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John Adams' (July 14, 1775 – June, 1825) was an American physician who served as the 25th mayor of Richmond, Virginia from 1819 to 1825.

Life and Public Service
John Adams, the tenth child of Richard and Elizabeth Adams, was born 14 July 1775. He graduated in medicine from the University of Edinburgh in 1796. Although he practiced in Richmond all his life, Adams was also very active in business and politics. A member of the Virginia House of Delegates in 1803-04, he served as mayor of Richmond from 1819 until his death in 1825. A 19th Century account describes Dr. Adams's service to Richmond: "'No man possessed greater influence or wielded more energetic authority....He secured an extremely efficient police, and became the terror of evil-doers in the mayor's court. He undertook the thorough grading of the streets, leveling hills, filling up valleys, and giving it the appearance of a live city. He gave an impetus to the docks… and commenced those wonderful improvements in its buildings in all the eastern portion of the city....He was the proprietor and builder of the Union Hotel, and many of the largest warehouses and manufacturies, and inaugurated lines of stages to every part of the State.  Few men ever exhibited, for his means and opportunities, more enlarged views and greater enterprise.'" When Dr. John Adams died, the following obituary appeared in the Richmond Enquirer of 28 June 1825: "We have the melancholy office of announcing the death of Dr. John Adams, the Mayor of this city. This respectable gentleman breathed his last on Friday morning. He was a native of Richmond, where he has continued to reside, except during the period when he was attending the Medical Lectures at the University of Edinburgh.  He returned excellently qualified for a Physician, and continued to practice till the day of his death. Dr. A. has remained the Mayor of this city from the moment of the present organization of the municipal authority - in which capacity he displayed a zeal that never tired and a qualification that rarely failed.  He was attended to the grave by a large body of citizens, and with all the honors which the municipal authorities of the town and the society of Free Masons could confer.  He has left a large family to bemoan his loss." At the time of his death, John Adams was the longest-serving mayor in Richmond’s history.

Homes, Burial and Children
In 1802 John Adams built a house at 2311 East Grace Street on Church Hill, on property his father had given him. In 1822 Adams lost both his home and hotel due to bad loans made to others. The house was eventually acquired by John Van Lew (Liew). During the Civil War Van Lew's daughter Elizabeth Van Lew gained notoriety as a Yankee abolitionist and Union sympathizer and as a reputed Yankee spy. She was alleged to have concealed escaped prisoners in a secret chamber under the roof of the mansion. After Grant was elected President, he appointed Miss Van Lew postmistress of Richmond. She continued a crusade, this time for women's suffrage; but she was completely ostracized socially. The Adams/Van Lew house was razed in 1911 and replaced by a public school that still stands. Dr. Adams built two other houses between 1809 and 1810 for rental purposes. One still stands at the southeast corner of Grace and 25th streets. It is a double house of two and a half stories with peaked roof and a chimney made to serve both parts of the building. Another Adams house still remaining on Grace St is the home built by Dr. Adams for his sister Ann, who married Mayo Carrington. It was restored by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities. Dr. John Adams married Margaret Winston, daughter of Geddes Winston and Mary Jordan. The children of Dr. John and Margaret Adams were Mary Griffin, who married Dr. John Minge; Eliza, who married Capt. John Heron of the U.S. Navy; Martha Winston, who married Burwell B. Moseley of Norfolk; Margaret, who married first Charles Pickett, and second married her cousin Col. George Mayo Carrington; Louisa, who also married her cousin Dr. Richard Adams Carrington; Elvira, married David Minge, a brother of Dr. John Minge; John, who married twice but had no children; Richard Henry, who married Anna Carter Harrison (sister of Mary Howell Harrison, who married Col. George William Hunt Minge, brother of David and Dr. John Minge); and Lavinia, who probably died in infancy. Thus, it will be seen that two sisters (Mary Griffin Adams and Elvira Adams) married two brothers (Dr. John Minge and David Minge). In addition, an Adams brother (Richard Henry) had a Minge brother-in-law. Adams family members