Sarah Hutchinson

Sarah Adams (1681-1734/5), granddaughter of Robert and sister of Abraham Adams, Had son Israel {disputed} before marriage to John Hutchinson of Andover, Mass. She settled in Andover and died there. [1] [2]

Notes for Sarah Adams: According to information by Gregory H. Laing of the Haverhill, MA Public Library, the following has been unearthed: Sarah Adams named her fatherless child “Benoni”, meaning ‘child of my sorrow’. She refused to name the father and was committed and fined until she informed the court of his name. At that point, she accused Thomas Morris of being the father. We still know nothing about Tom Morris and his subsequent activities. Sarah later married and moved to Rindge, NH.

This account of the birth of Israel is received from an old record in possession of Mrs. Julia A. M. Spofford of West Boxford, MA – one of the descendants. It has been published in the Essex Antiquarian, Vol. II, No. 2, February 1898. It is also given in “Robert Adams of Newbury” by Pierce.

Its correctness is disputed and another account given of Israel’s ancestry by John M. Adams of West Lebanon, Colombia Co., NY. He claims that Israel was the son of Abraham Olney Adams and his wife, Hannah La Grasse, daughter of Donald La Grasse of Drumlanrig, Scotland; that he was born in Quincy, MA in 1706, removed to Keen, NH and thence to Andover and Littleton, MA, finally to Rindge, NH where he died 16 October 1789. That he married (1) Mercy Holdridge of Stonington, CT in 1726; (2) Tabitha Farnum; (3) Polly White of Providence, RI.

Abraham Olney Adams, according to this account, was born near Charlestown, MA, 11 January 1680 and was the son of Stephen Olney Adams who was b. 18 April 1620 in Tenterden, Kent, England; married (1)Lydia Hartwell 01 May 1645 in Maidstone, England. She died in Maidstone 1650. Stephen Olney Adams was an officer in Cromwell’s Army and was wounded in the battle of Worcester, 03 September 1651. Fleeing to America to save his life, he settled near Charlestown, MA and married (2) Priscilla Durrie, who was the mother of Abraham Olney Adams and others. She died in 1718, aged 98 years. It is stated that the only child of Israel by his first wife, Mercy, was Stephen b. 06 June 1727 in Rowley, MA.

Note: If Priscilla Durrie was to be the mother of Abraham and others, it is difficult to imagine a woman of 60 years old to be of child-bearing age. (See page 26 of “Robert Adams of Newbury” for further information on this dispute.)

Among the descendants of her illegitimate son Israel Adams (1707-1789) was Edwin Strong Adams (1806-1887). Edwin S. Adams resided in West Boxford, Mass. He married Elvira Chase (1809-1879) in 1842, and following her death he married Amanda (Fowler) Davis (d. 1887). There was no issue from either marriage.

Sources

• https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Adams-4054
• ↑ A genealogical history of Robert Adams, of Newbury, Mass. : and his descendants, 1635-, pp13-14
• ↑ New England Marriages, Torrey, Clarence Almon, (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1985), page 3

Adams Papers Phillips Library at the Peabody Essex Museum

• Pettingell Genealogy, Pettingell, Charles I., (Boston, Massachusetts: Privately Published, 1906), page 7..