Person:John Adams (284)

Stafford Co. split to form Prince William which split to form Fairfax which split to form Loudon. In 1765 were living in Shelburn Parish, Loudon Co., Va., on the south side of Blue Ridge. John and family moved to Roaring River, NC around 1777. It was then in Surry Co., but that split in 1779 leaving them in Wilkes Co., NC.

Shirley Verley of Chehalis, WA, shows Jacob's father as Benjamin Adams, but shows no verification or other information about him. The information shown on this Family Group Record was compiled by Sumner Hunt of Alabama. It is supported by tax rolls and other documentation. She has additional information on John Sr.'s children, where they moved, whom they married, etc.

From "Adams Families of Southeast Kentucky," by Dorothy A. Griffith and Robert E. Parkin, 1986: John Adams of Loudoun Co., Colonial Virginia, was progenitor of several Adams families who settled in frontier southeast Kentucky after less than a generation in Surry and Wilkes Cos., NC. Although John Adams Sr. apparently never knew Kentucky as his home, three of his four sons and only known daughter's family lived in Floyd Co.; Two of his sons died there. John Adams and his wife, Ann, appear to have died in their home on Roaring River, Wilkes Co., at about the time that two of their sons were moving to Kentucky.

John Adams was born about 1727, supposedly in the northwestern part of Virginia's Stafford Co. His parentage has not been determined. A few years after his birth, Prince William Co. was formed from Staford, and he spent his youth there in his family's home, nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Then, in 1742, Fairfax Co. was formed from Prince William.

Here, about 1746, John Adams married. He was barely nineteen years old; his bride must have been as young, if not younger. Because no marriage record has been found, her surname is unknown. Some speculate it was Caudill (not impossible, but improbable). Her given name, Ann, is found nearly forty years later in a church record (S. Fork Roaring River Baptist Church, Minutes), i.e., "Satterday ye 13th day of August, 1785, John Adams and Ann Adams joined the church by exp. (experience) and bapt. (baptism), also David Clark was excommunicated, also sister Turner joined by exp."

Three of John and Ann's four sons were born in Fairfax County before formation --in 1757--of Loudoun County. Their last son and a daughter were, thus, natives of Loudoun County. Children of John and Ann Adams were John Jr., who was born in 1753; Spencer, born in 1759, and Frances Adams, who was born in 1765, all born in Virginia.

John Adams, Sr. was a planter of some success but, until 1769, he owned no land. On the 1765 tax roll of Loudoun County he appears as "John Adams, no land, 1 tithe." This roll was taken by Francis Peyton; it appears from subsequent lists that Adams resided in Shelburne Parish. John Adams also is on Colonel Nicholas Minor's 1767 tax roll with one tithe. Then, in 1768 on Minor's list Adams appears with "John Adams, Jr." and two tithes. John Jr. had just become twenty-one years of age and, thus, was "tithed" for the first time. (Tithes were levied when a male reached age of twenty-one and discontinued when he was fifty-nine, or physically disabled. This ancient formula seens almost irrefutable; it proved a key device in identifying John Adams and his sons).

On January 1, 1769, John Adams received a lifetime leasehold of 100 acres from Lord Thomas Fairfax, then governor of Colonial Virginia. This deed (Loudoun Deeds, Book G, pg. 122) grants a leasehold at annual rent of forty shillings, "for lives of John Adams and his son John Adams and Spencer Adams (another of) his sons, and the longest liver of them." It was customary to use this phrasing and name young sons of the grantee in order to assure longevity of the term of lease. Adams's location, surveyed by Joseph Hough, was on the south side of Blue Ridge, on the line of William Fitzhugh and corner of Edmondson, "by a swamp." This deed was duly recorded June 12, 1769, in the courthouse at Leesburg.

John Adams, Sr. now was forty-two years old. John Jr. was a young man. Two sons Benjamin and Jacob, were in their teens. The youngest, Spencer (named in his father's deed), was less than ten. Sister "Franky" was about three years old. Thus, when Levin Powell presented his tax list for 1769, John Adams and John Jr. again are shown with two tithes.

