Background.

John Adams was bom on 19 October 1735, the first of three sons of John and Susanna Boylston Adams. His father was a shoemaker and farmer in Braintree, Massachusetts. Adams graduated from Harvard in 1755, taught school for a year, and then, in order to avoid family pressure to study for the ministry apprenticed himself to James Putnam, a prominent Worcester lawyer. For two years he did routine clerical work in Putnam's office and bore "the disadvantage of Putnam's insociability, and neglect of me." However, Putnam had a good library, and Adams had enough free time for extensive reading of legal texts. At the end of his two-year apprenticeship, Adams sought admission to the Suffolk County bar.

Making the Grade.

Admission to the bar in 1758 was not yet a formal procedure—an application to the bar simply had to be endorsed by several members...