John Adams Sr. immigrated to New England as a child during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640).
John Adams was born in 1622 and baptized 4 December of that same year, at Kingweston, Sommersetshire, England, the sixth son (and seventh child) of Henry Adams and Edith Squire. [1][2]
Immigration and Apprenticeship
He emigrated to New England with his parents and siblings (except for his elder brother, Jonathan) sometime in 1638, although the exact date of their arrival is not known.[3] The rest of his family settled at Braintree but John, at sixteen years of age, was apprenticed to John Fournell, a millwright at Cambridge, Massachusetts, for a period of six years.[4] During this time he helped Fournell build a mill for Captain George Cooke at Menotony, and when a lawsuit was filed in 1656 questioning the ownership of the land on which that mill stood, John testified by deposition that he had been personally familar with the land in question and with the Captain's ownership of it since 1638, which was the year his apprenticeship had started.[5] At the end of his training with Fournell, John returned to his parents' home at Braintree, and in October 1645 he was among thirty-two residents of that town to sign a petition to the court regarding a land charter.[6]
His father died in 1646, and three years later John was given a power of attorney by John Shepheard (his aunt Margaret's husband) to collect rents due on lands owned by John's own elder brother, Jonathan, and convey them to his brother, who was at that time living in England.[7] He was also given a power of attorney by his brother Samuel enabling him to collect from the executors of the estate of Emanuel Eglesfield of London (father of Samuel's wife, Mary) any monies due to her as her inheritance.[8] Early in 1650, John Adams departed for England to carry out both of these commissions.[7]
Marriage and Children
John married Anne ________, whose surname and parentage remain uncertain.[7][9] Although some genealogists have attempted to link her with the Howe family based on a deed which mentions the house of John Adams being "last inhabited by William Howe, a weaver,"[10] recent scholarship has shown that Howe was a contemporary of John and Anne's and so could not have been her father.[11] The date and location of their marriage is also uncertain, it may have taken place in Massachusetts shortly before they departed for England, or they may have met and married in England, early in 1650.[4][12]
There were at least eight children from this marriage:
John Adams returned to New England in 1651 with his wife Anne and eldest daughter, Rebecca.[7] Together they built a home at Menotomy in Cambridge, which remained in the Adams family for six generations.[7] He acquired properties in Concord, Chelmsford, Cambridge, and Charlestown, eventually gifting the Adams family home in Menotomy to his son Joseph.[7]
Membership in Cambridge Church
John and his wife Anne were members in full communion of the first church in Cambridge. John was admitted on 14 May 1666. Their children Mary, John and Joseph were baptized in the church (no date given), with daughter Rebeccas having been previously baptized in England. Their daughter Hannah was baptized in the church on 17 June 1660 and their son Daniel was baptized there on 14 September 1662.[21]
Death
John Adams died sometime before 7 October 1706, when his estate was entered into probate.[22] He was eighty-four years of age. His will, dated 1 June 1705, left the principal part of his estate to his wife Anne, with his son John to eventually receive the farm. His son Joseph received only five shillings, as he had already been given the deed to the house at Menotony. There were also various small bequests to his grandson William Patten and his granddaughters Martha Smith and Rebecca Squire. His wife Anne and son John Adams were made co-executors.[23]
Sources
↑ Bartlett, Joseph Gardner. Henry Adams of Somersetshire, England and Braintree, Massachusetts. New York: private printing (1927), p. 80.
↑ Fairbanks, Rev. Hiram Francis. The English Ancestry of Henry Adams of Braintree. New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vol. 59 (1905), pp. 320-322.
↑ Sprague, Waldo Chamberlain. Genealogies of the Families of Braintree, Massachusetts, 1640-1850. Boston: New England Historical and Genealogical Society (2001), pp. 11-13. Available here by subscription.
↑ 4.04.1 Adams, Enid E. Ancestors and Descendants of Jeremiah Adams 1794-1883. Victor, Idaho (1974), p. 37.
↑ Middlesex County Court files, 1656; cited in Adams, Enid E. Ancestors and Descendants of Jeremiah Adams 1794-1883. Victor, Idaho (1974), p. 37.
↑ Massachusetts Colony Records, vol. 2, p. 128; cited in Adams, Enid E. Ancestors and Descendants of Jeremiah Adams 1794-1883. Victor, Idaho (1974), p. 37.
↑ 7.07.17.27.37.47.5 Adams, Enid E. Ancestors and Descendants of Jeremiah Adams 1794-1883. Victor, Idaho (1974), p. 38.
↑Aspinwall's Notarial Records, pp. 145, 267; cited in Adams, Enid E. Ancestors and Descendants of Jeremiah Adams 1794-1883. Victor, Idaho (1974), p. 38.
↑ Bartlett, Joseph Gardner. Henry Adams of Somersetshire, England and Braintree, Massachusetts. New York: private printing (1927), p. 88.
↑ Middletown County Deeds, 1:192; cited in Ullmann, Helen Schatvet. Notes on a Line From Henry Adams. New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vol. 153 (Jan 1999), pp. 213-214 (by subscription).
↑ Ullmann, Helen Schatvet. Notes on a Line From Henry Adams. New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vol. 153 (Jan 1999), pp. 213-214 (by subscription).
↑ Torrey, Clarence Almon. New England Marriages Before 1700. Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Co. (1985) Reprint.
↑ 14.014.114.214.314.4 Bartlett, Joseph Gardner. Henry Adams of Somersetshire, England and Braintree, Massachusetts. New York: private printing (1927), p. 88.
