Louisa (48 page)

Business was volatile
:
Price, “Introduction,”
Letterbook
; Jacob M. Price, “Joshua Johnson in London, 1771–1775: Credit and Commercial Organization in the British Chesapeake Trade,” in
Statesmen, Scholars, and Merchants: Essays in Eighteenth-Century History Presented to Dame Lucy Sutherland,
ed. Anne Whiteman, J. S. Bromley, and P. G. M. Dickson (Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1973), 155–59.

In 1773, he moved
:
JJ to the firm, November 6, 1771, November 29, 1773, in Price,
Letterbook.

Joshua and Catherine
:
Price, “Introduction,”
Letterbook.

The first reference
:
Heffron,
Louisa Catherine,
14.

After that, and without
:
Joan Challinor, “The Mis-Education of Catherine Johnson,”
Massachusetts Historical Society Proceedings
98 (1986): 24; JJ to Matthew Ridley, July 21, 1786, Letterbook, Peter Force Collection, LC.

Since he kept
:
For Martin Newth as a shoemaker, see
Gazetteer and London Daily Advertiser,
August 11, 1756; London
Public Advertiser
, October 23, 1776;
Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser
, November 7, 1776; and Old Bailey Proceedings Online, January 1730, trial of Richard Smith, www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 7.2, accessed May 7, 2015. Land tax records locate Martin Newth in Portsoken in 1769, around the corner from Tower Hill, and in Stepney between 1773 and 1781 (London, England, Land Tax Records, 1692–1932), London Metropolitan Archives, database online accessed through Ancestry.com. “Record of a Life,” DLCA 1:7.

So why did
:
“Record of a Life,” DLCA 1:20.

It is possible
:
Ibid., 3.

She invested it
:
Recuperating from their daughter Harriet's birth in 1781, Catherine dictated a letter to Joshua (“Mrs. Johnson's indisposition will prevent her from doing it herself”): “Inclosed we forward you an invoice . . . amounting to £502 which Mrs. Johnson [asks] you will please to receive & dispose of on her account, for bills or hard money
only
& remit the net proceeds immediately in good bills of exchange on Europe.” Other parcels, he added, would follow. (Heffron,
Louisa Catherine,
17.)

It is, of course
:
Stone,
The Family, Sex and Marriage in England 1500–1800,
609; E. A. Wrigley and R. S. Schofield,
Population History of England, 1541–1871
(New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 254, 266; Sarah M. S. Pearsall,
Atlantic Families: Lives and Letters in the Later Eighteenth Century
(Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2008), 48. Stone's evolutionary approach and handling of evidence has come under some criticism. For a sharp take, see Alan Macfarlane,
History and Theory, Studies in the Philosophy of History,
18 (1979), 103–26.

The ruse worked
:
Hanson's Laws of Maryland 1763–1784,
203:383, Archives of Maryland Online, http://aomol.msa.maryland.gov/000001/000203/html/ (accessed May 10, 2015).

And he seemed
:
JJ to Matthew Ridley, January 6, 1773, JJ to Ridley, November 3, 1773, and JJ to Denton Jacques, March 18, 1773, in Joshua Johnson Letterbook, 1771–74, Hall of Records, Maryland State Archives.

It would have been
:
Nancy Ridley to Matthew Ridley, October 20, 1778, Ridley Papers II, Massachusetts Historical Society.

Joshua Johnson and Catherine Newth
:
Challinor, “The Mis-Education of Catherine Johnson,” 24; Joshua Johnson and Catherine Newth, August 22, 1785, Saint Anne Soho, Westminster, Church of England Parish Registers, 1538–1812, London: London Metropolitan Archives, database online accessed through Ancestry.com.

Catherine had her own
:
Frances Huttson to Matthew Ridley, August 6, 1783, Ridley Letters II; William Cranch to AA, May 8, 1798, AA to JQA, May 15, 1800, AFP.

How much
:
JJ to John Jay, September 9, 1785, Joshua Johnson Letterbook, Peter Force Collection, LC.

“All families are not”
:
LCA to Abigail Brooks Adams, March 2, 1834, AFP.

Louisa's descendants in fact
:
Henry Adams to Charles Francis Adams Jr., July 12, 1900, Fourth Generation Adams Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society; Michael O'Brien,
Mrs. Adams in Winter: A Journey in the Last Days of Napoleon
(New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010), 76.

But Catherine Newth's
:
Catherine Newth baptismal record, May 25, 1749, St. Thomas the Apostle, Church of England Parish Registers, 1538–1812, London: London Metropolitan Archives, database online accessed through Ancestry.com. Martin Newth and Mary Young, February 13, 1728, St. Andrew Holborn, England Parish Registers, 1538–1812, London: London Metropolitan Archives, database online accessed through Ancestry.com. Examples of birth and burial records of children of Martin and Mary Newth include William Newth baptism, July 30, 1730, St. Botolph Aldersgate; William Newth burial, February 12, 1731; Mary Newth baptism, November 12, 1731, St. Botolph Aldersgate; Martin Newth baptism, February 19, 1737, St. Stephen, Coleman St.; John Newth baptism, December 23, 1739, St. Stephen, Coleman St.; Anne Newth baptism, July 2, 1742, St. Stephen, Coleman St.; Anne Newth burial, April 4, 1747, St. Thomas the Apostle, England Parish Registers, 1538–1812, London: London Metropolitan Archives, database online accessed through Ancestry.com.

Whatever Louisa discovered
:
“Record of a Life,” DLCA 1:19.

In his diary
:
DJQA, April 13, 15, 16, 18, 1796.

She admitted to him
:
O'Brien,
Mrs. Adams in Winter,
215.

Faced with an engagement
:
“Record of a Life,” DLCA 1:38
.

