Josiah Quincy IV (/ˈkwɪnzi/; January 17, 1802 – November 2, 1882)[1] was an American lawyer, historian, and politician.

Josiah Quincy IV was born on Pearl Street in the Downtown neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts on January 17, 1802.

[2] He was the second child, and eldest son, of Josiah Quincy III and his wife Eliza Susan Morton.

[3] His father was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for Massachusetts, mayor of Boston, and President of Harvard University.

[2] In 1844, while traveling with Charles Francis Adams, Josiah Quincy met Joseph Smith, the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, in Nauvoo, Illinois.

Adams was unimpressed by Smith, and wrote in his diary entry that day, "Such a man is a study not for himself, but as serving to show what turns the human mind will sometimes take.

[5] Quincy had two sons — Josiah Phillips (1829–1910), a lawyer, who wrote, besides some verse, The Protection of Majorities (1876) and Double Taxation in Massachusetts (1889); and Samuel Miller (1833–1887), who practiced law, wrote on legal subjects, served in the Union army during the Civil War, and was breveted brigadier-general of volunteers in 1865.