It was not until 30 July 1784 that JQA next saw AA and AA2, when he met them in London en route to France, where his father, JA, was serving as a commissioner to negotiate treaties of amity and commerce with various European and African nations. JQA did not see TBA again until his return to America in 1785 (JA, Diary and Autobiography , 3:167–169).

John Thaxter Jr. (1755–1791), a second cousin to JQA through the marriage of AA's aunt Anna Quincy. After graduation from college he had studied law in JA's office, served as tutor to the Adams boys, and now accompanied JA to Europe as his private secretary. Thaxter returned to America in 1783 after the signing of the Definitive Treaty with Great Britain and settled in Haverhill, Mass., where he practiced law (same, 2:402). JQA renewed his friendship with Thaxter there in late 1785, when he came to live with his uncle and aunt, Rev. John and Elizabeth (Smith) Shaw, while preparing himself for admission to Harvard in the spring of 1786.

JQA did not carefully distinguish between his uncles and great-uncles, aunts and great-aunts, but the person referred to here is his great-uncle Isaac Smith Sr. (1719–1787), a Boston merchant and uncle of AA. A sketch and portrait of Smith appear in Adams Family Correspondence , 2:x–xi and facing 103.