Ferdinando Adams, a shoemaker, was a churchwarden at St Mary-le-Tower
in Ipswich, Suffolk, in 1636. Samuel Ward (ODNB), town preacher at
Ipswich from 1605, had been suspended by the Court of High Commission
in November 1635. Adams then refused to unlock the church for the church
authorities when they came on a visitation in 1636. He was excommunicated
for refusing to put the communion table in place of seats against the
east wall of the chancel, and for failing to remove a wall inscription of Mark
11.17 ('My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of
thieves'). Clement Corbet (ODNB), chancellor of the diocese of Norwich, told
his bishop, Matthew Wren: 'We heard ... of the business concerning Adames.
There be too many Adames in that towne, both Ecclesiasticks and Laickes.' In
a subsequent court case, Adams was represented by William Prynne ( ODNB)
and Thomas Lechford.
Adams left for New England in 1637 and settled with his wife Ann* at
Dedham, Massachusetts. Governor John Winthrop wrote out a bond for
Adams on 5 July 1637, which noted that he was 'under question in some of his
majesties Courts for matter of Contempt or misdemeanour, for which some
engagement may lye upon others there, for his departure, or some displeasure
or damage may arise to the magistrates or others heere for receivinge of
him'. Adams promised to pay any costs in England or New England arising
from this, and to appear in English courts if required. Adams was admitted
to the Dedham church on 25 January 1639/40, some months after his wife,
'giving very good testimony of the grace of god in him and of his repentance
from his distempers which had become offensive'. He became a freeman of
Massachusetts on 13May1640.
On 20 July 1641, Adams presented to the Dedham church his reasons for
wishing to return to England for a while 'out of the watch of the church'. 'His
undertaking and reasons were thought by the whole Church to be according
to god', and at his request, after satisfying a brother about some unresolved
questions (which are not spelt out in the record), 'he had from the elders a
testimony of his unblameable conversation amongst us and departed 3d 6m
[August] 1641'. Adams sailed back at the same time as Thomas Lechford
(who had acted as his lawyer in England) and the colonial agents Hugh Peter*
and Thomas Weld*. After his return he sent for Ann, but then - despite his
memorable name - disappears from sight