Louisa was devastated
:
Ibid., 43.

She did try, once
:
Ibid., 42–43.

They said goodbye
:
JQA to JA, June 6, 1796, in
Writings of John Quincy Adams
1:490; JQA to AA, June 30, 1796, AFP; DJQA, May 27, 1796.

So he went
:
“Record of a Life,” DLCA 1:43.

5

Their betrothal was
:
LCJ to JQA, July 4, 1796, AFP.

His first letter
:
JQA to LCJ, June 2, 1796, AFP.

Her memory did
:
“Record of a Life,” DLCA 1:44; LCJ to JQA, July 4, 1796, AFP.

It had been six years
:
LCJ to JQA, December 30, 1796, February 17, 1797, AFP.

She was determined
:
“Record of a Life,” DLCA 1:46.

There was no way
:
JQA to LCJ, July 9, 1796, LCJ to JQA, July 25, 1796, AFP.

The news shook him
:
JQA to LCJ, August 13, October 12, 1796, AFP.

“If possible teach”
:
LCJ to JQA, December 6, 1796, AFP.

She tried to convince
:
LCJ to JQA, September 30, December 30, 1796, AFP.

Meanwhile, John Quincy's parents
:
JQA to AA, November 17, 1795, AA to JQA, August 10, May 20, 1796, AFP.

John Quincy still blamed
:
JQA to AA, August 16, 1796, AFP.

The elder Adamses
:
Joseph J. Ellis,
Passionate Sage: The Character and Legacy of John Adams
(New York: W. W. Norton, 1993), 72–75; AA to JQA, August 10, 1796, AFP.

“A young lady”
:
JA to JQA, August 7, 1796, AFP.

6

Louisa grew desperate
:
LCJ to JQA, November 29, 1796, JQA to JJ, January 9, 1797, JQA to LCJ, January 10, 1797, AFP.

John Quincy did not
:
Price explores the volatility of JJ's first venture into the London market in “Joshua Johnson in London
,”
152–80.

Joshua had dark eyes
:
William Cranch to AA, May 8, 1798, AFP; Papenfuse,
In Pursuit of Profit
, 202–29.

His latest problem
:
JJ to John Trumbull, November 18, December 13, 1796, May 6, May 12, 1797, Trumbull Papers, MS 506, Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library.

John Quincy had some hint
:
JJ to JQA, November 29, 1796, AFP.

Whatever the truth
:
JQA to LCJ, January 10, 31, 1797, AFP.

She recoiled from
:
LCJ to JQA, January 31, 1797, AFP.

They engaged in
:
JQA to LCJ, February 12, January 31, 10, 1797, AFP.

She found his
:
LCJ to JQA, January 1, 1797, AFP.

They were at cross-purposes
:
JQA to LCJ, May 31, 1797, AFP. At the time, spouses generally addressed each other formally. See, for instance, JA on the subject in JA to Charles Adams, December 31, 1795, AFP. I am grateful to Amanda Norton for pointing out the letter.

“I am so miserably”
:
LCJ to JQA, December 30, 1796, AFP.

“I will freely confess”
:
JQA to LCJ, February 20, 1797, AFP.

They were pushed
:
LCJ to JQA, February 17, 1797, AFP.

On April 13, 1797
:
JQA to LCJ, April 13, 1797, AFP.

He gave Louisa
:
JQA to LCJ, May 12, 1797, AFP.

That she would be
:
JQA to LCJ, February 7, 1797, AFP.

7

John Quincy arrived
:
DJQA, July 13, 1797; “Record of a Life,” DLCA 1:47–48.

In fact, the wedding
:
JQA to JA, July 22, 1797, AFP.

Late mornings followed
:
DJQA, October 15, 1797.

Louisa was happy
:
“Record of a Life,” DLCA 1:50.

The celebrations for
:
Ibid.; DJQA, October 15, 1797.

Unknown to Louisa
:
“Record of a Life,” DLCA 1:52; DJQA, August 25, September 8, 1797.

The story she
:
“Record of a Life,” DLCA 1:50–52.

She had small
:
Taylor et al. v. Johnson et al.
, May 14, 1805,
Prerogative Court of Canterbury: Wills and Other Probate Records,
Kew, Surrey, England: PRO Publications;
Taylor v. Maitland
, bill and answer, 1806, C 13/71/37, the National Archives, Kew, England; JJ to Matthew Ridley, February 14, 1787, Joshua Johnson Letterbook, Peter Force Collection, LC.

The thought did cross
:
DJQA, October 9, 1797.

John Quincy loathed
:
Edmund S. Morgan, “Slavery and Freedom: The American Paradox,” in
The Confederate Experience Reader
, ed. John Derrick Fowler (New York: Routledge, 2007), 15–16; JQA to Charles Adams, August 1, 1797, Letterbook 9, AFP; David McCullough,
John Adams
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001), 548. The status of debt relief in the United States was a critical topic at the turn of the nineteenth century. See Bruce H. Mann,
Republic of Debtors: Bankruptcy in the Age of American Independence
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002).

To Louisa's humiliation
:
Frederick Delius to JQA, September 29, 1797, AFP; “Record of a Life,” DLCA 1:52.

John Quincy passed
:
JQA to JJ, October 11, 1797, AFP; “Record of a Life,” DLCA 1:52; JQA to JJ, October 11, 1797, JQA to Frederick Delius, September 10, 1797, Delius to JQA, January 18, 1797, AFP.

Years later, recounting
:
“Record of a Life,” DLCA 1:52.

There is little evidence
:
“Record of a Life,” DLCA 1:51–53.

Louisa saw her character
:
LCA to CFA, July 30, 1828, AFP.

The memory of her
:
“Adventures,” DLCA 1:77.

PART
TWO
:
LIFE
WAS
NEW