Henry Adams

Personal and Family Information

Henry was born on 21 JAN 1583 in Barton St. David, Somerset UK, the son of unknown parents.

He died on 6 OCT 1646 in Braintree, Norfolk, Massachusetts, British Colonial America.

His wife was Edith 'Rosamund' Squire, who he married on 19 OCT 1609 in Charlton Mackrell, Somersetshire, England . Their nine known children were Captain Samuel (1618-1688), Henry (?-1676), Thomas (1612-1688), Joseph (1626-?), Jonathan (?-?), Ursula (?-?), Peter (?-?), John (?-?) and Edward (?-?).

Events

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Henry Adams....

Notes

Note 1

My 10x GGrandfather. He came from England to America in 1634.

2x GGrandfather of John Adams, 2nd president of US and 3x GGrandfather to John Quincy Adams

Henry Adams, emigrated circa 1636 from Braintree, England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Henry's 89 grandchildren earned him the modern nickname of "Founder of New England." In terms of contemporaries, John Adams was second cousin to the statesman and colonial leader Samuel Adams.

Note 2

Henry Adams was born in Barton St. David, Somerset to John Adams (1555–1604) and Agnes Stone (1556–1616). He emigrated from Braintree, Essex[3] in England to what soon became Braintree, Massachusetts in about 1632–1633.[3]

While his descendant President John Quincy Adams believed Henry Adams to have been born in Braintree, Essex, numerous records have shown Henry Adams to have been born and raised in the village of Barton St. David in Somerset, England.

Henry Adams most likely moved to Braintree upon maturity to work for the Hooker company, which then arranged for his passage to America.

Note 3

John Adams, the second president of the United States of America, erected a monument to his memory in the old church yard at Quincy with the following inscription: “In memory of Henry Adams who took his flight from the Dragon persecution in Devonshire, England and alighted with eight sons, near Mount Wollaston. One of the sons returned to England, and after taking time to explore the country, four removed to Medfield and the neighboring towns; two to Chelmsford. One only, Joseph, who lies here at his left hand, remained here, who was an original proprietor in the township of Braintree, incorporated in 1639. This stone and several others have been placed in this yard, by a great-great grandson, from a veneration of the Piety, humility, simplicity, prudence, patience, temperance, frugality, industry and perseverance, of his Ancestors, in hopes of Recommending an imitation of their virtures to their posterity. … Erected December, 1823.”

However, President John Quincy Adams dissented from the opinion of his father that Henry Adams came from Devonshire. He believed that: “After giving the matter particular and thorough investigation… my conviction is that Henry Adams was from Braintree in the county of Essex, on the east coast of England.”[7]

Henry may have been in the company of Thomas Hooker, who arrived in September 1633. The Hooker company was mostly made up from immigrants of Chelmsford, perhaps from Braintree and other neighboring villages of Essex, who had arrived just to the new colony the year before. Winthrop’s Journal, I. 37, says, “1632: 14 Aug; The Braintree Company which had begun to settle down at Mt. Wollaston by order of Court, removed to Newtown. These were Mr. Hooker’s Company.”[8][9] Hence it appears highly probable that Henry Adams from Braintree in Essex joined Hooker’s Company and arrived in Boston in 1632. Dr. James Savage, author of the Genealogical Dictionary of the early first-comers of New England, concurs in the opinion of President John Quincy Adams.[10]