Timothy Divoll

Timothy Divoll was born on October 9, 1795, in Lunenburg, Massachusetts.¹ By 1819, he was living in Boston and working as a hostler, or one who cares for horses kept at an inn.²

In October 1826, Divoll served as President John Quincy Adams’s coachman during a trip from Adams’s home in Quincy, Massachusetts, to Washington, D.C. During the journey, on a ferry crossing from Providence, to Newport, Rhode Island, rough water knocked down one of the horses on the boat, prompting it to thrash wildly. Divoll managed to hold the horse and prevent it from falling overboard or hurting the passengers. President Adams wrote about the incident in his diary: “Divoll who held him by the bridle had just strength enough to bring him down again upon his feet.” Adams continued: “I had not for many Months; perhaps for years been in such imminent danger.”³ 

Divoll may have worked for President Adams prior to or after this trip, but we cannot be sure as he does not appear again in Adams’s diary. By 1830, he was living in Boston where he remained for the rest of his life.⁴ A Boston city directory in 1840 lists him as a coachman, though it does not specify who he drove.⁵ Divoll passed away on January 23, 1853.⁶