Return to main Johnson file
Send comments and corrections to anneb0704@yahoo.co.uk
ROBERT ADAMS (c. 1596–1682)
ELEANOR UNKNOWN (d. 1677)
Robert Adams was born about 1596. He died on 12 October 1682, age 86, in Newbury. [1] He married Eleanor ___. He married Sarah Short on 6 February 1677[/8?] in Newbury. [1] Sarah was Sarah (Glover) Short, the widow of Henry Short. [2] She died on 24 October 1697 in Newbury. [1]
Eleanor died on 12 June 1677 in Newbury. [1]
Robert and Eleanor came to Ipswich in 1635. [2] He was in Salem in 1638/1639. [2]
Robert was a tailor. [2] He played little role in public life; he was quarrelsome; he was a relatively affluent man.
The September 1640 quarterly court at Salem ordered, "Robert Adames to be set by the heels in the stocks for being uncharitable to a poor man in distress, taking his canoe, for charging court with injustice, etc." [3, 1: 21] At the same court, Robert sued John Skudder (who had testified against him about the canoe) for trespass. [3, 1: 21] He also sued George Haries at the June 1641 court in Salem—again in relation to the matter of the canoe. [3, 1: 28]
At the December 1645 court in Salem, John Kitchen sued Robert for defamation. Eleanor Downing testified that Robert called John a false fellow. Robert was fined five shillings for saying the court should have thrown the case out. [3, 1: 89] At the December 1648 court in Salem Richard answered to Mary Oliver for taking away a ladder. [3, 1: 154]
On 22 May 1651 Robert Adams, yeoman of Newbury, bought Edmund Greenleaf's farm in Newbury containing about 150 acres of upland and 50 acres of meadow for 60 pounds. [3, 5: 225]
Richard Kent sued Robert Adams of Newbury at the September 1651 court at Ipswich for not allowing him passage on the usual highway. The court found for Robert. [3, 1: 232] The town of Newbury decided to build a road from Richard's island through Robert's march, and as compensation gave Robert land elsewhere. The townsman said that Richard would agree to anything reasonable but Robert refused to yield and the town went ahead and laid out a way. Richard attempted to use it while coming home from the Rowley mill. Robert tried to stop him and Richard knocked down part of his orchard fence. Robert sued Richard for this. The September 1653 court at Ipswich found for Robert and Richard agreed to use the old way—avoiding the orchard—while a new way was finished. [3, 1: 300]
Robert was on the trial jury at the September 1657, March 1660, September 1660, March 1661, March 1663, and September 1669 courts in Ipswich. [3, 2: 51, 195, 225, 266; 3: 21; 4: 175]
The June 1658 court at Salem noted that a "disorderly meeting" was held at the house of "one Nicholas Phelps of Salem" on the Lord's day, at the time of public worship. Two know Quakers tried to escape but were caught and jailed; others wore ordered to appear at court. Robert was present at the meeting and was ordered to appear at the next court, held in July, and there was ordered to pay costs. [3, 2: 103, 107]
The Newbury church quarreled over seating arrangements. In 1670 Reverend Parker was suspended from his ministry there due to a Presbyterian bias. After much disagreement involving the General Court, it was ordered that Reverend John Richardson should assist Parker. [4] For his part in the dispute, the May 1672 Ipswich court ordered Robert to make a public acknowledgment next lecture day or pay a fine. [3, 5: 39]
Robert fenced about ten acres of what Newbury regarded as common land and the town sued him at the September 1673 court in Ipswich. The court found for the town. [3, 5: 224]
Robert was on a coroner's jury on 16 October 1680 that found that "George March's negro" had wondered from George's house and perished from cold and hunger. [3, 8: 59]
Robert Adams made his will on 7 March 1680 and reviewed it on 27 June 1682. It was proved at Salem on 28 November 1682. He confirmed his wife Sarah's right to the annuity given to her in her former husband's will, and left her his great chest and the highest chair in the room they lived in for her widowhood. He gave her the right to live in his house and use the parlor for one year. He left his eldest son John 20 pounds, besides what he already had. He left his son Isaac Adams a five pound lifetime annuity, the bed in the north garret, the least brass pot and "bothooks" and the right to live in the north garret while he remained single. He left his son Jacob the house Jacob lived in and its land and his meadow on the Neck on the south side of the the Newbury River. He left his daughter Hannah Adams 20 pounds and gave the bed and furniture in the parlor, the bigger brass pot, and his great chest and high chair (at the end of his wife's widowhood) to her daughter Joanna [Hanna]. He left his daughters Elizabeth, the wife of Edward Phelps, Joanna, the wife of Lancelot Granger , and Mary, the wife of Jeremiah Goodridge, each a cow. He left the three sons of his son Abraham, Robert, Abraham, and Isaac, each a gun and a sword to each of the two elder. All the rest of his effects were to go to his son Abraham, with his lands to go to his eldest son Robert after Abraham's death, as well as his great brass kettle, tables, andirons, and spit. He named Abraham and Abraham's son Robert his joint executors and mentioned Abraham's wife Mary. He added that he left his daughter Joanna Granger his pewter tankard and pewter bowl; his granddaughter Mary, daughter of Abraham, a box with a lock and key and six diaper napkins. He asked his friends Mr. John Woodbridge and Mr. Nicholas Noyes, both of Newbury to be his overseers and gave each a "wether." Inventory on his estate amounted to a sizable £916-17-00. [5]
Robert's will and inventory were presented to the November 1682 court at Salem. [3, 8: 437]
Children of Robert Adams: Order uncertain
i. Elizabeth Adams was born about 1626. She died on 4 May 1718 in Andover. She married Edward Phelps
ii. John Adams was the eldest son.
