Edward Hamlyn Adams



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. 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. In 1824, Adams, having moved to Wales, purchased Middleton Hall. He served as High Sheriff of Carmarthenshire in 1831. He was Member of Parliament for Carmarthenshire in 1833–4. Adams died on 30 May 1842. 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.

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.

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. 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.