1. The transfer of JA's law office was probably dictated by the Adams family's return to Braintree earlier this month. Before becoming Gill's tenant, JA had apparently maintained his office in the quarters “near the steps of the Town {p. 250} house Stairs” mentioned in his account of the events of March 1770 (JA, Legal Papers , 1:lxv–lxvi). Gill, copublisher of the whig Boston Gazette, was a grateful former client, whom JA had successfully represented in 1768 and 1769 in the printer's suits against John Mein (same, p. 151–157). This Queen Street law office was used until Nov. 1772, when JA moved into Shrimpton Hunt's house, also on Queen Street, which he had purchased in August.

1. JA's letter to Mrs. Macaulay is printed in JA, Diary and Autobiography , 1:360–361, with a sketch of Mrs. Macaulay in a note at p. 361. The fifth volume of her History of England from the Accession of James I to that of the Brunswick line, London, 1763–1783, appeared in 1771 ( DNB ).

2. JA had opened his correspondence with Mrs. Macaulay when he learned of her favorable reaction to his “Dissertation.” Mrs. Macaulay's error in citing the title was entirely her own; the essays were never published under that name (see “A Dissertation on the Canon and the Feudal Law,” May–21 October 1765, above).