Browsing: Diary of John Quincy Adams, Volume 1

1. Probably Henry Bromfield Jr., who had left Massachusetts the previous July to settle some of his father's accounts, and who possibly had helped establish earlier in 1781 the Amsterdam mercantile firm of Sigourney, Ingraham & Bromfield (JA, Diary and Autobiography , 2:453–454, 456; Cal. Franklin Papers, A.P.S. , 2:272; 3:434; 4:49, 313).

2. On the following two and one-half pages from the Diary is Guthrie's account of Dutch “cities, towns, and other edifices, public and private” (Geographical Grammar, p. 403–404). At the point where Guthrie's commentary turns to the Dutch village of Saardam (p. 404), in which Peter the Great served an apprenticeship in shipbuilding, JQA has inserted the note, “Vide. Voltaire History of Russia. Chapter 9th.,” in which the French historian elaborates on the Russian czar's experience there (Histoire de I'Empire de Russie sous Pierre le Grand, 2 vols., n.p., 1759, 1:152–154). This work was purchased by JQA a month later in Cologne on his journey to Russia and is listed in the Catalogue of JQA's Books .