Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. I.djvu/137

JOHN ADAMS 105 ABIGAIL ADAMS (SMITH), wife of John Adams, born in Weymouth, Mass., November 23, 1744; died in Quincy, Mass., October 28, 1818. Her father, the Rev. William Smith, was for more than forty years minister of the Congregational church in Weymouth. Her mother, Elizabeth Quincy, was a great-great-granddaughter of the eminent Puritan divine, Thomas Shepard, of Cambridge, and great-grandniece of the Rev. John Norton, of Boston. She was among the most remarkable women of the revolutionary period. Her educa tion, so far as books were concerned, was but scanty. Of delicate and nervous organization, she was so frequently ill during childhood and youth that she was never sent to any school; but her loss in this respect was not so great as might appear ; for, while the New England clergymen at that time were usually men of great learning, the education of their daughters seldom went further than writing or arithmetic, with now and then a smattering of what passed current as music. In the course of her long life she became extensively acquainted with the best English literature, and she wrote in a terse, vigorous, and often elegant style. Her case may well be cited by those who protest against the exag gerated value commonly ascribed to the routine of a school education. Her early years were spent in seclusion, but among people of learning and polit ical sagacity. On October 25, 1764, she was mar-