1Ellery Bicknell Crane, Historic Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs of Worcester County, Massachusetts, Vol. 2, p. 104-105 (1907).
URL = http://books.google.com/books?id=tqkrAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA105&lpg=PA105&dq=%22Henry+Adams%22+%22Ruth+Ellis%22&source=bl&ots=SuUdKYAYbC&sig=e84VBARhglNMXGP8ochAhWV1Z-c&hl=en&ei=fdIVTuHxO8WqsAK6xolx&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CCsQ6AEwBjgK#v=onepage&q=%22Henry%20Adams%22%20%22Ruth%20Ellis%22&f=false.
"EDWIN N. ADAMS. Henry Adams (1) of Braintree, was the emigrant ancestor of Edwin N. Adams, of Leicester, Massachusetts, and of a large proportion of the Adams families in this country including John Adams, president of the United States, and his son John Quincy Adams, also president. Henry Adams is believed to have arrived in Boston with his wife, eight sons and a daughter in 1632 or 1633. The colonial authorities allotted him forty acres of land at Mount Wollaston, which in 1640 became Braintree and included the present towns of Braintree, Quincy and Randolph. The name of his wife is unknown, also where and when she died. It has been thought that she returned to England with her son John and daughter Ursula. Henry Adams died in Braintree, October 6, 1646, and was buried October 8, in the graveyard in Quincy, Massachusetts.
That Henry Adams came from Devonshire, England, is generally believed from the inscription erected by President John Adams at his grave, viz.: "In memory of Henry Adams who took flight from the Dragon persecution in Devonshire, England, and alighted with eight sons near Mt. Wollaston. One of the sons returned to England; and, after taking time to explore the country, four removed to Medfield, and two to Chelmsford. One, only, Joseph, who lies here at his left hand, remained here--an original proprietor of the town of Braintree." The monument commemorates "the piety, humility, simplicity, frugality, industry and perseverance" of the Adams ancestors.
President John Quincy Adams and the best antiquarians and genealogists of a later day disagree with the statement on the monument as to the place whence the family came. The royal ancestry given for Henry Adams is also disputed and was for a time discredited, but late research makes it probable that that the pedigree of henry Adams, of Braintree, back through the kings of England to Charlemagne may be established and verified. John Quincy Adams fixed the English home of his progenitors as Braintree in the county of Essex. It seems probable that he was one of Hooker's company, which was recruited in the vicinity of Chelmsford and Braintree, England. They arrived in Boston in 1632. Henry Adams' sons were active citizens in Chelmsford in England. Henry Adams learned the trade of maltster. He was a yeoman.
The children of Henry Adams were: Lieutenant Henry, born in England, 1604, married in Braintree, November 17, 1643, Elizabeth Paine, daughter of Moses Paine, representative to the general court, lieutenant, town clerk, killed by Indians at his home in Medfield, Massachusetts, February 21, 1676. Lieutenant Thomas, born in England, 1612, married in Braintree, 1642, Mary Blackmore (Blackmer), removed to Chelmsford; lieutenant in 1682, selectman, representative, town clerk, died in Chelmsford, July 20, 1688, aged seventy-six. Captain Samuel, born in England, 1617, married Rebecca Graves, who died October 8, 1662-64; married (second), May 7, 1668, Esther Sparhawk; she died November 4, 1745; settles at Chelmsford, and saw mill, was representive and captain; died January 24, 1688-89. Deacon Jonathan, born in England, 1619, married Elizabeth Fussell, daughter of John; Married (second) Mary -------; died 1690, aged seventy-one years. Peter, born in England, 1622, married Rachel --------; settled in Medfield, 1652; house burned by Indians in 1676, as was also that of his brother Jonathan; died about 1690. John, born in England, about 1624. Joseph, born in England, about 1624. Joseph, born in England, 1626, married in Braintree, November 26, 1650, Abigail Baxter, daughter of Gregory and Margaret (Paddy) Baxter, of Boston; died there August 27, 1692, aged fifty-eight; maltster, freeman, 1653, selectman, died in Braintree, December 6, 1694. Ensign Edward, born in England, 1630."
1Ezra S. Stearns, William Frederick Whitcher, Edward Everett Parker, Genealogical and Family History of the State of New Hampshire: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the . . ., Vol. 1, p. 183 (1908).
