Adams political family

"Adams family" redirects here. For the fictional family, see The Addams Family. For other uses, see Adams family (disambiguation).

The Adams family was a prominent political family in the United States from the late 18th through the early 20th centuries. Based in eastern Massachusetts, they formed part of the Boston Brahmin community. The surname Adams stems from Henry Adams of Somerset County in Great Britain.

Members

• Henry Adams (1583–1646) born Barton St David, Somerset, England was the first of the clan who immigrated to New England, United States.

• John Adams, Sr. (1691-1761)
  • John Adams (1735–1826), second President of the United States, married Abigail Adams (née Smith) (1744–1818)
    • John Quincy Adams (1767–1848), sixth President of the United States, married English-born Louisa Adams (née Johnson) (1775–1852)
      • George Washington Adams (1801–1829), member of Massachusetts state legislature
      • John Adams II (1803-1834), Private Secretary to his father
      • Charles Francis Adams, Sr. (1807–1886), U.S. Congressman and Ambassador to the United Kingdom
        • John Quincy Adams II (1833–1894), lawyer and politician
          • George Caspar Adams (1863–1900), prominent college athlete and football coach at Harvard University.
          • Charles Francis Adams III (1866–1954), 44th Secretary of the Navy, mayor of Quincy, Massachusetts.
            • Charles Francis Adams IV (1910–1999), first president of Raytheon
        • Charles Francis Adams, Jr. (1835–1915), brigadier-general in the Union Army during the American Civil War and president of the Union Pacific Railroad from 1884 to 1890.
        • Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918), a prominent author and political commentator, married Marian Hooper Adams (née Hooper) (1843–1885)
        • Brooks Adams (1848–1927), a historian and political scientist.
    • Charles Adams (1770–1800), New York lawyer
    • Thomas Boylston Adams (1772–1832), Massachusetts legislator and judge
  • Elihu Adams (1741–1775), soldier

• Hannah Adams (1755-1831), a historian and theologian
• Samuel Adams (1722–1803), the second President's second cousin; not usually considered part of the family
• Samuel A. Adams (1934–1988), a historian and CIA analyst.
• Thomas Boylston Adams (1910–1997), a grandson of Charles Francis Adams, Jr., an executive, writer, and political candidate

Family Tree

The following is a selective family tree of notable members of the Adams family relative to Charles Francis Adams IV:

Harvard University and the Adams family

• John Adams Class of 1755
• John Quincy Adams Class of 1788
• Charles Adams (1770–1800) Class of 1789
• Thomas Boylston Adams (1772–1832) Class of 1790
• George Washington Adams Class of 1821
• John Adams II, expelled with most of senior class prior to 1823 graduation, later among those designated "Bachelor of Arts as of 1823" and added to Harvard's Roll of Graduates
• John Quincy Adams II
• Charles Francis Adams, Sr. Class of 1825
• Charles Francis Adams, Jr. Class of 1856
• Henry Brooks Adams Class of 1858
• Brooks Adams Class of 1870
• George Caspar Adams Class of 1886
• Charles Francis Adams III Class of 1888
• Roger Adams Class of 1909
• Charles Francis Adams IV Class of 1932
• Thomas Boylston Adams (1910–1997) Class of 1933 (was not graduated)
• Samuel A. Adams Class of 1955

Adams House, one of twelve residential colleges at Harvard, is named after John Adams and later members of the Adams family.

Connections

The Adams political family is connected with U.S. Presidents Millard Fillmore, William Howard Taft, and Calvin Coolidge and U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, through common descent from one Henry Squire.

Through his mother, John Adams was a second cousin of Massachusetts governor Increase Sumner; their maternal grandmothers were sisters. Both were also related to President Coolidge and to Diana, Princess of Wales, and through the latter to The Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry.

The Adams family is one of only four families to have produced two Presidents of the United States, the others being the Bush family, the Roosevelt family, and the Harrison family.

Memorials

• Adams Memorial
• Adams National Historical Park

See also

• List of political families

Further reading

• Robert J. Maddox, "The Adamses in America," American History Illustrated, Apr 1971, Vol. 6 Issue 1, p 12-21