DAYBOOK OF THOMAS BOYLSTON ADAMS FOR THE YEAR 1801

Adams, Thomas Boylston (1772-1832)

About this Item

Small red leather wallet-style copy of "The Gentleman's Annual Pocket Remembrancer, for the Year 1801," published in Philadelphia: printed by John Bioren, for William Y. Birch, nd (ca.1800). Leather a bit rubbed, flap intact. The Remembrancer contains, in addition to the printed text, some "ruled pages for memorandums, observations, and engagements." Thomas Boylston Adams, third son and youngest child of President John Adams (1735-1826) and his wife Abigail (1744-1818), has used these calendar style pages to record brief entries in pencil regarding his law practice, financial transactions with various individuals, travels, subscriptions, and notations of letters to family members. Adams served as secretary to his brother John Quincy Adams during his first diplomatic mission to Europe from 1794-1798, returning to Philadelphia to practice law at the end of that time. His short entries for the year 1801, averaging nine or ten brief notes a month, give an overall outline of his life in Philadelphia as a young lawyer attempting to establish himself in the profession. Stray notes in the early pages of the Remembrancer record Thomas Boylston Adams' contracts with Mrs. Baker and M. Roberts "to wash for me," also a few cases he was likely working on, Wm. Coates vs. John Price, Wm. Woodward vs. Thomas Hood, etc. Adams pens a short 70 word essay on one early blank page regarding the authorship of a biography of Henderson, whom Adams says is one Joseph Cottle: "a literary Bookseller at Bristol. The article is to be found in a scarce volume of his Miscellanies and is evidently dictated by the enthusiasm of Friendship. For other accounts state that H. was an idler and a drunkard. In palliation of a vice which destroyed his life, it is said, his ebriety was occasioned by sharp misfortune & hope deferred." [Cottle (1770-1853) was an English bookseller and publisher of Coleridge, Southey and Wordsworth, and author of a biography of his tutor Richard Henderson, who had advised him to go into the book business]. Adams' first calendar entry is on Jan. 3, 1801, where he records a $100 deposit to BNA. On Jan. 10, he pays his board of $18, and on Jan. 17 mentions he has sent No. 23 to J.Q. Adams per the 3 Friends. On Feb. 1, No. 24 went to JQA, via the Brig Venus. [Thomas Boylston Adams numbered his letters, as noted here, and available copies of his correspondence corroborate many of the brief entries in this daybook.] Examples of other entries include: Feb. 22- "paid Mrs. Roberts $12. Set out for NY." Feb. 25- "Arrived dined at Col. Smith's." Feb. 26- "dined Mr. Malcom." On March 7 he reports that Mr. Reed paid him $900, and he deposited a portion in BNA. He also notes that his father arrived that day. [John Adams was en route to Quincy, Massachusetts, having been defeated for re-election. He left Washington on March 4 when Thomas Jefferson was sworn in as the next President of the United States.] Thomas also records his first fencing lesson with [Jean Baptiste] Lemaire on March 19. On April 21, he says he has subscribed to the Post Folio for Mrs. A. Smith. Thomas was involved in the creation and editing of this national magazine begun in January 1801 by Joseph Dennie, who published it under the pseudonym 'Oliver Oldschool.' Adams actively recruited subscribers and helped obtain John Quincy Adams' "Journal of a Tour Through Silesia" for serial publication in the magazine. In May, Adams says he took possession of his new office and changed his lodgings. [Available letters show he moved to "a pleasant part of Walnut Street, nearly opposite to Dr. Rush."] He spent a portion of July visiting family in Quincy, and from August 6-9, attended the trial of Jason Fairbanks in Dedham. [Fairbanks was tried and sentenced to hang for the murder of his girlfriend Elizabeth Fales.] Throughout the fall Adams records various financial transactions and legal cases he is working on. In late November he ships some chairs and a box of books to Boston, via the Polly J. Seller Inventory # 61467

Bibliographic Details

Title: DAYBOOK OF THOMAS BOYLSTON ADAMS FOR THE ...

Binding: Soft cover