were buried in a family burying ground on Marshall St. near 23rd on Church Hill. This was the last cemetery remaining in the heart of town and had become a hangout for gangs. In 1892 the cemetery was closed and the bodies were moved to Hollywood Cemetery. There is a large memorial with an inscription on one side that reads "In memory of Col. Richard Adams" and displays the coat of arms of the Adams family. On the other side of the monument is the inscription: "'In memoriam Col, Richd Adams (wife Elizabeth Griffin) and 2 childn who died 23rd Dec. 1800 by his will devised all his property in this city to his son Col. Richd Adams Jr. (He survived his 2 wives and 6 childn) who died 9th Jan 1817, by his will devised all his property to brothers sisters nephews and nieces in which he directed, that the old Adams cemetery at N.E. cor 23rd & Marshall Streets this city, be enlarged to 1/2 acre. Their remains with those of Dr. Jno Adams & wife Margaret, S.G. Adams and wife Catherine, Col. Geo. M. Carrington wife Margaret 4 infants & Chas G. Pickett (her 1st husband) and their child, Dr. Richard A Carrington wife Louisa, 8 childn & 4 grchildn Dr Jno Minge wife Marg’t G. & 1 dr Miss Tabitha & Elizabeth G. Adams, Mrs. Jno Heron & l child, Wm Marshall wife Alice & 6 childn, R.H. Adams wife son & dr, Littleberry Carrington 1 dr & 4 grchildn Wm B. Randolph of Chatsworth son of Mrs Richd Adams Jr & many others unknown were removed from the 'old cemetery' to this section with all monuments head and foot stone in compliance with an order from the Ch'y CT of City Richd in suit of 'P.R. Carrington & wife vs. Adams heirs’ and interred beneath this monument Oct. 1892.'" Most of the members of the Adams family remained in Virginia, but two migrated to Marengo County, Alabama. Elvira Adams, born in Richmond 25 September 1814, married David Minge of Charles City, Virginia on 5 October 1837 and came to Alabama soon thereafter. Elvira's brother Richard Henry Adams and his wife Anna Carter Harrison had already made the move - probably between 1832 and 1835. Richard and Anna established the Altwood plantation and were successful cotton planters. Having purchased land in Dallas County, Alabama, he removed to Selma and became a merchant for a while. Later he returned to Virginia and engaged in farming. His 1870 will mentions large acreages in Marengo and Perry County, Alabama, and in Montgomery County, Virginia. In addition he held railroad shares in Alabama and shares in a lime kiln business in Shelby County. The children of Richard Henry and Anna Adams continued to live in Alabama. The house Altwood, one of Alabama's few Virginia Tidewater-type cottages outside the Tennessee Valley, is unusual in that it evolved from a dogtrot house. Through the Alabama Historic Commission's Endangered Landmarks Program the house was acquired in 1987 by Dr. and Mrs. Jim Rankin. moved a few miles, and restored.

Ancestry
John Adams’ great-grandfather was Richard Adams of Abridge, County Essex, England. He is said to have been a "citizen and merchant-tailor of London" when he executed a deed of trust on 23 September 1718 for the use of his wife Ann and children. The will was dated 7 October 1719, and administration was granted to his widow in 1720. When Ann made her own will 8 October 1734, she was of West Harn, County Essex. Mentioned in her will were her son Ebenezer Adams and his wife Tabitha and their daughter Ann; son Timothy Adams; grandsons Richard and Samuel Adams, sons of her deceased son William; daughter Sarah Atkinson and son Timothy Atkinson. Richard and Ann's son Ebenezer Adams came from England to St. Peter's Parish, New Kent County, Virginia, before 1714. In that year and subsequently Ebenezer received grants of 3983 acres of land in New Kent and Henrico counties. . About 1718 he married Tabitha Cocke, daughter of Richard Cocke the younger of "Brerno," Henrico County, by his first wife Anne, daughter of Thomas Bowler, Esq., of Rappahannock County. Ebenezer was elected vestryman of St. Peter's Parish in 1718 and served in that capacity until his death on 24 April 1735. In 1731 he became a captain in the colonial militia and was given the designation of gentleman. He claimed an Adams coat of arms which consisted of an ermine and three cats passant in pale azure. Ebenezer Adams and his wife Tabitha Cocke had eight children; those who survived all married. Young Tabitha married Richard Eppes, a Burgess from Chesterfield County; Thomas married Elizabeth (Faantleroy) Cocke, widow of Thomas Adams' first cousin Col. Bowler Cocke; Anne became the second wife of Col. Francis Smith of Essex County]; and Sarah married Col. John Fry, Burgess from [[Albemarle County, Virginia|Albemarle County and son of Joshua Fry. Two of Ebenezer and Tabitha’s sons were named Richard, the first one dying in infancy, and second being born in New Kent County 17 May 1728. Just when this second Richard Adams moved to Richmond, Virginia is uncertain, but he had served in the House of Burgesses from New Kent from 1752 until 1765, and in that body from Henrico County from 1769 until the end of the colonial period. In 1774-75, Richard was a member of the Committee of Safety, and in 1775 was a member of the Virginia Convention.  