MS (Adams Papers, Wills and Deeds). Consists of three parts, of which the first and third are printed here: (1) contemporary copy, in an unidentified 36hand and worn at the edges, of Deacon John Adams' will, dated 8 Jan. 1760, with appended copy, in same hand, of Judge of Probate Thomas Hutchinson's authentication of the witnesses' attestation; the copy is signed and certified by the Register of Suffolk Probate Court, John Cotton, and is docketed: “John Adams's Will Proved July 10–1761 Copy.” (2) Grant of probate, a printed form filled in, signed by Hutchinson, and certified by Cotton; bears seal of the court and is wafered to upper left corner of first page of will; not printed here, but see note 12. (3) Two memoranda in JA's hand about his father's life and character; one undated, the other dated 29 April 1774.

John Adams (1691–1761), father of JA, usually called Deacon John to distinguish him from his eldest son, held town, parish, and militia officerships throughout his mature life and is warmly and gracefully eulogized by his son in the comments following the will printed here. The will is sufficient testimony that Deacon John often acted upon the maxim attributed to him, namely, “that he never knew a Piece of Land run away or break” (JA, Diary and Autobiography , 3:286). The only connected account of this “typical New England yeoman," principally a farmer but often mentioned in contemporary documents as a “cordwainer” (shoemaker), is in CFA2, Three Episodes , 2:714–716, but there are numerous references to him in JA's Diary and Autobiography .

Susanna (Boylston) Adams (1709–1797) married the elder John Adams in 1734; long outliving him, she in 1766 married Lt. John Hall. In his added comments, below, JA describes her connections with the Boylston family of Brookline; she appears with some frequency in Diary and Autobiography , and in early volumes of Adams Family Correspondence .

This was the smaller of Deacon John Adams' two adjacent farmsteads, each having a saltbox “cottage” upon it, separated by only a cartway. They remain in situ on Franklin Street in Quincy today, having been given by the Adams family to the city in 1940, open to the public and administered by the Quincy Historical Society. Deacon Adams acquired the older and more southerly of the two dwellings and the lesser acreage adjacent to it from John and Richard Billings of Boston by a deed dated 13 April 1744 which is now among the Adams Papers, Adams Office Files. At an undetermined date Deacon Adams gave JA half of this house and farm; in his will be bequeathed him the remainder; and here JA established his first law office and in 1764 brought his bride, Abigail (Smith) Adams (AA). All their children were born in the house today known as the John Quincy Adams Birthplace. See JA, Diary and Autobiography , passim, and especially editorial note at 1:15 and illustration facing p. 256; also early volumes of Adams Family Correspondence . A valuable illustrated account, now somewhat out of date, was published by HA2, The Birthplaces of John and John Quincy Adams, Quincy, 1936 (reprinted from Old-Time New England, 26:79–99 [Jan. 1936]); this carries the story into the 19th century. More up-to-date and containing both more early and recent information is Waldo C. Sprague, The President John Adams and President John Quincy Adams Birthplaces, Quincy, 1959.

Deeds for some, possibly all, of these additional parcels survive in the original Adams Papers or in the Adams Office Files. For example, the woodlots totaling ten acres were bought of Benjamin Owen of Braintree, husband of Deacon Adams' sister Hannah, 2 Sept. 1736 (Adams Papers, Wills and Deeds).

Peter Boylston Adams (1738–1823), JA's next youngest brother, a farmer and land appraiser, was in 1768 to marry Mary Crosby, by whom he had five children. In his long life he held various town offices, served in the siege of Boston, and became Quincy's first representative in the General Court, 1792, 1794. But he emerged from obscurity only occasionally, for example in his disagreement with his brother the ex-President over the War of 1812, Peter being an uncompromising New England Federalist. See references to him in JA, Diary and Autobiography , 37and in Adams Family Correspondence (including a notable letter on the climactic events of the siege of Boston, 1:371–372).

Deacon John Adams' principal farm, with the saltbox “cottage,” now known as the John Adams Birthplace, on Franklin Street in Quincy. The dwelling, a barn, well, and six acres of farm land had been purchased by Deacon John on 18 May 1720 from James Penniman (original deed in Adams Papers, Adams Office Files). Susanna (Boylston) Adams probably continued to live in this house until her remarriage in 1766, and Peter may have lived there both before and after his marriage, but in a diary entry of 28 Feb. 1774 JA records:

This united property was what JA meant in his many nostalgic references over the years to “Penn's Hill” or his farm “at the foot of Penn's Hill.” For the earlier and later history of the John Adams Birthplace, see titles by HA2 and Waldo C. Sprague cited in note 3 above.

That is, The Farms (sometimes called “Massachusetts Farms”), a common local name for what is now North Quincy (Pattee, Old Braintree and Quincy , p. 56).

Ebenezer Adams (1704–1769), younger brother of Deacon John Adams; in 1729 he had married Anne, sister of Susanna Boylston, who was later to marry Deacon John. Ebenezer, whose Braintree farm was about a mile from his brother's Penn's Hill property, held numerous town offices over a long period but is otherwise unknown to history. The land held “in partnership” by the brothers had been inherited from their father, Joseph Adams (1654–1737); see his will, 23 July 1731 (Adams Papers, Wills and Deeds).

Elihu Adams (1741–1775), third son and last child of Deacon John and Susanna (Boylston) Adams, was in 1765 to marry Thankful White, by whom he had three children. He died of “a contagious distemper” while serving as an officer in the Massachusetts forces in the first summer of the war. See the following note.

The South Precinct of Braintree where Elihu went to live upon the ample farm bequeathed to him there was later (1793) set off as Randolph.

This “Piece of Salt Marsh or Medow Situate in Milton ... at Penny-Ferry (so-called)” was conveyed by “Samuel Nightengal of Braintree . . . Clergyman” to “John Adams of the same Braintree Cordwainer” by a deed of 10 April 1738 for £77 (Adams Papers, Adams Office Files). Elihu and his wife sold the same parcel to JA in 1769 for £26 13s 4d (same), the deed being recorded 5 Oct.

Penny Ferry, the origin of whose name is self-evident, crossed the Neponset River on one common early route from Braintree to Boston. Deacon Adams' salt marsh there played an important and novel part in JA's early education; see JA, Diary and Autobiography , 3:246–247, 257–258.

Upon the attestation of the three witnesses named above, Thomas Hutchinson, as judge of probate for Suffolk co., issued on 10 July 1761 his certification of probate (a printed form, filled in; see descriptive note), empowering the testator's sons John and Peter Boylston Adams, “to Execute the said Will, and to Administer the Estate of the said Deceased,” and ordering them to bring in to the court “a true and perfect Inventory” of the said estate on or before 10 Oct. 1761. This inventory is printed below under date of 9 Oct. 1761.

Both of these passages are in JA's hand and were written at not too great an interval of time between them, though only the second is dated. Actually it is not possible to say which passage was written first.

Peter Boylston (d. 1743), maternal grandfather of JA, was a substantial citizen of Muddy River (later called Brookline) until a few years before his death, when he sold the family place to his brother Zabdiel and moved to Boston. Their father, Thomas Boylston (ca. 1644–1696), owned extensive property in the village of Muddy River and practiced surgery. Thomas' son Zabdiel Boylston (1679–1766) was a famous early American physician, for the reason JA gives.