Martin Adams, Patriot

 (This is an ancestor of Earl Seeman as follows: Earl Seeman--> Eva Adams Seeman -->John Q. Adams --> Abial Adams --> Martin Adams)

Martin Adams was born in 1764 in Canaan, Connecticut, to James Callender Adams and his wife Submit Purchase.  At the age of 17 he voluntarily enlisted in the Vermont Militia (also known as the "Green Mountain Boys") during the Revolutionary War.  In Vermont, any able-bodied man aged 18-45, with some exceptions, was required to join the Militia.  This group was particularly known for their strength and courage in battle.

Martin was a drummer with both of his units in the year he served.  The purpose of the drummers, which often were younger, were to use their instruments to signal commands and keep morale up.  Their rhythms would help the soldiers keep pace while marching, plus they could usually be heard over the noise of battle, thereby keeping open an important line of communication.  On a day-to-day basis the fife and drum corp communicated the orders of the day, when meals were served and when the day closed.

After his service, he, along with his parents and brothers, left their home in Springfield, Massachusetts sometime between 1783-1785.  They traveled over the Connecticut and Passumpsic Rivers.  They stopped in what they thought was Littleton, New Hampshire, but it was not - they ended up founding the town of St. Johnsbury, Vermont. They decided to stay there and were the original grantees of the settlement.

St. Johnsbury, Vermont

It was in St. Johnsbury that he married Mercy Ryder in 1785, the daughter of Elder and Betsey Ryder.

In 1793, Martin and his brother, James and their families left for a new settlement, "Duncansborough" (Newport) Vermont, with their young wives and children.  They made their way  through the forests by way of marked trees to Barton Landing.  It was here that they constructed rafts or canoes, loaded them with their family and possessions, and sailed the Barton river to Lake Memphremagog.  They were impressed with the area and decided to make it their homes.  They initially built a log cabin, but in 1800 they built the first frame house in the area on the west side of Lake Memphremagog.  By this time, there were 11 families in the area. The Clyde River furnished power for their grain and saw mills.  

Lake Memphremagog

Martin and his family moved to Canada for a short time, but were back in Newport by 1802.  Martin and Mercy had 12 children. Martin died in 1839 and Mercy in 1847.  They are buried in Holbrook Cemetery on Lake Road in Newport, Vermont.

Signature of Martin Adams, from his Pension Application

George Adams, Glover (Seeman Ancestor)

I was delighted to inch my way back to 14 generations of my husband’s Adams line, back to George Adams, the immigrant ancestor.  I was even more delighted to find out personal information about him, something more than birth and death dates.

George Adams, son of George Adams and Martha Streetholt, was born ca. 1620 in England, and was a glover by trade.

George and his family may have been a part of the Puritan immigration into Massachusetts, as they entered the New World during the same time frame and settled in the same general area.  Many of these immigrants sold themselves into slavery for 6-8 years to pay for their passage.  George and his family are first documented in Watertown, Massachusetts.

George may have gotten himself into serious trouble by engaging in illegal trade with the Indians.  He had been granted 20 acres of land in Lancaster for his home, and as a result of his illegal transactions, it was “reconveyed” and given to a man by the name of Jonas Fairbank.  George was censured on 18 May 1653 in Watertown by the General Court for selling two guns and “strong water” to the Indians.  Since he had no money with which to pay the fine, he was ordered “whipt & discharged out of prison.”

In 1655, the Watertown selectmen granted him four acres of land on “Kinges Comen.”

In 1661, he and his family of five children were declared to be “living in need” by the town of Watertown.

In 1664, the family moved to Cambridge Farms, George selling his home in Watertown in November of that year.

In 1670, George was a landowner in Lancaster, Massachusetts.  He attempted to regain the land that had been “reconveyed” there many years prior, but since another family had put down roots there, he was unsuccessful.  The General Court, realizing that Adams had some valid claim to that land, granted him 60 acres near “Washacombe” in return for he and his son John dropping the matter, to which they both agreed.   George would eventually build a home there.

At the same time, George asked the General Court to reaffirm his ownership of 200 acres of land he got from the Sachem Shoniow.  On 12 May 1675, the Court did affirm George’s rights to this land, called “Washaame Hill.”

Late in the summer of 1675, and again in February of 1676, during King Philip’s War, Indian attacks devastated Lancaster, and after the latter attack, the town was abandoned. George was said to have served in Captain Joseph Sill’s Company in the war.  George and his family appear to have gone back to Cambridge Farms.  While he does not appear to have returned to Lancaster, a 1684 list of landowners who lived elsewhere bears his name.

A Cambridge Farms tax list for the year from 01 May 1692 – 01 May 1693 has both George’s name and that of his son George.

George’s life came to an end on 10 Oct 1696, at the age of about 76, “by the fall of a rock.”

*******************************************

SOURCES

     Elmo Walter Adams, Genealogy of the family of Charles Adams, 1772-1801 : a fifth (5) generation American of Farmington, Connecticut : a record from his first New England ancestors, George and Frances Adams, settlers in Watertown, Massachusetts, 1645, and a record of certain of his descendants, including some representatives of the twelfth American generation to 1969. Burlingame, Calif.: 1969.

     Gerald James Parsons, M. S. (L. S.), F. A. S. G. (The American Genealogist, Vol. 55, No. 4).

     George Norbury Mackenzie, LL. B, Colonial Families of the United States of America, Vol. I. Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc.

     Notes from Chedwato. Vol. 7, No. 6, November, 1960.

     Unknown author, The Adams Family: Levi Finch and Hulda Adams, their descendants. 1926.

     Phelps, Oliver Seymour and Servin, Andrew T, The Phelps Family of American and their English Ancestors. 1899, Eagle Publishing Co., Pittsfield, Mass.

     Gene Pool Individual Records via Ancestry.com.

     Massachusetts Town Birth Records (Ancestry.com).