Pelatiah Adams

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Pelatiah Adams (bp. 1656–1725), son of Thomas Adams and Mary Unknown

Ruth Unknown (d. 1719)

Pelatiah was born on 6 March 1645/6 in Concord. [1, 74–75] He was baptized on 1: 12m: 1656 in Chelmsford. [2, 13] He died on 29 April 1725 in Chelmsford. [2] He married Ruth, possibly Ruth Parker, by 1673. [3, 1:10]

Ruth, the wife of Pelatiah died on 18 September 1719 in Chelmsford. [2, 358]

Pelatiah Adams was on a 1 September 1674 list of able-bodied men in Chelmsford. [4, 90]

Pelatiah's father was granted land in Chelmsford and in 1683 he conveyed this land to Pelatiah. In 1702 Pelatiah deeded the land with a house to his two sons Thomas and Pelatiah. The house. This house—which still stands—has 17-inch wide load-bearing beams, gun-stock posts, 33-inch wide paneling, hand-split lath, an original fieldstone fireplace and a central chimney on a 12-foot square base that is constructed almost entirely of fieldstone. The house was used as a family dwelling until the 1950s. In 1959 it was a acquired by the Garrison House Association.

Children of Pelatiah and Ruth Adams:

i. Ruth Adams was born on 8 March 1673 in Chelmsford. [5] Ruth Adams of Chelmsford married as his second wife Thomas Blanchard on 4 October 1698 in Dunstable. [5][6, 105] on 13 February 1688/9. [5]

i. Thomas Adams was born about 1675. He died on 18 February 1746, age 71, in Dunstable, Massachusetts and is buried in the Old Dunstable Cemetery in Nashua, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire. [6, 207][7] Thomas married Jude Unknown. She died on 15 April 1754, age 74, in Dunstable. [6, 207]

iii. Elizabeth Adams was born on 26 April 1680 in Chelmsford. She married John Cummings.

iv. Pelatiah Adams was born on 17 November 1682 in Chelmsford. [2, 13] He died on 15 July 1746 in Chelmsford. He married Lydia Fletcher of Charlestown on 18 June 1711. [2, 174]

Pelatiah's gravestone in Chelmsford says that he died on 15 July 1746, age 63 years, seven months and 29 days. [4, 721]

v. Samuel Adams was born on 28 March 1685 in Chelmsford. [2, 13] He died on 29 June 1689 in Chelmsford. [2, 13]

vi. Edith Adams was born on 25 June 1688 in Chelmsford. [2, 10]

vii. Sarah Adams was born on 12 July 1691 in Chelmsford. She died on 24 April 1761, age 69, in Westford. She married Captain Joseph Fletcher.

viii. Abigail Adams was born on 7 June 1697 in Chelmsford. [2, 13] She married Aaron Parker.

Endnotes:

1. J. Gardner Bartlett, Henry Adams of Somersetshire, England and Braintree, Mass. (New York: privately printed, 1927).

2.Vital Records of Chelmsford, Massachusetts: To the End of the Year 1849 (Salem: Essex Institute, 1914). Adams: Baptism of Pelatiah (as s. Thomas). Births of the children as ch. Pelatiah and Ruth, except Elizabeth as d. Pelatiah, 9–13. Pelatiah's death (as Pelatiah, Sr.), son Pelatiah's death and Samuel's death (as s. Pelatiah and Ruth), pp. 355–9.

3. Clarence Almon Torrey, "New England Marriages to 1700," database with images.

4. Wilson Waters, History of Chelmsford, Massachusetts (Lowell, MA: Courier-Citizen, 1917).

5. Ezra S. Stearns, Early Generations of the Founders of Old Dunstable: Thirty Families (Boston: George E. Littlefield, 1911), 5.

6.Vital Records of Dunstable, Massachusetts: To the End of the Year 1849 (Salem: Essex Institute, 1913).

7. Find a Grave, database and images (accessed 03 June 2023), memorial page for Thomas Adams (4 Feb 1675–18 Feb 1746), Memorial ID 12597642, citing Old Dunstable Cemetery, Nashua, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire; Maintained by Paul1957 (contributor 46616656).

Revised 03-Jun-2023