Hannah (Wilcoxson) Adams (1755 - 1801)

Born 17 Dec 1755 in Simsbury, Connecticut

Ancestors

Descendants

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Biography

Hannah Wilcox married Connecticut patriot Ezra Adams. ^[1]

Her surname appears in other unnamed sources as Wilcoxson.

Hannah Wilcox (1755 - 1801), daughter of Col. Amos Wilcox, married Ezra Adams, Esq., born in 1751 to David Adams and Mindwell Case. Four of their children were said to have been born "with usual capacities, [ but] soon sunk into and died in a state of idiocy, which was a great trial to their parents." Hannah died in 1801, so all of these children would have been hers. They had 8 children:

1. Mindwell Adams, ("idiot") 1773, 1777, age 4.
2. Ezra Adams, Jun. 1775,1836, age 61. Married Abigail Hurlbut.
3. Abel Adams, ("idiot") 1777, 1786, age 9.
4. Hannah Adams, ("idiot") 1780, 1791, age 11.
5. Tracy Adams, ("idiot") 1788, 1800, age 12.
6. Laura Adams, 1790, Married Deems Humphrey.
7. Infant Adams, 1793, 1793.
8. David Adams, 1798. Died in Clarksville, Tennessee. ^[2]

Note: Ezra Adams was a tanner and shoe dealer. Intimations of mental infirmity among the children of this family may not necessarily have been related to genetic factors, rather could have been due to exposure to preservative substances used at that time for the curing of skins to produce leather. Among those substances were metallic elements such as mercury and arsenic, which are effective antimicrobial agents to prevent biodegradation of the leather itself, yet per current understanding do produce untoward effects upon nerve tissues in mammalian systems when exposure concentrations are elevated, particularly in children.

Hannah (Wilcox) Adams died in 1801.

Sources

1. ↑ Daughters of the American Revolution, DAR Genealogical Research Databases, database online, (http://www.dar.org/ : accessed Sep 29, 2021), "Record of ADAMS, EZRA", Ancestor # A000484.Meehan-411
2. ↑ Brown, Abiel, Genealogical history, with short sketches and family records, of the early settlers of West Simsbury, now Canton, Conn., p. 7-8, Press of Case, Tiffany, and Company, Hartford,1856; Reprinted, N. Y. 1899.

• The Grant Family (1898), p. 38: https://archive.org/details/grantfamilygenea00gran/page/38/mode/1up