Adams political family

The Adams family is an American political family of English origins, most prominent between the late 18th century and the early 20th century. Based in eastern Massachusetts, they formed part of the Boston Brahmin community. The family traces to Henry Adams of Barton St David, Somerset, in England. Its members include U.S. presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams. The two presidents and their descendants are also descended from John Alden, who came to the United States on the Mayflower.

The Adams family is one of four families to have produced two presidents of the United States by the same surname; the others being the Bush, Roosevelt, and Harrison families.

John Adams

John Adams was born on October 30, 1735 (October 19, 1735, Old Style, Julian calendar), to John Adams Sr. and Susanna Boylston. He had two younger brothers: Peter (1738–1823) and Elihu (1741–1775). Adams was born on the family farm in Braintree, Massachusetts. His mother was from a leading medical family of present-day Brookline, Massachusetts. His father was a deacon in the Congregational Church, a farmer, a cordwainer, and a lieutenant in the militia. John Sr. served as a selectman (town councilman) and supervised the building of schools and roads. Adams often praised his father and recalled their close relationship. Adams's great-great-grandfather Henry Adams immigrated to Massachusetts from Braintree, Essex, England, around 1638.

Though raised in modest surroundings, Adams felt pressured to live up to his heritage. His family was descended from Puritans, whose strict religious doctrines had profoundly shaped New England's culture, laws, and traditions. By the time of John Adams's birth, Puritan tenets such as predestination had waned and many of their severe practices moderated, but Adams still "considered them bearers of freedom, a cause that still had a holy urgency". Adams recalled that his parents "'held every Species of Libertinage in ... Contempt and horror,' ... and painted 'pictures of disgrace, or baseness and of Ruin' that would result from licentious behavior". Adams later noted that "As a child I enjoyed perhaps the greatest of blessings that can be bestowed upon men – that of a mother who was anxious and capable to form the characters of her children."

Adams, as the eldest child, was compelled to obtain a formal education. This began at age six at a dame school for boys and girls, conducted at a teacher's home, and was centered upon The New England Primer. Shortly thereafter, Adams attended Braintree Latin School under Joseph Cleverly, where studies included Latin, rhetoric, logic, and arithmetic. Adams's early education included incidents of truancy, a dislike for his master, and a desire to become a farmer. All discussion on the matter ended with his father's command that he remain in school: "You shall comply with my desires." Deacon Adams hired a new schoolmaster named Joseph Marsh, and his son responded positively.

Members

• Henry Adams (1583–1646) born Barton St David, Somerset, England, first of the clan who immigrated to New England, United States.

• Samuel Adams (1722–1803), revolutionary, delegate to the Continental Congress and governor of Massachusetts, John Adams's second cousin.
• Samuel A. Adams (1934–1988), historian and CIA analyst.
• John Donley Adams (born 1973), American politician and lawyer.

Family religion

Adams was raised a Congregationalist but left the denomination as a young man. By his early 20s, he identified as a Unitarian, a Protestant denomination that had been recently formed. Adams always felt pressured to live up to his heritage. His family was descended from Puritans, whose strict religious doctrines had profoundly shaped New England's culture, laws, and traditions. By the time of his birth, the Congregationalists no longer called themselves "Puritans"; their severe practices had largely been dropped in the First Great Awakening of the 1730s. Adams praised them historically as bearers of freedom, a cause that still had a holy urgency". Adams recalled that his parents "held every Species of Libertinage in ... Contempt and horror", and detailed "pictures of disgrace, or baseness and of Ruin" resulting from any debauchery.

According to Dr. Sara Georgini, editor of The John Adams Papers:

From John Adams through his grandson Charles Francis, the Adams family creed was conventionally Unitarian. They believed in a guiding Providence. They trusted that human will empowered them to freely accept or reject God’s grace. They turned away from miracles and revelation, preferring biblical criticism and lay inquiry to broaden the mind beyond the passive reception of dogma. Acknowledging Jesus as a “master workman” and gifted moral teacher, they grew fuzzy about his divinity, opting instead to scrutinize his teachings and doctrines as they related to contemporary culture. In line with their Protestant peers, most Adamses mistrusted the sensory emphasis and hierarchical nature of “Romish” Catholicism, but they revered Judaism as a source of lawmaking and ethics.

