Edward Hamlyn Adams

A portrait of Adams c. 1842
An 1815 painting of Middleton Hall

Edward Hamlyn Adams (30 April 1777 – 1842) was a British merchant and politician. He was born on 30 April 1777 in Kingston, Jamaica. His father was William Adams, who had been born in Barbados.[1] After coming of age, he worked as a merchant in Kingston, establishing a partnership with Robert Robertson. Adams was involved in supplying slave labour to the colonial government.[2] In 1824, Adams, having moved to Wales, purchased Middleton Hall.[2] He served as High Sheriff of Carmarthenshire in 1831.[3] He was Member of Parliament for Carmarthenshire in 1833–4.[2] Adams died on 30 May 1842.[4] Adams married in 1796 Amelia Sophia MacPherson, daughter of Captain John MacPherson of Philadelphia. They had two sons. Edward, the elder son, took as surname a Welsh form, Ab-Adam (from Ap Adam, see Welsh patronym) or Abadam; he married Louisa Taylor.[1][5] Adams also came to purchase an inn in Porthyrhyd, Carmarthenshire named the 'Lord Nelson', which is now named the 'Abadam Arms'. This inn was attacked in the Rebecca Riots.

There were three daughters of the marriage of Edward the elder and Amelia. They included Matilda Adams (1815–1896), who was the mother of Eugene Lee-Hamilton, by her first husband James Lee-Hamilton (died 1852), and Vernon Lee (real name Violet Paget), by her second husband Henry Ferguson Paget.[6][7]

Edward Abadam (1809–1875) quarrelled with his brother William (1814–1851). He had four daughters, the youngest being Alice Abadam, who became a leader in the suffragist and feminist movement.[8] He left Middleton Hall to the eldest, Lucy (1840–1902), who married the Rev. Richard Gwynne Lawrence (1835–1923). It then passed to her sister Adah (1842–1914), and to her son William John Hamlin Hughes, who sold the estate in 1919.[7]

Notes

  1. ^ a b Williams, William Retlaw (1895). "The parliamentary history of the principality of Wales, from the earliesr times to the present day, 1541-1895, comprising lists of the representatives, chronologically arranged under counties, with biographical and genealogical notices of the members, together with particulars of the various contested elections, double returns and petitions". Internet Archive. Brecknock: Private printing, Edward Davies & Bell. p. 49. Retrieved 18 June 2018.
  2. ^ a b c "Summary of Individual Edward Hamlin Adams, ???? - 1842, Legacies of British Slave-ownership". Retrieved 18 June 2018.
  3. ^ Nicholas, Thomas (1991). Annals and Antiquities of the Counties and County Families of Wales. Genealogical Publishing Com. p. 276. ISBN 9780806313146. Retrieved 18 June 2018.
  4. ^ Cave, Edward; Nichols, John (1842). The Gentleman's Magazine, and Historical Chronicle, for the Year ... p. 110. Retrieved 18 June 2018.
  5. ^ Walford, Edward (1864). The County Families of the United Kingdom, Or Royal Manual of the Titled and Untitled Aristocracy of Great Britain and Ireland (2 ed.). Hardwicke. p. 1. Retrieved 18 June 2018.
  6. ^ Maxwell, Catherine. "Hamilton, Eugene Jacob Lee-". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/34471. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  7. ^ a b Gagel, Amanda (26 October 2016). Selected Letters of Vernon Lee, 1856–1935: Volume I, 1865–1884. Taylor & Francis. p. 392. ISBN 9781134976737. Retrieved 18 June 2018.
  8. ^ Crawford, Elizabeth (1999). The women's suffrage movement: a reference guide, 1866-1928. London: UCL Press. p. 1. ISBN 978-0-203-03109-4. OCLC 53836882.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Carmarthenshire
1832 – 1835
With: George Rice-Trevor
(Representation increased to two members by the Great Reform Act) 		Succeeded by