ADAMS, James (1752-1816), of Doctors' Commons, London.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1754-1790, ed. L. Namier, J. Brooke., 1964
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

21 Aug. 1784 - 1790
1790 - 1796
1796 - 1802
7 Apr. 1803 - 1806
9 Mar. - 29 Apr. 1807

Family and Education

b. 5 June 1752, 1st s. of Sir Richard Adams, baron of the Exchequer 1753-73, by his w. née Molinier of Putney.  educ. Univ. Coll. Oxf. 1769; I. Temple 1769; adv. Doctors’ Commons.  m. 10 Sept. 1796, Mary Anne Susanna, da. and coh. of Leonard Hammond of Cheam, Surr., s.p. Her sis. Ursula Mary, was 1st w. of Henry Addington, 1st Visct. Sidmouth.  suc. fa. 1753.

Offices Held

Ld. of Admiralty 1801-4.

Biography

Adams’s return for West Looe on the Buller interest was presumably arranged by Administration. His first recorded vote was with Opposition on Richmond’s fortifications plan, 27 Feb. 1786, but he voted with Administration on the impeachment of Impey, 9 May 1788 and the Regency, 1788-9. His only reported speech during the Parliament of 1784-1790 was in the debate on the impeachment of Hastings, 11 Dec. 1787, when he said that he had voted against the inclusion of Philip Francis among the managers because ‘it was not becoming the honour and dignity of their proceedings for that House to appoint for one of their managers ... the only one of its Members who had ... had a personal quarrel with Mr. Hastings’.1

He died 14 Sept. 1816.

Ref Volumes: 1754-1790

Author: Mary M. Drummond

Notes

  • 1. Stockdale, xiii. 89.