Why post about them today? Well G grandmother Eleanor Adams died on this date in 1677.
These were the Puritans who came to America.
Robert and Eleanor Wilmot Adams landed in one of the early ships...in Ipswich MA in 1635.
They brought their first two children (John, age 3, and Joanna, age 1) with them, and had one child born and die in 1635 the year they arrived in America. They then had 2 more children in the original settlement of Salem, Essex County, MA. Then they moved to Newbury, Essex county, MA, and had 8 more children, with the last one born when Eleanor was 41. Eleanor died in 1677 at age 67, and Robert II remarried the next year to Sarah Glover Short, who was his age (according to the records at Ancestry) 76, and she lived until she was 95. She was the widow of Henry Short and then of Robert Adams.
When Robert and Eleanor's daughter, Joanna Adams married Lancelot Granger, he was not part of the freedmen of the Puritan church. One commentator in Ancestry said that he had enough riches that his not being a Puritan was overlooked by the tight church group. The Grangers raised their family in Newbury MA until after their last child, then moved to Suffield CT as it was originally being settled. (See post about Lancelot Granger HERE. and about Suffield CT HERE. )
Because there are only a few records about their lives, there are some controversies about who the Adams children were. One descendent is positive 3 of the children listed at Find-A-Grave, didn't exist, nor did Eleanor as a "Wilmot." There will probably continue to be controversies, and I just hope that my ancestors are listed and really existed...though of course they did exist whether or not they're listed in Ancestry!
I enjoy the controversy of different opinions about various ancestors, but I can certainly understand why some might lose the friendship of other historians over a conflict of their common ancestors. I just read very thorough information written in 1900 by a descendant of these Adams...which offers a great printed rendition of Robert Adams' will. However, the author also is among those with his own opinion as to which members of this family should be included.
Robert and Eleanor Adams are my 9th great grandparents.
They are no relation to the Adams of Quincy MA, of whom President John Adams was a descendant. But there is an interesting story in which these Adams might be cousins of the President's family...if our line were Welsh. Another story alludes to a possible Scottish connection.