"(II) Captain Samuel, third son of Henry Adams, was born in England in 1617. He was admitted a freeman May 10, 1643. After residing in Charlestown for a time he went to Concord, and in 1653-54 penetrated the wilderness to what is now Chelmsford, where he was granted a large tract of land in 1656 with the exclusive privilege of erecting and operating a saw-mill, provided he would sell boards at three shilling per hundred feet. He was also granted the exclusibe right to operate a grist-mill. He was commissioner of the court in 1667. His death occurred in Chelmsford, January 24, 1688-89. His first wife, who was before marriiage Rebecca, daughter of Thomas Graves, died October 8, 1662 or 64, and on May 7, 1688, he married Esther Sparhawk, daughter of Nathaniel Sparhawk of cambridge. She survived him many years and died at an advanced age November 4, 1745. The children of the first union were: Samuel (died Young), Rebecca, Thomas and Catherine, twins, (the latter died young), Martha and another Nathaniel. Those of his second wife were: Samuel, Joseph, Benjamin and Esther.".
1Waldo Lincoln, Four Generations of the Waldo Family in America, NEHGR Vol. 52, p. 216 (Apr. 1898).
"4. DANIEL2 WALDO (Cornelius1) was in 1682 an inhabitant of Dunstable when he and his brother John were employed as a mounted guard against the Indians, but later seems to have lived at Chelmsford, and July 30, 1695, he was granted a lot of land by that town. in consideration for which he agreed to "set up and maintain a good sufficient corn mill and a good sufficient miller or stony brook below the highway to Dunstable between Merrimack and the bridge."
. . .
He m. November 20, 1683, at Chelmsford, Susannah,3 daughter of Samuel2 (Henry1) and Rebecca (Graves) Adams of Chelmsford, sister of his brother John's wife. She died March 16, 1741, at Pomfret. He died November 1, 1737. . . .
Children of Daniel and Susannah, i. and ii. at Dunstable, iii.-vii. at Chelmsford, viii. at Dorchester:
i. SUSANNAH, b. 1684; m. Jan. 17, 1705-6, Richard,2 (John1) Field of West Bridgewater, who was b. May 17, 1767 and d. Sept. 14, 1725. The date of her death is unknown. They had eleven children.
ii. HANNAH, b. July 17, 1687; m. Feb. 3, 1708-9, at Bridgewater, Ephraim,3 son of Francis2 (John1) and Hannah (Brett) Cary of Bridgewater, who was b. 1679 and d. July 18, 1765. She d. 1777, aged 90. They had five children.
iii. BETHIA, b. Aug. 20, 1688; m. 1st, Dec. 6, 1711, at Braintree, Edmund Littlefield of Braintree, by whom she had three children. He d. May 27, 1717 and she m. 2d, 1719, Thomas,3 son of Dea. Joseph2 (Thomas1) and Experience (Mitchell) Hayward of Bridgewater, who was b. March 6, 1686-7. They had six children.
iv. DANIEL, b. March 25, 1692; d. Jan. 25, 1716, at Pomfret, Ct.
v. REBECCA, b. Feb. 5, 1693; m. Feb. 12, 1728, at Pomfret, Ct., Capt. Leicester Grosvenor, of Pomfret, son of John and Esther Grosvenor, who came from Cheshire, Eng., and settled in Roxbury, Mass., about 1680. . . .
His first wife was named Mary; she d. May 14, 1724, aged 37 years. By her he had six children. His wife Rebecca d. May 21, 1753; he d. Sept 8, 1759, both at Pomfret. They had two children.
vi. MARAH, b. Feb. 10, 1695; m. May 3, 1720, at Pomfret, Ct., Abiel,4 son of William3 (Thomas,2 William1) and Rebecca (Newell) Cheney, b. May 21, 1695. he was a blacksmith and a prominent man in Pomfret. he d. March 20, 1785, in his 90th year. She d. Dec. 2, 1787. Eight children.
vii. ESTHER, b. Jan. 3, 1698; m. about 1727, John Weld of Pomfret, son of Edmund and Elizabeth Weld of Roxbury. He d. July 24, 1763, and she d. Jan. 11, 1777, both at Pomfret. Five children.
9.viii. ZECHARIAH, b. Nov. 25, 1701.
ix. SARAH, birth not recorded. Sarah Waldo m. May 19, 1720, at Boston, John Hide. It is not certain that she was a daughter of Daniel.".