Ancestors

Henry Adams

Henry Adams was born about 1583 in the Somerset parish of Barton St David. His father, John Adams the elder, was a husbandman there, a working farmer on the family's copyhold. A copyhold was land held from the lord of the manor on terms written in the manor court's roll. His mother was Agnes. The parish registers of Barton St David before 1714 are lost, and only the bishop's copies for scattered years survive, so his baptism is not on record.

In March 1603/4 his father lay sick and made a will. The year then began on 25 March, so March 1603 in the old reckoning is March 1604 in the modern reckoning. The will leaves the rest of John's goods "joyntely unto my wife Agnes Adames and unto my sonn Henry Adames whom I doe make sole executors". John was buried on 22 March. Henry was about twenty.

That this executor is the Henry Adams who later went to New England rests on the work of J. Gardner Bartlett, who printed the family's Somerset records in 1927. Henry was the only Henry Adams in the parish. The baptism at Barton St David on 25 March 1612 of "Thomas Addames the sonne of Henry & Edith Addames" supports it.

In 1609 his elder brother John, of Compton Dundon, died. His will, dated 9 May 1609, named Henry and their mother as executors.

On 19 October 1609 Henry married Edith Squire at Charlton Mackrell, the next parish, where she had been baptised. Her father, Henry Squire, was a husbandman and a blacksmith. Their first children were baptised at Barton St David.

In 1614 Henry stood surety on a marriage bond, describing himself as "of Barton St David". A marriage bond was a sum pledged to the bishop's court that nothing stood in the way of a marriage by licence, and the surety was liable if it proved false. The bond is damaged, but his signature is on it. It is the only signature of his known to survive.

Between 1614 and 1622 the family moved to Kingweston, the parish adjoining Barton St David. Their son John was baptised there on 4 December 1622, entered in Latin as "Joannes Adams", son of "Henrici Adams". Joseph was born about 1626, and Edward was baptised at Kingweston on 19 April 1629.

In 1638 Henry brought his wife and eight of their nine children to New England. Their son Jonathan stayed in England and came over about 1650. The year of the crossing comes from a deposition his son John made in 1656, that he had known a field at Cambridge "since 1638". Edith's sister Ann had gone to Dorchester in 1633 with her husband, Aquila Purchase. Bartlett thought she was the reason the family came.

On 24 February 1639/40 the town of Boston granted Henry forty acres at Mount Wollaston "for a family of ten heads". He worked there as a farmer and a maltster. A maltster made malt, soaking barley until it sprouted and then drying it for brewing.

He made his will on his deathbed and was buried at Braintree on 8 October 1646. It gave the ground in the Neck to his sons Peter and John and his daughter Ursula, and divided his books among all his children. It also looked ahead to his widow. If Edith married again, his house lot and his field on the road to the Weymouth ferry were to go to Joseph, Edward and Ursula. His inventory came to £75 13s, and it included "some ould bookes 9s." The will was proved on 8 June 1647.

Edith married John Fussell about 1651 and went to live at Medfield. Joseph took the farm at Braintree. Through Joseph's grandson, Deacon John Adams of Braintree, Henry Adams was the ancestor of Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams.

If Henry Adams is in your family, start your own tree.

Cite: Heirology, "Henry Adams (1583-1646)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/henry-adams-1583-1646-ede8e3.