12 Thurdsday.
JA
12 Thurdsday.
Adams, John
A cool, but pleasant morning. Heard Mr. Welman Wellman preach the Lecture, and drank Tea, with him, at home where he made this observation, (viz.) That Dr. Mayhew was a smart man, but he embraced some doctrines, not generally approved.1
1.
Jonathan Mayhew (1720–1766), Harvard 1744; D.D., Aberdeen 1749; minister of the West Church, Boston; early famous for his radical theological and political views. JA admired him as “a transcendent genius” whose character would require “a dozen volumes” to delineate; and there can be no question that Mayhew’s numerous published discourses profoundly influenced young JA. (
DAB
; Clinton Rossiter, “The Life and Mind of Jonathan Mayhew,”
WMQ
, 3d ser., 7:531–558 [Oct. 1950]; JA, Works
, 10:288.) See also 17 March, below.
