William Adams

William Adams (January 25, 1807 – August 31, 1880) was a noted American clergyman and academic.

Early life He was born in Colchester, Connecticut on January 25, 1807. He was one of five sons and six daughters born to John Adams (1772–1863) and Elizabeth (née Ripley) Adams (1776–1829). His father was a 1795 graduate of Yale who was an American educator noted for organizing several hundred Sunday schools.

His father was the eldest of ten children born to Captain John Adams, a farmer from Canterbury and an officer during the American Revolution and Mary (née Parker) Adams of Needham, Massachusetts. Her maternal grandparents were Gamaliel Ripley and Judith (née Perkins) Riply. His mother was a great-great-granddaughter of Governor William Bradford of the Plymouth Colony who was a passenger on the Mayflower.

He prepared for College at Phillips Academy at Andover, Massachusetts and graduated from Yale College in 1827.

In 1836, he was a member of the group that founded Union Theological Seminary in New York City. In 1852, he served as the moderator of the New School Party, and was chairman of the New School Committee of Conferences in 1866. He also served as a member of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and as the president of the Presbyterian Foreign Board. He was also president of the New York Institution for the Deaf and Dumb.

In 1853 his congregation founded the Madison Square Presbyterian Church. While there, Adams baptized Edward Huntting Rudd. In 1871, Adams was sent by the evangelical alliance to intercede with the emperor of Russia in behalf of dissenters from the Greek church in the Baltic provinces, who claimed religious liberty, his mission being entirely successful, and the same year served as delegate from the general assembly of the Presbyterian church in America to the general assembly in Scotland, and to the Free Church assembly. Following the death of his first wife (on May 22, 1834), he married her sister, Martha Bradshaw Magoun (1812–1885) on August 12, 1835. Together, Adams and his second wife Martha were the parents of: in New York City on November 9, 1864. John was the son of Eliza Maria (née Coe) Brown and James Brown, a banker and founder of the family company Brown Bros. & Co. Susan Magoun Adams (1848–1904), who married Eugene Delano (1844–1920) of the prominent Massachusetts Delano family. Henry Stewart Adams (1849–1852), who died in childhood.

He died on August 31, 1880, at Orange Mountain, New Jersey. He was buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Descendants

Adams was the grandfather of William Adams Brown (1865–1943).

Works He wrote several religious books and edited the works of Robert Hall (1830).

His published works include: The Three Gardens: Eden, Gethsemane, and Paradise (1859) The Spirit of Hebrew Poetry (1861) Thanksgiving: Memories of the Day and Helps to the Habit (1865) Conversations of Jesus Christ with Representative Men (1868)