Benjamin Cutter, William R. Cutter, History of the town of Arlington, Massachusetts, ormerly the second precinct in Cambridge, or District of Menotomy, afterward the town of West Cambridge. 1635-1879 with a genealogical register of the inhabitants of the precinct.

This John Adams, who was styled of ‘Menotomy Row in the Township of Cambridge,’ millwright, in 1677, lived in Arlington on the spot where the old house of Deacon John Adams formerly stood, near the present Railway Station at the Centre. His wife Ann is named as a member of the Cambridge church in a record commenced in 1658, and he himself was admitted a member of the same church May 18, 1666. John and Ann Adams had, born in Cambridge, Mary, 25 Oct. 1652; John, 1 May, 1655; Daniel, 8 Aug. 1657 (died soon); Joseph (baptized with the two first children, Mary and John, at Cambridge); Hannah (baptized 17 Jan. 1660), died 25 Feb. 1660; Daniel, born 12 Aug. 1662 (baptized 14 Sept. 1662), died 14 May, 1685. A daughter Rebecca (older than these), born and baptized in England, married Nathaniel Patten 24 Nov. 1669, and died 18 Dec. 1677 (Paige, 477; Newell's Camb. Church-Gathering, 62).

In 1697 John Adams, Senior, ‘millwright,’ conveyed the homestead and adjoining lots to his son Joseph Adams, husbandman, ‘chiefly because he hath been a loving and dutiful son to me, and his mother, and liveth with us, and is the staff of our old age’ (Midd. Registry, XII. 544).

This Joseph Adams married Margaret Eames, at Cambridge, 21 Feb. 1687-8, and died here 20 July, 1701. He was presumably the father of Joseph Adams, who died in Menotomy 18 Oct. 1774, aged 86, the ancestor of the Adams Family here.—See Genealogies.

In 1699 John Adams, Senior, and Ann Adams conveyed to William Patten, son of Nathaniel, Senior, ten acres, south by Menotomy River, south and west by John Dickson's meadow and Jonathan Butterfield's, southeast by said Adams, northwest by Adams's swamp, and northeast upon the country road (Midd. Registry, XVI. 438). William Patten was a grandson.—Paige.

John Adams, Senior, died in 1706, aged about 85. His will (dated 1 June, 1706) and inventory were sworn 7 Oct. 1706. In 1714 Ann Adams, relict, widow of John Adams, deceased, formerly of Cambridge, and John Adams, of Sudbury, yeoman, being the sole executors of his honored father, John Adams, aforesaid, deceased, sold four acres in Charlestown—the present Arlington Cemetery lot—southeast on highway leading from Menotomy to Medford, northeast on a range-way, northwest on land of William Cutter, southwest on land of Joseph Adams the purchaser (Midd. Registry, XVII. 59). Joseph Adams, the purchaser, was a grandson of John Adams, Senior, above.

The town of Charlestown granted John Adams four acres, 3 1/2 rods, in Menotomy Field, in 1658. He bought of Jonathan Bunker three acres in Menotomy Field, east Menotomy River, west Field, north Mystic River, 1677 (Wyman, p. 6).¹