All the Presidents' Kids: Part I

I can't imagine what it's like to be the child of a president. I think it would be more fun if you were under the age of thirteen or so. You could concentrate on the fact that there's a bowling alley and movie theatre in your house, and not on the fact that at any given time approximately half the country hates your father, and may even try to murder him. Also, I can't imagine a teenager would get to go on many dates. One of my favorite scenes from The West Wing is President Bartlett reminding his daughter's new boyfriend that he can literally call out the army if he steps out of line.

Some of the president's children have gone on to lead extraordinary lives. Two became president themselves. Some were utter train wrecks.

• George Washington had no children of his own. This was a comfort to many, since no son could claim his "rightful place" in the order of succession. However, he did have two stepchildren. 

• John Parke Custis was born in 1754 to Daniel and Martha Custis. His father died when John was only three, and his mother remarried George Washington in 1759, when John (called Jacky by his family) was five. He had a substantial trust fund left to him by his father, and he went into politics, but he was lazy. He dropped out of college and blew through most of his money. George Washington wrote several letters about what an idiot his stepson was. He married and had seven children, but died in 1781 of a fever during the siege of Yorktown. He was just shy of his 27th birthday. His wife remarried and left the two youngest children to be raised by George and Martha at Mt Vernon. John's land is now part of Reagan National Airport and Arlington National Cemetery.
• Martha "Patsy" Custis was born in 1756 and died in 1773, at age 17, after an epileptic seizure.
• Martha also had two other children, Daniel (1751-54) and Frances (1753-57), who died before she married George.

• John and Abigail Adams had six children: Abigail "Nabby," John Quincy, Susanna, Charles, Thomas, and Elizabeth (stillborn).

• Abigail "Nabby" Smith was born in 1765. She was 32 when her father became president. At age 18, she had a serious boyfriend. Her father (like any father whose firstborn is a daughter) was not a happy camper and thought she was much too young. Abigail didn't mind though, so John just kept his mouth shut. When the family moved to England so John could serve as ambassador, the pair tried to keep up a long distance relationship. Like the vast majority of LDRs, this one didn't work out. But Nabby eventually married somebody else and died in 1813, at age 48.
• John Quincy was born in 1767, and was 30 when his father took office. An avid diarist, he wrote daily from 1779 until 1848, and his writings span 50 volumes. He spent much time with his father, who was living in Europe as a diplomat. At age 14, he tagged along as a secretary with another diplomat on a three-year journey to Russia. He was educated in Germany, and spoke French, German, and Dutch fluently. He got his BA and MA from Harvard, and practiced law in Boston. He was a professor of logic at Brown and of rhetoric and oratory at Harvard. For 18 years he represented Massachusetts in the US House. He served as Secretary of State for the entire Monroe administration. He was ambassador to St James's Court (Britain) for three years, to Russia for three years, Prussia for four years, the Netherlands for three years, and was a US Senator for eight years. Oh yeah, he was also president.
• Grace Susanna "Suky" Adams was born in 1768 and died in 1770. John named her after his mother.
• Charles Adams was born in 1770. He traveled a bit in Europe, but left his parents and siblings there and returned to the States alone. He went to Harvard and then practiced law, however he was a fairly troubled young man, and died of alcoholism in 1800, at age 30.
• Thomas Boylston Adams was born in 1772. He studied law at Harvard, but nobody really ever thought he would make a good lawyer. He traveled to Prussia with his brother, served in the state legislature, and later as a judge. However, he too struggled with alcoholism and died broke in 1832.

• Thomas and Martha Jefferson had six children: Martha "Patsy", Jane (1774-75), an unnamed son (1777), Mary "Polly" Wayles, Lucy Elizabeth (1780-81), and Lucy Elizabeth (1782-85). In addition, Martha had one son, John (1767-71), with her first husband. I won't go into any children Thomas might have had with his slave (and his late wife's half-sister) Sally Hemings, because there is no concrete proof Jefferson fathered any children by her.

• Patsy was named for both her mother and Martha Washington. She and her father were very close and she was his only child to live past the age of 25. She was born in 1772. As a teenager, she lived with her father in Paris and went to an esteemed Catholic school. Thomas had been assured that Protestant students would not be taught Catholic doctrine. However, Patsy eventually expressed interest in converting, so Jefferson promptly withdrew both his daughters. She served as First Lady during her father's presidency, married at the age of 18, and had twelve children, though she and her husband were estranged for years. She died in 1836, a decade after her father.
• Polly joined her father and elder sister in Paris at age nine. She married a childhood friend (and cousin) at age 19. They had three children, only one of whom survived. She never recovered from the birth of her third child, and although her father was president, he left Washington to try to nurse her back to health. Sadly, she died in 1804, at the age of 25. Incidentally, it was Polly's death that ended the "cold war" between Jefferson and the Adams family. Abigail had always been quite fond of the youngest Jefferson daughter, and wrote Thomas a letter of condolence when she heard the sad news.