An illustrious pedigree for the immigrant ancestor of President John Adams was published in the New England Historic and Genealogical Register in 1853.^[1] The pedigree began to come into question by 1877.^[2] Hilariously, in 1880 the Register consulted with Horatio Gates Somerby, later proved to be a prolific forger himself, who claimed to have seen the (certainly nonexistent) parchment but nevertheless stated that the pedigree was forged.^[3]

The Register fully disavowed the pedigree by 1883^[4] and repeatedly thereafter.^[5] It's described as "one of the most embarrassing nineteenth-century forgeries."^[6]

Finally, J. Gardner Bartlett published the proven ancestry of immigrant ancestor Henry Adams in 1927.^[7]

The Claim

"The following very ancient pedigree of the Adams family has been furnished by William Downing Bruce, Esq., F.S.A., and Cor. Mem. of N.E.H.G. Soc., of the Middle Temple, London. His letter accompanying it, addressed to J. W. Thornton, Esq., is as follows:—'No. 9 Victoria Square, London, Nov. 1st, 1851. Dear Sir.—I have found, what I consider of great interest to every American, the genealogy of John Adams, the second President of the United States. It is copied from an ancient parchment roll with arms, &c. of the times of Charles I., which I discovered among the papers of the late Edward Hamlin Adams, Esq., M.P. for the county of Carmarthen, and it is now in the possession of his son Edward Adams, Esq., of Middleton Hall, in the said county. Mr. Adams is a gentleman of great wealth and consequence in this county, and takes a great interest in genealogy.' Mr. Bruce is himself maternally descended from the Adams family."^[1]

Fraudulent Ap Adam pedigree from NEHGR 7 (1853), with a few known falsities highlighted

The Claim Questioned

"ADAMS PEDIGREE.... Having, many years ago, heard the authenticity of this pedigree questioned, we wrote lately to Col. Chester on the subject. In his reply he writes: 'After the most careful investigation, I have no hesitation in pronouncing the portion connecting the English family with the Braintree Adamses utterly incorrect.' Can any of our readers tell us whether the 'ancient parchment roll with arms &c.,' which Mr. Bruce quotes and which he states was, in 1851, in the possession of Edward Adams, Esq., of Middleton Hall, Carmarthenshire, is still preserved?—Ed."^[2]

"In it is reprinted from the seventh volume of the REGISTER the Adams Pedigree, copied in 1851 by the late William Downing Bruce, F.S.A., from a parchment roll belonging to Edward Adams, Esq., of Middleton Hall, Carmarthenshire. Subsequent researches have discredited the pretended descent of Henry Adams of Braintree from this family. The writer of this had a conversation with the late Horatio G. Somerby, Esq., not long before his death. Mr. Somerby had seen the parchment roll, which we believe cannot now be found. He however gave it as his opinion that the connection between the Braintree and English families was a forgery, though he thought from the appearance of the document that the parchment pedigree was drawn up, or additions were made to it, we forget which, many years before Mr. Bruce copied it. The researches of Col. Chester (REGISTER, XXXI. 333) have convinced him that the pretended connection is utterly incorrect. Mr. Somerby stated to us that a portion of the pedigree printed in the REGISTER was apparently correct. We think he said there was a William who married a daughter of Mr. Boringoton and had sons, George, Henry, Ambrose and John; and that George was the ancestor of Mr. Bruce. The statement that Henry died in Braintree, New England, and had the children named in the pedigree, he thought an evident forgery. As the REGISTER has unwittingly given currency to an erroneous pedigree, we deem it our duty to make this correction."^[3]

The Claim Refuted

"In 1880, Prof. Herbert B. Adams, Ph.D., of Johns Hopkins University, reprinted, in his Adams and Hastings genealogy, from the REGISTER for January, 1853, the pedigree furnished by one of its contributors tracing the Adams family of Braintree, Mass., to one Ap Adam who came out of the Marches of Wales in the thirteenth century. In the notice of this book (REG. xxxiv. 432) the editor stated his reasons for putting no faith in this pedigree. In a subsequent interview with Prof. Adams the editor recommended him to write to Col. Chester, who had pronounced the pretended connection between the English and American families "utterly incorrect" (See REGISTER, xxxi. 333). Prof. Adams wrote to Col. Chester, and received the following reply:

124 Southwark Park Road,

London, England,

Nov. 13, 1880.

Dear Sir:

I have your letter of the 31st of October. My inability to accept the Adams descent [as printed in the REGISTER, vol. vii. page 39, and reprinted in the Adams and Hastings genealogy] arises from two causes:

1st, From being, for good and substantial reasons, unable to accept the testimony of Mr. — in such matters unless verified by other evidence, and

2ndly, From being unable, after the most persevering and exhaustive investigations, to establish a single one of the facts stated in the latter portion of the pedigree.

The early portion of the pedigree is all right, as it is a mere transcript of the one recorded by the Heralds in their Visitation of Devonshire in 1564. This Visitation pedigree, however, ends with Nicholas, who stands in the pedigree in your book, page 22 [and in the REGISTER, vol. vii. p. 40, line 4], thus: "1574, Nicholas," by which you will identify him, who was then married and had issue. No brothers of this Nicholas are given, and according to the construction of these records at the College of Arms, the absence of brothers is prima facie evidence that there were none.

