Biography

This profile is part of the Adams Name Study.

Emigration

Jonathan remained in England when his parents and siblings emigrated to Massachusetts Bay in 1638. He resided with his first wife Joane in Baltonsborough, Somerset, on a farm owned by his grandfather Henry Squire. He later emigrated, possibly accompanying his brother John who came back to England in 1650 on a matter of business concerning that farm and returned to Massachusetts Bay in 1651. Jonathan may have settled in Medfield soon afterward, perhaps in the household of his father or one of his brothers.^[1]

Jonathan first appears in the records of the town of Medfield in 1658: in a court case about a horse, Jonathan is identified as a brother of Peter Adams.. He had no grant of a house lot in Medfield. He may have lived with a relative until he soon settled on the west side of the Charles River. Jonathan drew, in 1659, 84 acres in the western part of town that later became Medway, a few rods north of his brother Edward's. His house was burned by the Indians in 1676, and his name appears among the petitioners for aid from the General Court on account of their losses. He evidently rebuilt on the same spot (in 1888, it was known as Joseph Adams' place, in Millis); and he appears to have been in reduced circumstances for some years, as he had his own town rates remitted in 1684-85. His estate was inventoried 1691, reporting land and buildings west of Charles river. ^[2]

Marriages

Jonathan Adams married at least twice, possibly three times.

He first married JOANE CLOSE, m. 7 Feb 1638/39 in Baltonsborough, Somerset, England.^{[1] [3]}

Jonathan and Joane Adams had, in Somersetshire:^[1]

• Henry, b. say 1641, buried in Baltonsborough 10 Sep 1648
• Jonathan, bp. 1 Nov 1643, emigrated to Massachusetts Bay with his father, died in Medfield 5 Jan 1661-2.^[4]
• Thomas, bp. 27 Oct 1647 in Baltonsborough, no record found in Medfield.

Joane seems to have died, after 1647 and before 1665, either in England or in Massachusetts Bay. No record of her death has yet surfaced.

Jonathan perhaps married, second, ELIZABETH FUSSELL, m. 1665, Medfield, Massachusetts Bay Colony. Tilden in his History of Medfield argues that "His wife, Elizabeth, was in all probability, daugher of John Fussell, who had already built on Bridge Street and with whom he (Jonathan) lived for a number of years."^[2] That marriage, if it occurred, would have had an unusual feature: John Fussell married in 1651 Mrs. Elizabeth Rosamond Squire Adams, the widow of Henry Adams of Braintree, who was Jonathan's mother; therefore, in marrying Elizabeth Fussell he would have been marrying his step-sister, possibly a no-no in the mores of the time. As one well-researched account put it after reporting Tilden's conclusion, "No proof of Jonathan Adam's marriage to Elizabeth Fussell has been found." ^[5] Also, a RootsWeb site previously cited in this profile apparently included, in 2002, something supporting that marriage. However, viewed in 2019 after updates through August 31 2006, that site now reports only Jonathan's marriages to Joane Close and Elizabeth Holman. ^[6]

and/ or

Jonathan married second or perhaps third ELIZABETH HOLMAN, b. 1614, m. 1666. ^{[1] [7]} Strong evidence that Elizabeth Holman Adams was the mother of at least Jonathan's last child Lydia Adams Daniels is found in the settlement in February 1711-12 of the estate of her brother Abraham Holman, in which the interests of her descendants were represented by her son-in-law Joseph Daniels.^[5][8] Additional support is the listing by Torrey of only two marriages for this Jonathan Adams, first to Joan Close, second to Elizabeth Holman (1644 - ), m. by 1666.^[9]

Tentative conclusion: the weight of evidence supports a conclusion that Jonathan's second wife was Elizabeth Holman, and that he did not marry Elizabeth Fussell. But perhaps there is some evidence to the contrary not yet reported in this profile. Therefore, Elizabeth Fussell has not yet been disconnected as Jonathan's spouse, nor as the mother of three of his children.

Children of JONATHAN ADAMS and ELIZABETH HOLMAN or perhaps ELIZABETH FUSSELL, were:^[10]

• ELIZABETH ADAMS, b. 18 Mar 1665-6, Medfield; m. John Partridge, d. unknown,.
• SARAH ADAMS, b. 6 Dec 1667, Medfield d. Unknown.
• INFANT ADAMS, b. 1669, Medfield; d. 1669,
• JONATHAN ADAMS, b. 18 Sep 1670, Medfield; d. 6 Oct 1670
• JONATHAN ADAMS, b. ____ 1671, Medfield; d. Unknown.
• JASPER ADAMS, b. Mar 12, 1673/74, Medfield, died a bachelor. Jul 01, 1742, Medway, Norfolk Co.,MA76.
• LYDIA ADAMS, b. by 1680, not recorded in Medfield, m. Joseph Daniels in 1696

Death

Jonathan Adams died in Medfield, Suffolk, Massachusetts, on July 28, 1690. ^[11]

