William Adam

William Adam (1710-82) ministered to Independent congregations at Painswick (1734-50), Bedworth (1751-62), and Soham (1763-82). Josiah Thompson described Adam as “the best scholar and the most intelligent independent minister in the country.” He married a second time in old age to a young wife and had a second family, which greatly impoverished him, forcing him in his last years to obtain relief from several neighboring churches. At the time of his death, his congregation consisted of only three female members and a few hearers. See Josiah Thompson, “The State of the Dissenting Interest in the Several Counties of England and Wales . . . The First Part, c. 1774” (MS., Dr. Williams’s Library, London); “Statistical View of Dissenters in England and Wales.” Congregational Magazine 2 (1819), 814 (the author incorrectly identifies him as Thomas Adam).