↑ "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FCMY-1V8 : 10 November 2020), John Addams in entry for Mary Addams, 25 October 1652; citing Birth, Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America, Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, Boston; FHL microfilm 004198966.
↑ 17.017.117.217.3 Bartlett, Joseph Gardner. Henry Adams of Somersetshire, England and Braintree, Massachusetts. New York: private printing (1927), p. 89.
↑ "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FCMY-1VX : 10 November 2020), John Addams in entry for Daniel Addams, 12 August 1662; citing Birth, Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America, Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, Boston; FHL microfilm 004198966.
↑Records of the Church of Christ at Cambridge in New England 1632-1830. 1906. p. 23. Link to page at archive.org
↑ Middlesex County Probate Records, Vol. 12, p. 202; cited in Adams, Enid E. Ancestors and Descendants of Jeremiah Adams 1794-1883. Victor, Idaho (1974), p. 38.
↑ Middlesex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1648-1871.Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014. (From records supplied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives. Digitized images provided by FamilySearch.org) Will (Probate No. 140)
Massachusetts Probate Court. Probate Records 1648-1924 (Middlesex County, Massachusetts). On-line data base published by Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., Provo, Utah 2015. John Adams. Probate date: 1706; Probate place: Middlesex, Massachusetts; Case no.: 140; Description: probate papers no 98-160. Available online by subscription.
Notes. New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vol. 66 (1912), p. 187.
Is John your ancestor? Please don't go away! Login to collaborate or comment, or contact
the profile manager, or ask our community of genealogists a question.
Sponsored Search by Ancestry.com
DNA Connections
It may be possible to confirm family relationships with John by comparing test results with other carriers of his Y-chromosome or his mother's mitochondrial DNA.
Y-chromosome DNA test-takers in his direct paternal line on WikiTree:
This person immigrated to New England between 1621-1640 as a Minor Child (under age 21 at time of immigration) of a Puritan Great Migration immigrant who is profiled in Robert Charles Anderson's Great Migration Directory (or is otherwise accepted by the Puritan Great Migration (PGM) Project).
Please feel free to improve the profile(s) by providing additional information and reliable sources. PGM encourages the Profile Managers to monitor these profiles for changes; if any problems arise, please contact the PGM Project via G2G for assistance. Please note that PGM continues to manage the parent's profile, but is happy to assist on the children when needed.
John's will actually seems to give the five shillings to his son Joseph's heirs, not to Joseph himself. It says "five shillings more to be given to sons [Joseph's] heirs after my decease" - which supports the fact that Joseph actually died in 1701 and John's will was written in 1705.
I share reasonable DNA with Kirt Adams considering our common ancestor would be John Adams , with triangulations
Allan Stuart do you have an interest in the lines: Iv'e noticed the surnames Alexander , Johnson , Stewart, Anderson are all linked to Adams : I'm still to confirm my line to John Adams , whether it be my Adams great Grandfather or from a Mayflower line (Many I have)
Grandma Gummers paper tree had our line to USA Pres John Adams , I saw this 30 years ago
Comparing Kit NE3891265 (Kirt Allard Adams) [FTDNA] and Kit A477132 (*Jackie Stoddard) [Migration - F2 -
2 130,664,058 133,200,399 3.4 200
3 3,311,720 4,431,356 4 398
5 73,791,092 75,563,830 3.2 371
6 12,297,028 14,327,412 3.3 489
11 108,525,801 112,676,385 4.3 740
12 6,492,649 8,806,081 5.7 510
12 76,400,132 78,613,937 3.1 501
16 80,176,508 81,444,857 3.3 465
17 11,244,165 12,572,583 3.6 352
18 7,273,501 7,990,780 3.3 209
18 75,109,503 77,669,215 6.1 709
This article says Anne (___) and mentions it seems to have been inferred by a deed that the house of John Adams, last inhabited by William Howe and got carried on.
Please feel free to improve the profile(s) by providing additional information and reliable sources. PGM encourages the Profile Managers to monitor these profiles for changes; if any problems arise, please contact the PGM Project via G2G for assistance. Please note that PGM continues to manage the parent's profile, but is happy to assist on the children when needed.
Allan Stuart do you have an interest in the lines: Iv'e noticed the surnames Alexander , Johnson , Stewart, Anderson are all linked to Adams : I'm still to confirm my line to John Adams , whether it be my Adams great Grandfather or from a Mayflower line (Many I have) Grandma Gummers paper tree had our line to USA Pres John Adams , I saw this 30 years ago Comparing Kit NE3891265 (Kirt Allard Adams) [FTDNA] and Kit A477132 (*Jackie Stoddard) [Migration - F2 - 2 130,664,058 133,200,399 3.4 200 3 3,311,720 4,431,356 4 398 5 73,791,092 75,563,830 3.2 371 6 12,297,028 14,327,412 3.3 489 11 108,525,801 112,676,385 4.3 740 12 6,492,649 8,806,081 5.7 510 12 76,400,132 78,613,937 3.1 501 16 80,176,508 81,444,857 3.3 465 17 11,244,165 12,572,583 3.6 352 18 7,273,501 7,990,780 3.3 209 18 75,109,503 77,669,215 6.1 709
Jen
See: New England Historical and Genealogical Register: 153: p. 214 subscription - https://www.americanancestors.org/databases/new-england-historical-and-genealogical-register/image?volumeId=11657&pageName=214&rId=143509196