Adams [2] appears to find no further record of him after his father's will.
iii. Joanna Adams was born about 1633/4 in England. [2] She married Lancelot Granger on 15 November 1660 in Newbury. [1] He died on 3 September 1689 in Suffield, Connecticut. [2, 8 September][6]
Joanna ("Joane") deposed that she was 17 on 25 March 1650/1. [3, 1: 212]
Lancelot and Joanna moved to Suffield. [2]
iv. Sergeant Abraham Adams was born on 1639 in Salem. [7] He died on 14 June 1714 in Newbury. [1][7] He married Mary Pettingale on 16 November 1670 in Newbury. [1][3, 3: 320] She died on 19 September 1705 in Newbury. [1]
Abraham deposed that he was ten on 25 March 1650/1. [3, 1: 212]
v. Mary Adams was born say 1645. She married Jeremiah Goodridge on 15 November 1660 in Newbury. [1]
vi. Isaac Adams was born about 1648. He died after 27 June 1682.
His father left him an annuity, suggesting he might have been incompetent in some way.
vii. Jacob Adams was born on 23 April 1649 in Newbury. [1] He died there on 12 August 1649. [1]
viii. Hannah Adams was born on 25 June 1650 in Newbury. [1] She married William Warham on 10 February 1681 in Newbury. [1]
At the November 1678 court in Salem, Hannah acknowledged Joseph Mayo to be the father of her child. Her brothers Jacob and Isaac also testified. Joseph was ordered to pay 20 shillings to Abraham Adams. Hannah was presented at the April 1679 court in Salem for fornication. The September 1679 court ordered that she be severely whipped, unless she paid a fine. The November 1679 court ordered Joseph to pay 30 pence a week to Abraham Adams, Hannah's attorney, until the court ordered otherwise. Meanwhile, Joseph had been sued by Hannah's stepbrother Henry Short for fornication with his sister Sarah Short. He withdrew the complaint on 9 June 1679 after Joseph married Sarah. [3, 7: 137, 187, 265, 316] Hannah's daughter Hannah was born on 12 October 1678 in Newbury. [1]
The March 1683 court ordered William and Hannah to be whipped for fornication before marriage or to pay a fine. [3, 9: 20]
ix. Jacob Adams was born on 13 or 14 April 1654 in Newbury. [1] He died in 1717 in Boston, while attending the General Court. [2] He married Anna Allen on 7 April 1677 in Newbury. [1] Anna, the daughter of Nicholas Allen of Dorchester, was born on 8 January 1658. [2]
Jacob and his wife were presented for fornication before marriage at the November 1677 court in Ipswich. They were ordered to be whipped or pay a five-pound fine. [3, 6: 344]
Jacob moved to Suffield, where he was a representative to the General Court. [2]
Endnotes:
1. Vital Records of Newbury, Massachusetts to the End of the Year 1849, vol. 1, vol. 2 (Salem: Essex Institute, 1911).
1: 13 ADAMS Hanna, d. Robert, June 25, 1650. 2: 8 ADAMS Abraham, and Mary Pettingall, Nov. 16, 1670. |
2: 533 ADAMS Abraham [s. Robert. G. R. 2.], June 14, 1714, a. 75 y. 2: 534 ADAMS Ellnar, w. Robert, June 12, 1677. 2: 536 ADAMS Mary, w, Sergt. Abraham, Sept. 19, 1705. 2: 536 ADAMS Robert, Oct. 12, [1682. S. dup.] [a. 86 y. G. R. 2.] 2: 537 ADAMS Sarah, Oct. 24, 1697. 2: 537 ADAMS ________, ch. Robert, Aug. [12. C. C.], 1649. |
2. Andrew N. Adams, A Genealogical History of Robert Adams, of Newbury, Mass. (n.p.: Adams, 1900).
3. George Francis Dow, ed., and Harriet S. Tapley, trans., Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, 9 vols., digitized books, Salem Witch Trials: Documentary Archive and Transcription Project (http://salem.lib.virginia.edu).
4. "Newbury, Mass. First Church," webpage, Congregational Library and Archives (https://www.congregationallibrary.org/nehh/series1/NewburyMAFirst0937 : accessed 16 November 1023).
5. "Abstract of the Will of Robert Adams of Newbury," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 9 (1855): 126.
6. "Connecticut: Vital Records (The Barbour Collection), 1630–1870," database with images, AmericanAncestors.org > Suffield
7. John Mason Pettingell, Charles Henry Pope and Charles I. Pettingell, A Pettingell Genealogy (Boston: Fort Hill Press, 1906).
© A. Buiter 2014
16-Nov-2023 6:28 PM