LOOKING BACK
A president
in Ealing
From wasp-infested
cricket games, to pony
races and local gentry,
the fascinating diary of a
famous US president has
been uncovered which
outlines the years of his
life spent living in Ealing.
Mary Woods, of the Little
Ealing History Group,
explains all.
Above: John Quincy
Adams – copy of
1843 Philip Haas
Daguerreotype” by
Southworth & Hawes
– The Metropolitan
Museum of Art
J
ohn Quincy Adams
lived in Ealing with
his family between
1815 and 1817. He
went on to become the
sixth president of the USA.
Adams kept a diary
throughout his life and
this has provided a mine
of information about the
family and life in the area
at the time.
A NEW LIFE
During that period, the young diplomat
was made the United States Ambassador
to the United Kingdom – which was
known formally as Ambassador to the
Court of St James’s.
48
around ealing
Spring 2015
Left: John Quincy Adams by Gilbert Stuart
Together with
his wife Louisa
and their three
sons, George, John
and Charles, he
moved to England. Although his office
was in central London, he lived in the
less expensive ‘country village’ of Ealing,
as it was then, to free-up enough money
to maintain the expensive carriages
and liveries the post demanded.
They lived at Little Boston House,
in Windmill Road. Part of the Boston
Manor estate, on what is now the border
between Ealing and Brentford, the house
was demolished in the 1930s.
The family attended St Mary’s Church
and soon settled into the society of
professionals and local gentry in what
was then a rural hamlet. The boys