The rest of the pedigree, beginning with John, brother of Nicholas, is an addition by somebody, but whether by Mr. — or some one else I do not pretend to say. All I can or choose to say is, that I have exhausted every possible resource and have been unable to substantiate it in any one particular. Mr. — himself promised me over and over again that I should have a sight of the original document, but he never kept his promise, always having some excuse. I think I remember rightly that Mr. Henry B. Adams, son of Mr. Charles Francis Adams, when the latter was minister here, experienced the same difficulty in obtaining anything satisfactory from Mr. —. At all events, I have in my pоssession every Adams will and administration (I mean I have personally examined them and have full abstracts of them) in the Principal Registry of Probate in London (which covers the whole country), and also from the District Registry at Exeter (which covers Devonshire), besides collections from every part of the kingdom where an Adams is ever known to have lived, and I cannot find the slightest corroboration of this portion of the pedigree. Hence, with my knowledge of Mr. —'s character and reputation in such matters, I am unable to place the least reliance upon the later portion of the pedigree. The construction of it is ingenious, but defective. The end of the old pedigree was a most convenient place to which to attach the New England descent, and my own opinion is that this was done, by somebody, without the slightest authority. A precisely similar thing has been done with the Washington pedigree within the last year or two. I have not yet received the copy of your book which you sent me, but I have had a copy for some weeks sent me from Boston.

Very truly yours,

Jos. L. Chester.

"Though the readers of the REGISTER have repeatedly been told in its pages that no reliance can be placed in this pedigree, we are sorry to say that it has since been reproduced several times. The latest instance which has come to our knowledge is in a recent volume devoted to the biography of prominent New Hampshire men."^[4]

Adams of Tunstall Pedigree from 1564 Visitation of Devon, referenced in NEHGR 37[8]

"As the readers of the REGISTER have already repeatedly been told that no reliance is to be placed on the pedigree that traces the Adams family of Braintree, Mass., to Ap Adam who in the thirteenth century 'came out of the Marches of Wales,' so now again we are obliged to assert it.... For a period of thirty years, from the first to the last mentioned of the Ap Adam descent, all the evidence accumulated has been in the direction of its untrustworthiness."^[5]

"During the past century at least four erroneous claims have been made concerning the place of his origin and his ancestry in England. In 1823 his descendant, President John Adams, erected a monument in Quincy, Mass., to his immigrant ancestor, Henry Adams, the inscription stating that he “took flight from the Dragon persecution in Devonshire in England.” In 1853 a long pedigree was published setting forth the descent of the emigrant Henry Adams from a landed Adams family at Fenn in Stoke-Gabriel, Co. Devon, claimed (erroneously) to be derived from the ancient baronial family of Ap Adam of Beverstone and Tidenham, Co. Gloucester; several years later it was shown that the alleged particular connection of Henry Adams with this family was false and rested on forged evidences.... Previous researches by the writer had shown that the emigrant Henry Adams was a son of John Adams of Barton St. David in Somersetshire and that the Adams family had long been located in that vicinity.

"Subsequent researches in England by Col. Charles E. Banks have established beyond question that the emigrant Henry Adams was a native of Barton St. David and that at least three generations of his ancestors resided in this parish for over a century prior to his emigration to New England in 1638."^[7]

Profiles referenced

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} “Pedigree of the Adams family, originally located at Braintree, Mass.,” The New England Historic and Genealogical Register, vol. 7, no. 1 (Jan 1853): pp. 39-45 at American Ancestors and free at Internet Archive.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} “Notes and queries: Adams pedigree,” The New England Historic and Genealogical Register, vol. 31, no. 3 (Jul 1877): p. 333 at American Ancestors and free at Internet Archive.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} “Book notices: Adams and Hastings families note,” The New England Historic and Genealogical Register, vol. 34, no. 4 (Oct 1880): pp. 432-3 at American Ancestors and free at Internet Archive.
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1} “The forgery in the Adams pedigree,” The New England Historic and Genealogical Register, vol. 37, no. 2 (Apr 1883): pp. 159-60 at American Ancestors and free at Internet Archive.
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1} “Book notices: The ancestry of Henry Adams of Braintree, New England,” The New England Historic and Genealogical Register, vol. 56, no. 2 (Apr 1902): p. 211 at American Ancestors and free at Internet Archive.
6. ↑ Apparently originates in an oft-copypasted genealogy.com forum post.
7. ↑ ^{7.0 7.1} Bartlett, J. Gardner, Henry Adams of Somersetshire, England, and Braintree, Mass.: his English ancestry and some of his descendants (New York: priv. print., 1927), pp. xiv-xv.
8. ↑ ^{8.0 8.1} Vivian, J.L., ed., The Visitations of the county of Devon, comprising the Herald's Visitations of 1531, 1564, & 1620 (Exeter: Henry S. Eland, 1895), p. 9.