Joseph Adams

1626-1694 · Kingweston, Somerset, England

Born 1626, probably Kingweston, Somerset, England

Died 1694

Father: Henry Adams

Mother: Edith Squire

Children include Mary

Joseph Adams was born about 1626, the seventh of the nine children of Henry Adams and Edith Squire. The family then lived at Kingweston in Somerset. His brother John was baptised there in December 1622 and his brother Edward in April 1629, so Joseph was very probably born there too. His age at death gives the year.

In 1638, when he was about twelve, his parents brought him and seven of his brothers and sisters to New England. In February 1639/40 Boston granted his father forty acres at Mount Wollaston "for a family of ten heads". The family's land lay in what became Braintree.

His father died in the autumn of 1646. His will left Joseph a share in the homestead, on one condition. If Joseph's mother married again, "my will is yt Josephe, Edward, and my dau. Vrsula should enjoy all my ground in the feild that lyeth in the way to Waymouth ferry, and my house Lott." About 1651 she married John Fussell and went to Medfield. Joseph took the farm.

The Braintree town book records his marriage: "Joseph Adames and Abigal Baxter were married the second day of the ninth month 1650". The year then began in March, so the ninth month was November, and the date was 2 November 1650. Abigail was sixteen. She was a daughter of Gregory Baxter, who had come to Massachusetts with the Winthrop Fleet in 1630.

Their son Joseph was born by 1659. Two daughters named Mary followed. The first was born on 8 November 1663 and evidently died young. The second was born on 25 February 1668, entered by the town clerk as the daughter "of Joseph Addams & Abigail his wiffe".

His father-in-law died in June 1659 and left him land and marsh, and an old mare. Abigail's mother died in February 1661/2.

Abigail died on 27 August 1692, aged fifty-eight. By July 1694 his daughter Mary was married to Samuel Bass, a Braintree cooper. His will, as a 1940 Bass genealogy cites it from the Mayflower Descendant, counts her as Samuel's wife. His son Joseph Adams Jr. married Samuel's sister, Hannah Bass.

The town clerk recorded his death: Joseph Adams "Senior aged about 68 years died upon the 6th of December 1694". The word set him apart from his son. He was buried in the Braintree burying ground, now Hancock Cemetery in Quincy.

Parents

Edith Squire 1587-1673 Henry Adams 1583-1646

Children

Mary Adams 1668-1706

Sources

Hancock Cemetery, Quincy, Massachusetts; photograph by Chris Yoder, 2008, Find a Grave memorial 11014343.

Hancock Cemetery, Quincy, Massachusetts; photograph by Loren Carlson, 2009, Find a Grave memorial 36203746.

Hancock Cemetery, Quincy, Massachusetts; photograph by Loren Carlson, 2009, Find a Grave memorials 36203746 and 36203763.

Records of the Town of Braintree 1640-1793 (Bates, 1886; archive.org recordsoftownofb00brai), births, marriages and deaths; J. Gardner Bartlett, Henry Adams of Somersetshire (1927); Gregory Baxter will abstract, Suffolk probate 1:323 (WikiTree Baxter-15); FamilySearch 1:1:6D9F-22FG; C. T. Bass, Descendants of Deacon Samuel and Ann Bass (1940); Boston Evening Transcript, answer 2718, 1912 (FS 3:1:3Q9M-CS3Y-D9GL-6); Find a Grave 36203746.

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

Cite: Heirology, "Joseph Adams (1626-1694)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/joseph-adams-1626-1694-254411.