Louisa Adams

Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams (née Johnson; February 12, 1775 – May 15, 1852), wife of John Quincy Adams, was First Lady of the United States from 1825 to 1829. She is the only First Lady born outside of the United States.

Early life

Born Louisa Catherine Johnson on February 12, 1775, in London, she was the daughter of Catherine Nuth Johnson, an Englishwoman and Joshua Johnson, an American merchant whose brother Thomas Johnson later served as Governor of Maryland and United States Supreme Court Justice. Joshua Johnson was originally from Maryland. She had six sisters: Ann, Caroline, Harriet, Catherine, Elizabeth, and Adelaide, and a brother, Thomas. She grew up in London and Nantes, France, where the family took refuge during the American Revolution.

Marriage and children

She met John Quincy Adams at her father's house in Cooper's Row, near Tower Hill, London. Her father had been appointed as United States consul general in 1790, and Adams first visited him in November 1795. Adams at first showed interest in her older sister but soon settled on Louisa. Adams, aged 30, married Louisa, aged 22, on July 26, 1797, at the parish church of All Hallows-by-the-Tower, Barking in Barking. Adams's father, John Adams, then President of the United States, overcame his initial objections to his son marrying a person born in another country and eventually welcomed his daughter-in-law into the family, although they did not meet for several years.

First Lady

First Lady is an unofficial title used for the wife or hostess of a non-monarchical head of state or chief executive. The term is also used to describe a woman seen to be at the top of her profession or art. Collectively, the President of the United States and his spouse are known as the First Couple and, if they have a family, they are usually referred to as the First Family.

The term is sometimes used, particularly in the US, to refer to the spouse of other non-monarchical heads of state, even if they do not have that style in their own country. Some other countries have a title, formal or informal, that is or can be translated as first lady. The title is not normally used for the wife of a head of government who is not also head of state. It is sometimes employed for the wife of a prime minister; an incorrect usage, as prime ministers do not precede the head of state.

The term in the United States is also used to refer to wives of governors and, less formally, to wives of college and university presidents. It has even been used in reference to female spouses of men who were chairmen of major corporations. There has not yet been a female US president, but the term "First Gentleman" is used in the United States for the husband of a governor.

Adams

Adams may refer to:

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John Quincy

Colonel John Quincy (21 July 1689 – 13 July 1767) was an American soldier, politician and member of the Quincy political family. His granddaughter Abigail Adams named her son, John Quincy Adams, after him. The city of Quincy, Massachusetts is named after him.

Biography

John Quincy was born in Boston, Massachusetts to Daniel and Anna (née Shepard) Quincy. Shortly after his birth, the family moved to Braintree, Massachusetts and established a homestead at Mount Wollaston, or Merry Mount, in what is present-day Quincy. Daniel died when John was one year old; his mother subsequently married the Reverend Moses Fiske.

Quincy attended Harvard College, graduating in 1708. He married Elizabeth Norton, daughter of the Reverend John Norton of Hingham, on 3 September 1715. Although officially only achieving the rank of major in the British army, he was commonly referred to as "Colonel".

In 1717, he was elected to represent Braintree at the Massachusetts General Court, was re-elected in 1719, and served in that capacity until 1740. From 1729 to 1741, he served as the Speaker of the House. In 1741, Quincy was voted out of office, but was returned there in 1744, where he served four additional years. He died on 13 July 1767 at the age of 77, only two days after the birth of his namesake, John Quincy Adams.

John Quincy Adams

John Quincy Adams (ⁱ/ˈkwɪnzi/; July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was an American statesman who served as the sixth President of the United States from 1825 to 1829. He also served as a diplomat, a Senator and member of the House of Representatives. He was a member of the Federalist, Democratic-Republican, National Republican, and later Anti-Masonic and Whig parties.

In his biography, Samuel Flagg Bemis argues that Adams was able to "gather together, formulate, and practice the fundamentals of American foreign-policy – self-determination, independence, noncolonization, nonintervention, nonentanglement in European politics, Freedom of the Seas, [and] freedom of commerce."

John Quincy Adams was the son of President John Adams and Abigail Adams. As a diplomat, Adams played an important role in negotiating key treaties, most notably the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the War of 1812. As Secretary of State, he negotiated with Britain over the United States' northern border with Canada, negotiated with Spain the annexation of Florida, and drafted the Monroe Doctrine. Historians agree he was one of the greatest diplomats and secretaries of state in American history.