Per Louisa Catherine Johnson Adam's diaries reproduced in "A Traveled First Lady", Harvard University Press, Boston, MA, March 2014, pg. 111, Louisa noted her sister, "Nancy" Hellen in an entry as follows:
"On the day we started (1 Oct 1803) from Quincy we had heard of the death of Mrs. Hellen's Child, and she [Nancy] lay in a very dangerous state not expected to live."
Given time for communication in that period, this death would then have been in September of that year, likely mid-month. The Rock Creek Cemetery record for Wallis does not record her date of internment nor age at death, only that she was interred in this plot as noted.
Some online genealogical sites note this infant as "Helen Hellen" born in April of 1802 and dying on 19 Sept 1803, but without sources, and for which there are no supporting records found, that given first name also deemed very unlikely. The dates of birth and death noted on these sites appear generally correct, however, and research continues in an attempt to determine if accurately sourced, possibly from other Adams correspondence. Another un-sourced partial account, with several major errors, notes a "carriage accident" in about 1803, which was further researched, and partially validated, supporting an explanation for her death and Nancy's near fatal injuries.
As the shared memorial in Rock Creek Cemetery is thought to date from 1805, and the next Hellen offspring, son Washington, known buried there that year, his name engraved on the monument, there may have been a prior smaller stone for Wallis, but why her name was not later added to the extant marker remains unknown.
The origin of her name is also unknown, no others with that name found in the Hellens or Johnsons of previous generations, but one speculation is that it was, in part, a feminine adaptation of the surname "Wallace" for Charles Wallace 1727-1812, a possible one time mentor, later business partner and close friend of Walter's and his father-in-law, Joshua Johnson. It is also likely, as with others of this family, that she had a middle name, or that Wallis was a middle, not first name, but will likely remain unknown and unconfirmed.
Nancy, of course, survived, and her sister Louisa would arrive in Georgetown by October 20th, she and her husband, John Quincy Adams, and family, afterwards living with the Hellens when Congress was in session while John was a senator. Nancy and Walter would have five more children, two sons not surviving to two years of age, and a final offspring in 1810, dying in childbirth, and Nancy herself not surviving that birth.
Allan Garner Rev: July 15, 2021.
________________________________________________________________________
As of July 2021 the two memorials for Wallis Hellen and "Infant" Hellen have been "reversed". Sufficient additional information has been found since 2018 supporting that Wallis was the daughter of about one year of age who died in 1803, and for whom the Rock Creek burial record was found. The infant, appearing unnamed, is now noted as the documented offspring dying with, or near, her mother Nancy Hellen in 1810.
"On the day we started (1 Oct 1803) from Quincy we had heard of the death of Mrs. Hellen's Child, and she [Nancy] lay in a very dangerous state not expected to live."
Given time for communication in that period, this death would then have been in September of that year, likely mid-month. The Rock Creek Cemetery record for Wallis does not record her date of internment nor age at death, only that she was interred in this plot as noted.
Some online genealogical sites note this infant as "Helen Hellen" born in April of 1802 and dying on 19 Sept 1803, but without sources, and for which there are no supporting records found, that given first name also deemed very unlikely. The dates of birth and death noted on these sites appear generally correct, however, and research continues in an attempt to determine if accurately sourced, possibly from other Adams correspondence. Another un-sourced partial account, with several major errors, notes a "carriage accident" in about 1803, which was further researched, and partially validated, supporting an explanation for her death and Nancy's near fatal injuries.
As the shared memorial in Rock Creek Cemetery is thought to date from 1805, and the next Hellen offspring, son Washington, known buried there that year, his name engraved on the monument, there may have been a prior smaller stone for Wallis, but why her name was not later added to the extant marker remains unknown.
The origin of her name is also unknown, no others with that name found in the Hellens or Johnsons of previous generations, but one speculation is that it was, in part, a feminine adaptation of the surname "Wallace" for Charles Wallace 1727-1812, a possible one time mentor, later business partner and close friend of Walter's and his father-in-law, Joshua Johnson. It is also likely, as with others of this family, that she had a middle name, or that Wallis was a middle, not first name, but will likely remain unknown and unconfirmed.
Nancy, of course, survived, and her sister Louisa would arrive in Georgetown by October 20th, she and her husband, John Quincy Adams, and family, afterwards living with the Hellens when Congress was in session while John was a senator. Nancy and Walter would have five more children, two sons not surviving to two years of age, and a final offspring in 1810, dying in childbirth, and Nancy herself not surviving that birth.
Allan Garner Rev: July 15, 2021.
________________________________________________________________________
As of July 2021 the two memorials for Wallis Hellen and "Infant" Hellen have been "reversed". Sufficient additional information has been found since 2018 supporting that Wallis was the daughter of about one year of age who died in 1803, and for whom the Rock Creek burial record was found. The infant, appearing unnamed, is now noted as the documented offspring dying with, or near, her mother Nancy Hellen in 1810.
