Samuel Adams

In October 1749, Samuel Adams married Elizabeth nee Checkley, the daughter of the New South pastor. The couple had six children, out of which four died in infancy. His wife died soon after giving birth to a stillborn child in 1757.

Among his surviving children was his eldest and only surviving son, Samuel Adams Jr. A surgeon in the War of Independence, he fell ill during the war and died from it on January 17, 1788 while his father was attending a convention for ratification of the new constitution.

In 1764, Adams married Elizabeth nee Wells. The couple did not have any children.

Samuel Adams was born on September 16, 1722 (Old Style date) in Boston, at that time a part of the British Colony of Massachusetts. According to the new style dating system, his date of birth falls on 27 September of the same year.

His father, Samuel Adams Sr., was a Deacon in the Congregational Church. A leading member of the Boston Caucus, he was also a prosperous merchant and owned a malt-house. In 1739, he promoted Land Bank, which introduced paper money instead of gold and silver, thus helping to solve the ongoing currency crisis.

His mother, Mary (nee Fifield) Adams, was a deeply religious woman and a devout Puritan. The couple had three surviving children. Brought up in seclusion, they were instilled with a sense of personal responsibility. All his life, Samuel remained true to his Puritan heritage.

Young Samuel had his early education at the Boston Latin School. On graduating from there in 1736, he entered Harvard College to be trained as a minister; but very soon his interest began to shift towards politics.

In 1740, he graduated from Harvard, winning a class debate on liberty and then enrolled at the same institution for his master’s degree. In the same year, his father’s Land Bank was dissolved by the British Parliament on the urging of the Court Party, made up of aristocrats.

Samuel Adams’ first job was at a counting house. But he lost it within a few months because its owner, Thomas Cushing II, found him to be more interested in politics than in business.

His father then lent him £1,000 to start his own business. He promptly gave away half of it to his friend and frittered away the other half. As a result, his venture failed and his debts were paid by his father, who then employed him as the manager of the family malt-house.

It was of mutual benefit and gave both the father and son more time for their political activities. Subsequently, in 1746, young Adams entered the provincial assembly with the support of the Boston Caucus. It was his first political appointment.

In January 1748, inflamed by British impressments, Adams, Gamaliel Rogers and Daniel Fowle launched a weekly newspaper called ‘The Independent Advertiser’. It was purely a political paper and Adams wrote most of the articles. Although it had very few readers, it ran till it was closed down by the British in 1775.

Although he was officially in charge of the family business, he paid little attention to it, taking more interest in politics. In 1756, he was elected to the post of tax collector by the Caucus-dominated Boston Town Meeting.

In 1764, the British Parliament enacted the Sugar Law to tide over its financial crisis. Adams saw it as an infringement of colonial rights and questioned the authority of the British Parliament to collect taxes from America.

His standpoint was approved by the Boston Town Meeting on May 24, 1764. It thus became the first political body to declare that Britain could not legally tax the citizens of America, since they were not represented in the British Parliament.

Adams now started working with James Otis Jr., another champion for colonial rights. In the mean time, on March 22, 1765, the Stamp Act, which imposed tax on printed materials in British colonies, was passed by the British Parliament, generating huge uproar in America.

The colonists responded by calling for ‘Stamp Act Congress’. Adams also began to prepare for a massive public resistance, mobilizing both the merchant elite and general public. Very soon he was looked upon as the leader of the resistance.

In September 1765, Adams was elected to the assembly and in the May 1766 election, his Popular Party took over its control. Adams was now elected its clerk. He used his position to drive home the point that regional assemblies were not under British Parliament.