Thomas Adam

Thomas Adam (25 February 1701 – 31 March 1784) was a Church of England clergyman and religious writer.

Biography He was born at Leeds, West Yorkshire, on 25 February 1701: his father Henry Adam was a solicitor and town clerk of the Leeds Corporation, his mother Elizabeth, daughter of Jasper Blythman. They had six children, of whom Thomas was the third.

Adam received his first education at Leeds Grammar School, then under Thomas Barnard; later he was transferred to Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Wakefield. He published: A selection of diary entries from these Posthumous Works, entitled Private Thoughts on Religion, is now the best-known work by Adam. Coleridge's annotated copy of this short volume from 1795 is in the British Library. Reginald Heber, Thomas Chalmers, and John Stuart Mill, and others have found it interesting.

Family Adam married in 1730 Susan Cooke, daughter of James Cooke (died 1727), vicar of Roxby cum Risby nearby. She died in 1760. They had one daughter only, who died young.