James "Grizzly" Adams - Ties To The Famous Adams Family of New England

Ties To The Famous Adams Family of New England

John Adams was a member of the Adams family of New England that included many important men and women who contributed to the founding and early history of the United States. His great-great-great-great-grandfather, Henry Adams (1583–1646), emigrated with his family from England to Boston, Massachusetts in 1632, and thus established the famous Adams family in America. Henry's descendants include the patriot, Samuel Adams and two presidents, John Adams and President Adams' son, John Quincy Adams. Grizzly was born in a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts, and was surrounded by relatives and cousins. During Grizzly Adams' childhood, President John Adams lived within a short buggy ride of him in Quincy, Massachusetts. John Adams was the third child and first son born to Eleazer Adams (1776–1849) and Sybil (Capen) Adams (1785–1844). He had seven siblings, Susan B., Almy, Charles, James Capen, Zilpha, Francis and Albert. John married Cylena Drury in 1836. They had three children: Arabella, Arathusa Elizabeth, and Seymour. His son, Seymour, never married, so there were no male descendants of Grizzly Adams bearing the Adams surname. John's younger brother, James Capen Adams, (the alias used by "Grizzly" Adams), married and fathered seven children. Curiously, when Grizzly Adams toured in Connecticut with the circus during the summer of 1860, his brother (the real) James Capen Adams and his family were living in Norfolk, Connecticut at the time.