Family tree

The following is a selective family tree of notable members of the Adams family relative to Charles Francis Adams IV:

Harvard University and the Adams family

The Adams family had an extensive relationship with Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The following members of the family attended and graduated from Harvard:

• John Adams, class of 1755
• John Quincy Adams, class of 1788 and faculty member
• Charles Adams, class of 1789
• Thomas Boylston Adams, class of 1790
• George Washington Adams, class of 1821
• John Adams II, expelled with most of senior class prior to 1823 graduation, later among those designated "Bachelor of Arts as of 1823" and added to Harvard's Roll of Graduates
• John Quincy Adams II, class of 1853
• Charles Francis Adams Sr., class of 1825
• Charles Francis Adams Jr., class of 1856
• Henry Brooks Adams, class of 1858 and faculty member
• Brooks Adams, class of 1870
• George Caspar Adams, class of 1886, played football at Harvard and served as their head football coach for three seasons
• Charles Francis Adams III, class of 1888
• Roger Adams, class of 1909
• Charles Francis Adams IV, class of 1932
• Thomas Boylston Adams, class of 1933 (did not graduate)
• Samuel A. Adams – class of 1955

Adams House, one of 12 residential colleges at Harvard, is named after John Adams and later members of the Adams family.

Memorials

• Adams Memorial
• Adams National Historical Park
  • Peacefield

See also

• List of United States political families

Notes

References

Further reading

• Brookhiser, Richard (2002). America's First Dynasty: The Adamses, 1735-1918. Simon and Schuster. Excerpt.
• Decker, William Merrill. "Dynasty, Declension, and the Endurance of the House of Adams." Reviews in American History 49.2 (2021): 250-258. online

• Egerton, Douglas R. Heirs of an Honored Name: The Decline of the Adams Family and the Rise of Modern America (Basic Books, 2019). excerpt
• Georgini, Sara. Household Gods: The Religious Lives of the Adams Family (Oxford University Press, 2019) excerpt

• Kirtley, James Samuel (1910). Half Hour Talks on Character Building: By Self-made Men and Women. A. Hamming. OCLC 13927429.

• Maddox, Robert J. "The Adamses in America". American History Illustrated, Jul 1971, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 12-21.

• Nagel, Paul C. Descent from Glory: Four Generations of the Adams Family (1983).
• Nagel, Paul C. The Adams Women: Abigail and Louisa Adams, Their Sisters and Daughters (Harvard University Press, 1999).

Biographies

• Abrams, Jeanne E. A View from Abroad: The Story of John and Abigail Adams in Europe (NYU Press, 2021).

• Chinard, Gilbert (1933). Honest John Adams. Boston, MA: Little, Brown, and Company. OCLC 988108386.
• Diggins, John P. (2003). Schlesinger, Arthur M. Jr. (ed.). John Adams. The American Presidents. New York, NY: Time Books. ISBN 978-0-8050-6937-2.
• Ellis, Joseph J. (1993). Passionate Sage: The Character and Legacy of John Adams. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-31133-4.
• Ferling, John E. (1992). John Adams: A Life. Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press. ISBN 978-0-87049-730-8.
• McCullough, David (2001). John Adams. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4165-7588-7.
• Morse, John Torey (1884). John Adams. Boston, MA: Houghton, Mifflin, and Company. OCLC 926779205.
• Smith, Page (1962a). John Adams. Vol. I, 1735–1784. New York, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc. ISBN 9780837123486. OCLC 852986601. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
• Smith, Page (1962b). John Adams. Vol. II, 1784–1826. New York, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-8371-2348-6. OCLC 852986620. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)