Powell's list for 1770 shows John Adams Sr. with his son, Benjamin, two tithes, with ten scalps. Benjamin now had become twenty-one. John Adams Jr. also is listed with a negro, Ralph, for two tithes, with ten scalps. Young adams apparently was married at this time. John Adams Sr. is not found on the 1773 list but, the following year, he was counted along with his sons, Benjamin and Jacob, as three tithes. This, again, was the year in which Jacob Adams became twenty-one years old. In 1775, John Adams Sr., Benjamin and Jacob appear as three tithes, for the last time in Loudoun County. John Adams Jr. and negro, Winney, show as two tithes on the 1776 tax list of Shelburne Parish, taken by Thomas Lewis.

John Adams Sr.'s family left Loudoun County during and perhaps because of the Revolutionary War. Benjamin and Jacob are on record as having served on America's Continental Line, Benjamin in Virginia and Jacob just across the Potomac River in Maryland, as well as Virginia.

The Rebellion was at its height, however, within a year's time when the entire Adams family reassembled in Surry County, Northe Carolina. They settled on Roaring River in an area soon to become Wilkes County. Surry's 1777 tax list--obviously incomplete--shows "John Adams Sr., estate valued at 119£, assessed 4 shillings, 8 1/2 pence," and "John Adams Jr., estate valued at 63£, assessed 4 shillings."

Nonetheless, Jacob Adams was married in January, 1777, in a ceremony recorded at Salisbury, county seat of Rowan, perhaps by a circuit riding minister. Jacob's brother, Spencer Adams was bondsman.

On January 9, 1779 (North Carolina Land Grants, No. 1204), John Adams (Sr.) "entered" 300 acres, "Beginneing at white oak . . ." in Surry County. Within the year, this part of Surry became Wilkes County. A certificate as issued ten years later. Due to formation of Wilkes and scarcity of earliest tax lists, it is impossible to account for John Adams and each son for a couple of years. Further complicating this search, Roaring River's tax list for 1782 is missing. Subsequent listing, however, prove beyond any doubt that they lived in the Roaring River area.

Besides John Adams Sr., each son--John Jr., Benjamin, Jacob and Spencer--all received land grants, each on a branch of Roaring River. While there are other Adams families in Wilkes County, when annual tax lists are broken down by districts and Roaring River is segregated from Reddies River, Lewis Fork, Brushy Mountains, etc., the former contains this one Adams family. Following is such a breakdown for all Adams taxpapers on Roaring River, 1784-1800:

On October 24, 1785 (Wilkes Deeds A1:449), in an apparent exchange of properties, John Adams acquired 172 acres on Big Sandy Creek from his son, Benjamin. This remained the home place of John and Ann Adams Sr. for the last twenty years of their lives.

The 1787 State Census of Wilkes County and 1790 (First) U.S. decennial census confirm not only John Adams Sr.'s age, but his current family situation. In 1787, he is sixty years old, and the only female in his household is his wife Ann; she must have been about fifty-seven, then. Three years later they are enumerated alone in Morgan's district, Sixth Company, placing them on Roaring River. "Satterday ye 13th of August, 1785," according to minutes of South Fork Roaring River Baptist Church, "The church meeting in order Bro. John Adams and sister Ann Adams joined the church by experience and baptism."

On January "ye 14th," 1792, John Adams "made an acknowledgement that he had transgrest in getting drunk, and the church received his recantation." This may have been John Sr. or his son.

In October, 1803 (Wilkes Deeds C1:531), the seventy-five year old patriarch conveyed his 172-acre home tract to his eldest son, John Adams Jr.

Although John Adams Sr. is accounted for in the 1799 tax list and 1800 Census of Wilkes, he is not named in the 1800 tax list for Roaring River district. Nor is he found in the next available tax list, dated 1805. John Adams Sr. is not in Captain Holloway's list of Roaring River taxables, although two of his sons who remained in North Carolina, Benjamin and Jacob Adams, were still there with their families.

Thus, it is presumed, John Adams Sr. died about 1804 on Roaring River, for there is no record of his having moved to Floyd County, Kentucky, with his sons, John Jr. and Spencer Adams. (Adams Families of Southeast Kentucky, D.A. Griffith & R.E. Parkin, 1986)