From 1776 to 1778 Adams was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, and from 1778 to 1782 was a member of the Virginia Senate. He was also a member of the committee charged removing the seat of government from Williamsburg to Richmond in 1779.  He was said to be an ardent patriot and one of the most public spirited and influential citizens of Richmond. By purchase and patent Richard Adams became the largest property owner in Richmond, and that by 1787 he was listed among the one hundred largest property holders in the state of Virginia.  His holdings included 10,865 acres of land in six counties, 108 slaves, 36 horses, 134 cattle, and two lots in Richmond.  Half of this land was in the newly created county of Henry on the North Carolina border. In addition to his land holdings, Richard had other business and commercial interests.  His lumber business went up in flames caused by lightning in 1769. Only heroic measures by Adams and a friend prevented the fire from destroying the rest of the town. Richard and his brother Thomas, four years his junior, were partners in a mercantile endeavor. While Thomas upheld the England end of the business from 1762 to 1774, Richard carried on the American end, which involved buying tobacco, securing outgoing cargo, and marketing incoming goods. Mrs. Griffith mentions “voluminous” Adams papers in the Virginia Historical Society which consist principally of business correspondence between the brothers. Richard's other activities included participating in efforts to open up the falls of the James River to commerce, and managing the lotteries of two neighbors who were attempting to raise money to pay off their debts. Richard Adams offered property he owned on Richmond Hill to the state of Virginia for the erection of the State Capitol. The offer, a gift, was considered seriously but not accepted. On 10 April 1755 Richard Adams married Elizabeth Griffin, daughter of Leroy and Mary Anne (Bertrand) Griffin of Richmond, and sister of the Judge Cyrus Griffin of Williamsburg, a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1778, 1781, 1787.  and president of the body in 1788. Richard and Elizabeth Adams had eleven children, of whom one, Ebenezer, died in infancy, and of whom three, Tabitha, Elizabeth Griffin, and William died unmarried.  Thomas Bowler, the oldest son, married Sara Morrison.  Richard Jr., born 14 months after his brother, married first Mrs. Elizabeth (Southall) Randolph, and second Mrs. Sara Travers (Daniel) Hay.  Anne married Col. Mayo Carrington of "Boston Hill," Cumberland County.  Sarah married George William Smith, Governor of Virginia. Alice married William Marshall of Fauquier County, brother of Supreme Court Justice John Marshall. The tenth child of Richard and Elizabeth was John Adams.  The last-born child was Samuel Griffin Adams, whose sons, James Innes Adams and Thomas Adams, built homes (long­since burned) on Mobile Bay at Montrose, Alabama.  (A street in that community still bears the name of Adams.) In 1769 Richard Adams bought ten lots on the summit of the hill overlooking Richmond. He probably built a house on some of the property and about 1788 replaced it with another just south of the former dwelling. The house was said to be "unique architecturally in Richmond, with four chimneys, several dormers, and a shingled roof.”  When Richard Adams died in August 1800 and his wife Elizabeth died in December of the same year, their home was left to their son Richard, who survived all his children.  Upon the death of this second Richard, in 1817, his estate, estimated to be worth $1,200,000, was divided among his nieces and nephews.  After a few years the house passed out of the Adams family and eventually was acquired by the Sisters of the Academy of the Visitation of Monte Maria.  The nuns operated a school for some years and after its discontinuance, a dormitory for the nuns was erected on the site. The building was there, almost obscured behind a high wall, at least as late as 1976.
 * (Originally compiled by Mary M.D. Toulmin with the assistance of material from Ida M.D. Herlong)