Research Note: Three overlapping and somewhat contradictory records of Jonathan Adams' marriages appear in the U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900. To summarize:

1. Joane Close, born 1601 in En(gland), Spouse Jonathan Adams born 1614 in En(gland), Married 1638 (2/7/1639) in En(gland)
2. Jonathan Adams, born Somerset, England in 1614, Spouse Elizabeth Fussell, born 1616, Married 1638 (2/7/1639), in Ma(ssachusetts Bay)
3. Elizabeth Holman, born MA(ssachusetts) in 1644, Spouse Jonathan Adams, born 1614 in En(gland), Married 1665 in MA(ssachusetts Bay)

CAUTIONARY NOTE: There were two men named Jonathan Adams in or near Medfield in the same period. Both named two sons Jonathan. Their cousin Peter had a son Jonathan who died in infancy. It's confusing. The following, also born in Medfield, were children of Jonathan Adams, son of Edward, and his first wife Marie Ellis, not of the man profiled here:

• Jonathan Adams, b. 5 May 1679, Medfield, died 1694
• Mary/Marie Adams, b. 4 Aug 1681, Medfield
• Lydia Adams, b. 8 July 1689, Medfield; d. Unknown.
• Jonathan Adams, b. 7 May 1696, Medfield

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4} Bartlett, Joseph Gardner, Henry Adams of Somersetshire, England, and Braintree, Mass. : his English ancestry and some of his descendants, (New York, 1927), pp. 72, 75-76
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} :Tilden, William S., History of the Town of Medfield, Massachusetts 1650-1886, (Boston, 1887, Geo. H. Ellis), p. 288
3. ↑ Lloyd Horrocks, "Horrocks, Philips, Winget, Keeler, Clark, Watson, Lockwood, Strong, Gates and ancestors", Jul. 21, 2002.
4. ↑ Norfolk, Vital Records of Medfield, Massachusetts, to the year 1850, p. 190
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1} Linzee, John William, The history of Peter Parker and Sarah Ruggles of Roxbury, Mass. and their ancestors and descendants, pp. 259-261
6. ↑ Lloyd Horrocks, "Horrocks, Philips, Winget, Keeler, Clark, Watson, Lockwood, Strong, Gates and ancestors".
7. ↑ Holmans in America.
8. ↑ Anderson, Robert Charles, The Great Migration--Immigrants to New England 1634-1635, (Boston, 2003, New England Historic Genealogical Society), Vol. III, pp. 390-391, citing Bartlett and Parker-Ruggles.
9. ↑ Torrey, Clarence A., New England Marriages prior to 1700 (Baltimore, 2004, Genealogical Publishing Co.), p. 4.
10. ↑ Norfolk, Vital Records of Medfield, Massachusetts, to the year 1850, pp 10-14, all except for Lydia
11. ↑ Norfolk, Vital Records of Medfield, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850 (Boston, Massachusetts: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1903), p.190.

• Settlers of the Beekman Patent, Doherty, Frank J., (Author, Pleasant Valley, NY, 1990-2001)

• Genealogies of the Families of Braintree, Massachusetts, 1640-1850, including the Modern Towns of Randolph and Holbrook and the City of Quincy.

• Sprague's Braintree. Author: Waldo C. Sprague. Publication: New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, MA, 1963.

• Lynnfield Public Library, Lynnfield, Massachusetts 01940

Acknowledgments

• Thank you to Al Adams for creating Adams-13514 on 23 Sep 13.
• Adams-4858 created through the import of DeMarco-Gaffney Family Tree.ged on Jul 1, 2011 by Regina DeMarco.
• Created through the import of David Rentschler Family Tree_2010-09-30.ged on 01 October 2010.
• Created through the import of Schauman Skinner Tree_2011-05-21.ged on 22 May 2011.
• Adams-6186 created through the import of Adele Schauman Skinner_2011-07-11.ged on Jul 11, 2011 by Adele Schauman.
• Adams-5491 created through the import of DeMarco-Gaffney Family Tree.ged on Jul 1, 2011 by Regina DeMarco.
• Adams-6440 created through the import of 2e4y9w_6792005b2a92y72e4mejcc.ged on Jul 27, 2011 by Allan Stuart.
• Record created by Jasmine Jones.
• Thank you to Barbara Corley for creating WikiTree profile Adams-11859 through the import of export-BloodTree.ged on May 12, 2013.

• Original data: Town and City Clerks of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Vital and Town Records. Provo, UT: Holbrook Research Institute (Jay and Delene Holbrook).

Mackenzie, George Norbury, and Nelson Osgood Rhoades, editors. Colonial Families of the United States of America: in Which is Given the History, Genealogy and Armorial Bearings of Colonial Families Who Settled in the American Colonies From the Time of the Settlement of Jamestown, 13th May, 1607, to the Battle of Lexington, 19th April, 1775. 7 volumes. 1912. Reprinted, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1966, 1995.