Dr John Adams

John graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a medical degree in 1796. Though he practiced medicine thereafter, he also was active in business and politics. He served in the state House of Delegates in 1803-04, and was mayor of Richmond from 1819 until his death.

As mayor, he was noted for guiding various improvement and construction projects for streets and other City assets. He took the lead in welcoming the Marquis de Lafayette to Richmond during the latter's triumphant tour of the U.S. in 1824.

He married Margaret Winston in 1799. They had at least seven children. He and Margaret were originally buried in the Adams-Carrington burial ground at 23rd and Marshall streets in Church Hill. Theirs and the other remains were disinterred and moved to Hollywood in 1892.

"We have the melancholy office of announcing the death of Dr. John Adams, the Mayor of this city. This respectable gentleman breathed his last on Friday morning. He was a native of Richmond, where he has continued to reside, except during the period when he was attending the Medical Lectures at the University of Edinburgh. He returned excellently qualified for a Physician, and continued to practice till the day of his death. Dr. A. has remained the Mayor of this city from the moment of the present organization of the municipal authority - in which capacity he displayed a zeal that never tired and a qualification that rarely failed. He was attended to the grave by a large body of citizens, and with all the honors which the municipal authorities of the town and the society of Free Masons could confer. He has left a large family to bemoan his loss." (Richmond Enquirer, 28 June 1825)