Per Louisa Catherine Johnson Adam's diaries reproduced in "A Traveled First Lady", Harvard University Press, Boston, MA, March 2014, pg. 111, Louisa noted her sister, "Nancy" Hellen in an entry as follows:
"On the day we started (1 Oct 1803) from Quincy we had heard of the death of Mrs. Hellen's Child, and she [Nancy] lay in a very dangerous state not expected to live."
Given time for communication in that period, this death would then have been in September of that year, likely mid-month. The Rock Creek Cemetery record for Wallis does not record her date of internment nor age at death, only that she was interred in this plot as noted.
Some online genealogical sites note this infant as "Helen Hellen" born in April of 1802 and dying on 19 Sept 1803, but without sources, and for which there are no supporting records found, that given first name also deemed very unlikely. The dates of birth and death noted on these sites appear generally correct, however, and research continues in an attempt to determine if accurately sourced, possibly from other Adams correspondence. Another un-sourced partial account, with several major errors, notes a "carriage accident" in about 1803, which was further researched, and partially validated, supporting an explanation for her death and Nancy's near fatal injuries.
As the shared memorial in Rock Creek Cemetery is thought to date from 1805, and the next Hellen offspring, son Washington, known buried there that year, his name engraved on the monument, there may have been a prior smaller stone for Wallis, but why her name was not later added to the extant marker remains unknown.
The origin of her name is also unknown, no others with that name found in the Hellens or Johnsons of previous generations, but one speculation is that it was, in part, a feminine adaptation of the surname "Wallace" for Charles Wallace 1727-1812, a possible one time mentor, later business partner and close friend of Walter's and his father-in-law, Joshua Johnson. It is also likely, as with others of this family, that she had a middle name, or that Wallis was a middle, not first name, but will likely remain unknown and unconfirmed.
Nancy, of course, survived, and her sister Louisa would arrive in Georgetown by October 20th, she and her husband, John Quincy Adams, and family, afterwards living with the Hellens when Congress was in session while John was a senator. Nancy and Walter would have five more children, two sons not surviving to two years of age, and a final offspring in 1810, dying in childbirth, and Nancy herself not surviving that birth.
Allan Garner Rev: July 15, 2021.
________________________________________________________________________
As of July 2021 the two memorials for Wallis Hellen and "Infant" Hellen have been "reversed". Sufficient additional information has been found since 2018 supporting that Wallis was the daughter of about one year of age who died in 1803, and for whom the Rock Creek burial record was found. The infant, appearing unnamed, is now noted as the documented offspring dying with, or near, her mother Nancy Hellen in 1810.
"On the day we started (1 Oct 1803) from Quincy we had heard of the death of Mrs. Hellen's Child, and she [Nancy] lay in a very dangerous state not expected to live."
Given time for communication in that period, this death would then have been in September of that year, likely mid-month. The Rock Creek Cemetery record for Wallis does not record her date of internment nor age at death, only that she was interred in this plot as noted.
Some online genealogical sites note this infant as "Helen Hellen" born in April of 1802 and dying on 19 Sept 1803, but without sources, and for which there are no supporting records found, that given first name also deemed very unlikely. The dates of birth and death noted on these sites appear generally correct, however, and research continues in an attempt to determine if accurately sourced, possibly from other Adams correspondence. Another un-sourced partial account, with several major errors, notes a "carriage accident" in about 1803, which was further researched, and partially validated, supporting an explanation for her death and Nancy's near fatal injuries.
As the shared memorial in Rock Creek Cemetery is thought to date from 1805, and the next Hellen offspring, son Washington, known buried there that year, his name engraved on the monument, there may have been a prior smaller stone for Wallis, but why her name was not later added to the extant marker remains unknown.
The origin of her name is also unknown, no others with that name found in the Hellens or Johnsons of previous generations, but one speculation is that it was, in part, a feminine adaptation of the surname "Wallace" for Charles Wallace 1727-1812, a possible one time mentor, later business partner and close friend of Walter's and his father-in-law, Joshua Johnson. It is also likely, as with others of this family, that she had a middle name, or that Wallis was a middle, not first name, but will likely remain unknown and unconfirmed.
Nancy, of course, survived, and her sister Louisa would arrive in Georgetown by October 20th, she and her husband, John Quincy Adams, and family, afterwards living with the Hellens when Congress was in session while John was a senator. Nancy and Walter would have five more children, two sons not surviving to two years of age, and a final offspring in 1810, dying in childbirth, and Nancy herself not surviving that birth.
Allan Garner Rev: July 15, 2021.
________________________________________________________________________
As of July 2021 the two memorials for Wallis Hellen and "Infant" Hellen have been "reversed". Sufficient additional information has been found since 2018 supporting that Wallis was the daughter of about one year of age who died in 1803, and for whom the Rock Creek burial record was found. The infant, appearing unnamed, is now noted as the documented offspring dying with, or near, her mother Nancy Hellen in 1810.
