John ll Adams of Fenne

NOTE: There is a lot of misinformation floating around the internet about this family. This John Adams was from Townstal (Tunstall, Townstall, etc.) near Dartmouth and Waton, Stoke Gabriel, Devon, England. Vivian's visitations of the County of Devon page 9 and source documents confirm he married Katharine, daughter and heir of John Sterting (or Stebbing). Their son and heir was Nicholas Adams, member of parliament for Dartmouth. Other children are yet to be confirmed. Source documents also confirm this John Adams was the son and heir of another John Adams.

Source Documents

Chancery Proceedings, Adams v Waldrond.
Plaintiffs: John ADAMS of Townstall and Katharine his wife, daughter and heir of John Stertyng (?).
Defendants: Henry WALDROND, esquire, and Humphrey his son.
Subject: Detention of deeds relating to the manor of Lydewynston, with appurtenances in Coleton, Hoo, Cosslond, and Inwell (all in Brixham), given to the abbey of Torre by William Fynamour of Nethway (in Kingswear), temp. Edw. II. Pedigree given. Devon
Date: 1544-1551
Held by: The National Archives, Kew
Reference: C 1/1190/6

Abstracts of English records, page 279
Chancery Proceedings, Bundle 151. No. 6. [A. D. 1558-79].
Dispute as to the Manor and Parsonage of Dittisham, co. Devon; John Rouse v. Richard Thimblebeye and Nicholas Adams. Nicholas Adams states that his father, John Adams, was seized of the same.

Abstracts of English records, pages 123-124
Chancery Proceedings, Bundle 6. No. 15. 4 February [A.D. 1570?].
Complaint by Nicholas Adams, of Waton, in the county of Devon, gentleman. William Holway, late of Waton, deceased, was in his lifetime lawfully seised of and in the manor of Waton, and land in Paynton. These were sold to Sir Thomas Pomeroy, knight, deceased, who granted the manor to John Adams, complainant’s father. The deeds, etc., relating to the property had come into the hands of James Churchard, who refuses to deliver them.

Abstracts of English records, page 282
Chancery Proceedings, Mitford. Bundle 1. No. 1. 5 February 21 Elizabeth [A.D. 1578/9]
Complaint of Nicholas Adams of Watton, co. Devon, esquire, says that his grandfather, John Adams, possessed certain closes of land called Bacon’s Hayes alias Bacon’s Parke, near Dartmouth, which descended to his son and heir, John, father of the complainants. Dispute as to the possession.

Abstracts of English records, page 407
Stoke Gabriel parish register records a burial on 18 Sept. 1567/8 for John Adams, of Waton

Beware of forged ancestry, see discussion on wiki tree

• https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Adams-277#Disproven_Ancient_Ancestry
• https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/72244/where-separate-henry-adams-from-...

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• http://prometheusli.com/genealogy/tng/getperson.php?personID=I1441&...
• http://our-royal-titled-noble-and-commoner-ancestors.com/p2426.htm#...

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The Adams name is thought to be of Welsh origin, originally Ap Adams(Ap meaning "son of" in Welsh), the Ap was dropped from the name as the Adams became more integrated into English culture and society.

ID: I255327

Note:

Ref; 12th Great Grandfather

Ref; AFN: 8WT2-GD

Ref: Lewis Keeler Leonard and Melvena Burris Leonard, Seven Hundred Ancestors (Privately published, 1975),Page: 1.

Ref: Andrew N. Adams, A Genealogical History of Henry Adams of Braintree, Massachusetts and His Descendants; Also John Adams of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1632-1897 (Rutland, VT: Tuttle,1898 [Reprinted Newburyport, MA: Parker River Researchers, 1984].

Ref; New England Historical and Genealogical Register (Boston, MA: New England Historical and Genealogical Society),Vol. 7, pp. 39-40 (Jan 1853) "Pedigree of the Adams Family"

The Adams name is thought to be of Welsh origin, originally Ap Adams(Ap meaning "son of" in Welsh), the Ap was dropped from the name as the Adams became more integrated into English culture and society.

disputed origins

From https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/72244/where-separate-henry-adams-from-...

Actually, the connection to the Ap Adams line was disproven in 1927 by J.G. Bartlett in his “Henry Adams of Somersetshire, England & Braintree, Massachusetts.” A digital version of this book is available to subscribers of Ancestry.com. You may be able to find a print copy near you through OpenLibrary.org.

On page 21, Bartlett demonstrates how the line of Ap Adams died out in 1424.

Later on, he describes his analysis of parish and probate records, which confirms that the lineage went like this (unless otherwise noted events took place in Barton St. David, Somersetshire):

1. Unknown Adams b abt 1475. Two sons-- Robert (who had no issue) and John:

2. John Adams b abt 1500-1505; m possibly Alys who was widow Alys Adams in 1542/3.

3. Henry Adams b abt 1531 Barton David; died without a will after 1586; son John granted administration of his estate. May have married the Rose Adams who was buried 20 Sept. 1598.

4. John Adams, b abt 1555; buried 22 Mar 1603/4; will dated 19 Mar 1603/4; m Agnes, possibly Stone who was bur 15 Jan 1615/6. He had two sons and some daughters; he was estranged from his oldest son, John, and tried to control how his inheritance would go to the grandchildren, not the son. His second son was Henry Adams the emigrant. [John Schmeeckle: there is no son Jeremiah mentioned who could be brother of Henry.]

5. Henry Adams b abt 1583; named (unsuccessfully) executor of his father's will in 1604. m. 19 Oct 1609 Edith Squire. Records of baptisms of three children in Barton David (1612) and Kingweston (1622 and 1629)

The 1927 genealogy appears to be the best researched and documented history of the immigrant's ancestry, unless something more recent has added further details.

Because Henry did not emigrate until 1638, he is not yet documented by Robert Charles Anderson's Great Migration series, which currently only goes to 1635 or 6.

I therefore recommend following the lineage provided in the 1927 Bartlett book until better information can be located.