington in 1852,
aged 77, and today lies buried at his side, as well as President John Adams and
first lady Abigail Adams, in the United First Parish Church in Quincy,
Massachusetts (also known as the Church of the Presidents).