John Adams (14 July 1773 – 23 June 1825) was an American physician who served two terms in the Virginia House of Delegates representing his native Richmond from 1802 to 1804 and served as its mayor from 1819 to 1825.
Early life and education This John Adams (who shares the name but has no known relation to the second President of the United States)Dr. Adams' grandfather emigrated from Essex, in the southeast of England. The two Adams presidents' forebears emigrated from Somerset, in the southwest of England. See was born on July 14, 1773, the tenth child of wealthy merchant, patriot and politician Richard Adams and his wife, the former Elizabeth Griffin. Like his immigrant father (this boy's grandfather) Ebenezer Adams, Richard Adams was a planter and merchant in New Kent County, Virginia. His wife Elizabeth Griffin, was the daughter of Leroy and Mary Anne (Bertrand) Griffin of Lancaster County in the Northern Neck of Virginia. His father would become an ardent patriot before and during the American Revolutionary War (during this boy's youth), as would his mother's lawyer brother, Cyrus Griffin of Williamsburg, would become a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1778, 1781, 1787, president of the body in 1788, and later a U.S. District Court Judge.Coleman, supra, at page 162. His parents had married nearly two decades earlier, in 1755. The exact date that Richard moved his family to Richmond is uncertain, but this boy was born in Richmond well after his father had begun representing surrounding Henrico County in the House of Burgesses (and would later serve in the Virginia Revolutionary Conventions).
His father and mother had eleven children, of whom one, Ebenezer, died in infancy, and three more died unmarried (Tabitha, Elizabeth Griffin, and William Adams). Thomas Bowler Adams, the eldest son, married Sara Morrison. Richard Adams Jr., born 14 months after his brother, married two widows but had no children (his first wife was Mrs. Elizabeth (Southall) Randolph, and second Mrs. Sara Travers (Daniel) Hay). The last-born child (and son) was Samuel Griffin Adams, whose sons, James Innes Adams and Thomas Adams, would move south to Alabama, where they built homes on Mobile Bay at Montrose, Alabama. The home of James Innes Adams, a riverboat captain, still stands on Mobile Bay and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, as are New Kent County and Richmond properties where Richard Adams lived, though most were redeveloped. Of the sisters who married, Anne Adams married Col. Mayo Carrington of "Boston Hill" plantation in Cumberland County, who served in the Virginia legislature part-time, though she preferred to reside in Richmond. Sarah Adams married future Governor of Virginia George W. Smith. Alice Adams married lawyer William Marshall of Fauquier County, who was the Henrico County commonwealth attorney and would become the clerk of the U.S. District Court, and was the brother of U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Marshall.
This John Adams received a private education as befit his class (including during the years his father served as Richmond's mayor, 1786-1788), then went to Scotland for higher education. He graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a medical degree in 1796.
Career
After returning to Virginia, Adams began his medical practice in Richmond as the partner of Dr. Cringan and later became a partner with Dr. Micajah Clarke – in both instances advertising services in the local newspapers.Scott, Mary Wingfield, Houses of Old Richmond, The Valentine Museum, Richmond, 1941, reissued in electronic form, with addenda May 24, 2018, at page 96.
Although he practiced medicine in Richmond all his life, Adams was also very active in business and politics, particularly since his elder brother, Richard Adams Jr., although he married twice and also lived in Richmond, had no children. On his father's death, Dr. Adams inherited ten lots on Church Hill, and continued to operate businesses that his father had started or invested in, including the Union Hotel, warehouses, docks and manufacturing establishments.
Richmond voters elected Dr. Adams to represent them in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1802, where he succeeded his brother-in-law George William Smith, and re-elected him once, before William DuVal succeeded him in 1804,Cynthia Miller Leonard, The Virginia General Assembly 1619-1978 (Richmond: Virginia State Library, 1978) pp. 230, 233 Dr. Adams also served as mayor of Richmond from 1819 until his death in 1825.Coleman, supra. At the time of his death, Dr. John Adams was the longest-serving mayor in Richmond's history.Mayors of Richmond, 1782-2006, supra.
Adams was Richmond's mayor during one of the city's greatest civil and social events, the return of General Lafayette in 1825, and gave the welcoming address, saluting him as a "fellow citizen of Virginia and a brother by adoption." Parades, fireworks and festivities followed, culminating in a dinner – reportedly the greatest ever given in Richmond – which continued until 11 pm. Notable, for the 1823 era, was Mayor Adams' endorsement of a petition by 91 free persons of colour and slaves to form a Baptist church, where they might worship together and take instruction in letters. The petition states:The petition of a number of persons of colour residing in the City of Richmond, respectfully represents: that from the rapid increase of population in the City, the number of free persons of colour and slaves has become very considerable and although few of them can boast any knowledge of letters, yet that they are always desirous of receiving such instruction from public and divine worship as may be given by sensible and prudent Teachers of religion. It has been the misfortune of your petitioners to be excluded from the churches, meeting-houses and other places of public devotion which are used by white persons in consequence of no appropriate places being assigned for them, except in a few Houses, and they have been compelled to look to private Houses, where they are much crowded and where a portion of their Brothers are unable to hear or to partake of the worship which is going on. Your Petitioners consisting of free persons and slaves, have been for some time associated with the Baptist church. A list of their members consisting of about 700 persons has been submitted for his inspection to the Head of Police of this City and no objection has been by him made to their moral characters.
