Jane E. Winnull

Jane E. Winnull was born in Frederick, Maryland, on October 9, 1807.¹ She is first mentioned as a maid servant in John Quincy Adams’ diary in 1826, though she may have started at the White House the year prior.² She served First Lady Louisa Catherine Adams and often traveled with her when she was away from the White House.³ Winnull worked at the Executive Mansion through the end of Adams’ presidency and is included in a list of domestic servants as a “chambermaid” in February 1829; her departure is mentioned in his March 16, 1829 diary entry.⁴ 

Interestingly, Jane Winnull had a very tumultuous relationship with the president and first lady, as Winnull secretly courted and later married their nephew, Johnson Hellen, on April 18, 1829.⁵ John Quincy Adams accused her of being “a bold and cunning minx, who had wheedled and dastardized him into a fit husband for herself” in his diary.⁶ Charles Francis Adams called their union “the discomfort of all the family,” likely due to the social etiquette breached by marrying a domestic servant below Hellen’s social class.⁷ However, the two shared a long marriage and had ten children together; Jane Winnull Hellen died on January 15, 1876, and is buried in Washington D.C. 's Mount Olivet Cemetery.⁸