Person:John Adams (81)

John Adams, son of John and Elenor, settled first in Marshfield, MA. In 1658 he was admitted a freeman of Plymouth Colony. He later removed to Flushing, Long Island, NY from where in 1666 he sold his land in Plymouth. He later moved to Chester (Moorestown), Burlington Co, NJ. He married first at Marshfield Jane James and had four daughters. Jane died 1662/3 and he married Elizabeth by 1663.

John Adams was a prominent member of the Society of Friends both in NY and in NJ. In 1691 he exchanged land and houses in Flushing for acres near Rancocas Creek, Burlington Co, NJ and joined the Newton Monthly Meeting August 29, 1691. In 1761 he was named as "acceptable minister", a valuable Friend connected with the the early Chester meeting. He was a Justice of the Peace and a member of the West Jersey House of Representatives in 1697.

Reference:

The Genealogical Magazine of NJ;

(Whittemore's Adams Family, (1893) p. 55; Davis's Landmarks of Plymouth, II:3; Mayflower Descendant 1:157)

From:

New England Historical and Genalogical Register

vol. 33: pp. 410-413-3. JOHN² ADAMS (John¹) settled first in Marshfield. "He dwelt near Mount Skirgo, an elevation of the Marshfield bounds of the forest which lies between this town and Pembroke." [Miss Thomas's Memorials of Marshfield, p. 37] John was admitted a freeman of Plymouth Colony, June 1, 1658. He was a witness in a case of manslaughter, Jan 1654-5; a grand-juryman June, 1658; a member of a coroner's jury, July, 1658; and was appointed a constable of Marshfield, June 8, 1660. He subsequently removed to Flushing, Long Island, as is shown by a deed on record at Plymouth, Bk. iii. p. 127. The following is an abstact of an attested copy by William S. Danforth, register of deeds.

"Captain John Adams, of the towne of Flushinge, in Long Island in New England, America," sells Dec. 10, 1666, to "Nathaniel Warren of the Towne of Plymouth in the jurisdiction of Plymouth in New England, in America, " &c. "all that my share lot and portion of land att or neare a place commonly called and knowne by the name of Nama Nakett in the jurisdiction of Plymouth, aforesaid, which was granted unto mee the said JohnAdams as being one of the children of the old comers of the said Jurisdictin according to grant of the court for the jurisdiction of Plymouth aforesaid bearing date the third day of June An° Dom: one thousand six hundred and sixty and two [See list of grantees in Plymouth Colony Records (Boston, 1855), vol iv. p. 19.] being the twenty eighth part of the tract of land purchased by Captaine Thomas Southworth of the Indain Sachem named Josias Wampatuck in the behalf of said court." and also share of lands "purchased by Major winslow lying and being att Namassakeesett ponds." signed by John Adams and the mark of Elizabeth Adams, his wife.

After learning that John and Elizabeth Adams had removed to Flushing, I wrote to Henry Onderdonk Jr., Esq. , of Jamaica, L. I. , for any records he maght have of John Adams, of Flushing, and received in February ,1878, the following valuable memoranda, from his manuscript collections relative to Long Island history, which he has kindly permitted me to print: [recall that the Quakers did not use the pagan names of the months of the year, but used the number of the month, March being the first month. The order of dates is day, month, and year]

Children of John Adams and his first wife Joane: Mary, born 3, 5, 1656. Martha, born 4, 1, 1658. Rebecca, born 13, 12 1661; married Henry Clifford, of Flushing, 29, 3, 1686.

Children of John Adams and his second wife Elizabeth: John, born 17, 6 , 1664; died 4, 8, 1665. Elizabeth, born 9, 1, 1665. [married 23, 1, 1692, William Hollingshead] Sarah, born 28, 2, 1668. James, born 4, 8, 1671. Susanna, born 6, 9,1674. Hannah, born 15, 12, 1675. Deborah, born 7, 3, 1678. John, born 10, 7, 1680; died 30, 10, 1688. Abigail, born 2, 11, 1682. Thomas, born 12, 11, 1684. Marsey, born 13, 10, 1686. Phebe, born 9, 12, 1690.

John and Elizabeth Adams were Friends or Quakers; and were both living in 1690; do not know where they died. In 1678 John gave a long narrative of his being a persecutor of Friends in New England when he was a constable; He was a sober young man, but full of vanity. He was a member of the Independent Congregational Church for many years; he had a wife and children there, but by God"s Providence he was brought to Flushing; having first taken from him his dear wife Joane. He went to sea at her decease for two years.

John Adams was converted to Quakerism by the preaching of John Burnyeat and John Stubbs, preachers in New England [which then included Long Island east of Oyster Bay.] John had meetings at his house. In 1667 he was a leading member of the Meeting at Flushing. In 1684 the meeting lent him some money to pay for a negro he had bought as a loborer on his farm. His name appears in Meeting records in 1667-1673. In 1691 he sold his farm at Bayside, Flushing, to John Rodman, of Block Island." [end of Onderdonk information]

In a subsequent letter Mr. Onderdonk says, in reply to the suggestion that Joane and Jane were identical names: "Joane and Jane I think to be the same name. John and Elzabeth Adams exchanged their farm of 130 acres in Flushing, for house, 500 Acres of land and £190 cash, in West New Jersey, June 4, 1691. John's confession, in which he gives an account of his life, was made to the Meeting. He was charged with going over to the Ranters, a noisy faction of Friends. He retracts his error, and therein gives a long account of his opinions, and how God controlled his actions, &c. &c. It was a case of discipline, and of course not printed. I copied all of it that was not torn off years ago, because I thought it so interesting; and so with the births; and you are the first that has applied to me for that knowledge."

John² Adam's last child, Rebecca, by his first wife, Joane, was born Feb 13, 1661, probably 1661-62, and his first child, John, by his second wife, Elizabeth, was born Aug. 17, 1664. His wife Jane, or Joane, probably died soon after the birth of Rebecca, as he states in the document quoted by Mr. Onderdonk, that he went to sea for two years after the death of his first wife, before settling at Flushing.

1. ↑ John Adams, in Anderson, Robert Charles. The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995).

   Not listed in 1627 cattle division.

2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3} Family of John Adams of Plymouth, Massachuessetts, in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society)
   33: 410-413, Oct 1879.