Thomas Adams Sr.

  Research Notes:

From http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=:3143362&id=I631846505 :

Information on this branch of the family is sketchy and it is questionable as to whether the Thomas Adams, Sr. that everyone has listed as the father of our Sir Knight Thomas Adams is the correct father. Our Sir Thomas Adams was a man of great wealth and position, and a staunt Royalist, but the Thomas Adams, Sr. he has been connected with was a simple tanner who would have had puritan loyalties. The family did not have wealth or position.

While it is not impossible for one of his son's to have achieved knighthood and to have obtained power and position, it seems questionable. In those days wealth was generally built up over several generations being handed down from father to eldest son and so on. Power was gained through strategic marriages, or noteworthy service in the name of the King which resulted in land and/or titles being given. And true position came only through inheritance of titles, which had to be conferred on by the King or high ranking Dukes or Barons.

All of the above said, I have found a book that published the genealogys taken by Sir Henry St. George, the Herald of Richmond, between 1633 and 1635. The book is entitled 'Visitations of London, 1633-1635'. Our Adams family is listed in it, with their family crest and clearly gives Thomas' parents as Thomas Adams and Margaret Erpe.

With that evidence, being taken back during the lifetime of the subject children, I believe that the lineage given in this family is probably correct.

Thomas married Margaret Erpe, daughter of John Erpe and Unknown, about 1581 in Wembley, Shropshire, England. (Margaret Erpe was born about 1560 in Norwood, Wembley, Shropshire, England and died about 1640 in England.)