Where Was John Adams Born

 

Michael Benton, Contributor

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where was <b class=john adams born" />Where was John Adams born? John Adams' birthplace was the north precinct of Braintree, Massachusetts. John Adams was born to a family of Congregationalists directly descended from Puritan pilgrims who came from England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. His father was a Deacon of the Church as well as a farmer, cobbler, lieutenant in the militia and town selectman in charge of schools and roads. When was John Adams born? John Adams' date of birth was October 30, 1735, however, John Adams' birthday was recorded in the Old Style, Julian Calendar as October 19, 1735. John Adams' birth place would later be separated from Braintree and incorporated as the town of Quincy. The birthplace of John Adams is now part of the Adams National Historic Park. At the end of his life, John Adams would die of old age at his family home in Quincy, very near to his place of birth.

As a child, John Adams was given a relative amount of freedom by his parents and took many opportunities to get out of the house and hunt. He was known to bring his guns to school so that he might be able to hunt on his way home. Adams admired his father greatly and accepted the responsibility expected of him. Although Adams' family was not particularly wealthy, he felt a deep connection to the ideals of his Puritan antecedents who sought to build a new world in America with religious freedom and individual liberty. At the age of 16, Adams earned a scholarship to Harvard where his father was a legacy. While his father expected him to follow in his footsteps and take up a career in the Church, Adams felt that law was more fitting for a man of action and he graduated with an A.B. by the age of 20. He met his future wife and third cousin, Abigail Smith, in the nearby town of Weymouth, Massachusetts. On her mother's side, she was descended from the famous political family of Massachusetts from whom the town of Quincy would take its name.

When John Adams was born, his family had already been in America for five generations and his Puritan ancestry was built upon opposition to the British Crown. Adams himself was adamant about his feelings of patriotism for America and detachment from the British background. When he was serving as Minister to the Court of St. James (Ambassador to Britain) during the Revolutionary War, he was asked whether or not he was English and replied that his grandfather's grandfather was American and therefore nothing but American blood flowed in his veins. Adams' adamant view on his non-English makeup did not prevent him from securing amicable terms of peace in the Treaty of Paris in 1783. After his death in 1826, John Adams was buried in Quincy's Hancock Cemetery before being reinterred across the street at the First United Parish Church. Later, his son and sixth President of the United States would be buried in the same crypt, making the First United Parish Church into the Church of the Presidents.