Your Petitioners for these reasons humbly pray that your honourable body will pass a law authorizing them to cause to be erected within this city a house of public worship which may be called the Baptist African Church. To such restrictions and restraints as are consistent with the laws now existing or which may hereafter be passed for the proper restraint of persons of colour and for the preservation of the peace and good order of society ... our petitioners are prepared most cheerfully to submit, and although it would be pleasing to them to have a voice in the choice of their Teachers yet would they be quite satisfied that any choice made by them should be approved or rejected by the Mayor of this city, they ask not for the privilege of continuing in office any preacher who shall in any manner have rendered himself obnoxious to the Mayor, nor can they reasonably expect to hold night meetings of assemblages for Baptizing but with the consent of that office. And your Petitioners as in duty bound will ever pray...Ibid.Adams endorsed the petition:I am of opinion that the prayers of their petition, if granted, may be productive of benefit to themselves as well as to the white population of Richmond and most sincerely wish them success. John Adams
Mayor of the City of RichmondIbid.The petitioned-for Baptist institution was launched and served until 1831. At that time, six years after Adams' death, the city fathers rescinded the earlier permission – fearful that teaching literacy would help spread the abolitionist movement. An Act of April 7, 1831, stated "all meetings of free negroes or mulattoes at any school-house or other place for teaching them reading or writing, either in the day or night, under whatever pretext" were declared to be unlawful assemblies.Ibid. at page 143. (A still stricter law banning assemblies of negroes for black-led religious worship was enacted in 1842.Ibid.)
Homes After his father's death on August 1–2, 1800, and as sole inheritor of his father's properties in the city, Dr. Adams built several properties, as well as enlarged the family graveyard to a half acre. He built a mansion in 1802 at 2311 East Grace Street on Church Hill.Scott, supra, at page 96. Three years after the Panic of 1819, Adams lost both his home and hotel in the aftermath of bad loans made to others.Ibid. at 97. John Van Lew (Liew) eventually acquired the house, and his daughter Elizabeth Van Lew would become its most famous occupant, and honored by a modern historical marker. The Yankee abolitionist, Union sympathizer and spymaster became Richmond's postmaster during the presidency of former U.S. General GrantIbid. at 98-100. Although socially ostracized as the city glorified is Confederate heritage, she also campaigned for women's rights. The Adams/Van Lew house was razed in 1911 and replaced by a public school that still stands (Bellevue Elementary School).Scott, supra, at 103.
Dr. Adams also built a brick double house between 1809 and 1810 for rental purposes, at the southeast corner of Grace and 25th streets (2501 East Grace St).Scott, supra, at 137. Another Adams house still remaining on Grace St is the home built by Dr. Adams for his sister Ann, who married Mayo Carrington. It was restored by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities.
Personal life Dr. John Adams married Margaret Winston, daughter of Geddes Winston and Mary Jordan, in January, 1799.Coleman, supra.Munford, supra, at page 75. They had two sons and seven daughters, six of whom reached adulthood and married. John Adams Jr. married twice but had no children. His brother Richard Henry Adams married Anna Carter Harrison (sister of Mary Howell Harrison, who married Col. George William Hunt Minge, brother of David and Dr. John Minge). R.H. Adams and his brother in law David Minge both moved their families to Marengo County, Alabama between 1832 and 1835, where they became a wealthy cotton planters using enslaved labor. R.H. Adams eventually returned to Richmond, where he died, but he had also become a successful merchant in Selma, Alabama as well as built a now-historic home, Altwood, and held thousands of acres of land in Dallas, Marengo, Montgomery, Perry and Shelby Counties in that state, as well as shares in a railroad and lime kiln businesses. Of their sisters: Mary Griffin Adams married Dr. John Minge and her sister youngest sister Elvira married his brother David Minge; Eliza married U.S. Navy Capt. John Heron; Martha Winston married Burwell B. Moseley of Norfolk; Margaret married first Charles Pickett (and after his death her cousin Col. George Mayo Carrington); Louisa married her cousin Dr. Richard Adams Carrington; and Lavinia probably died in infancy.Coleman, supra.
Death and legacy