Edward Hamlyn Adams (sometimes spelt Hamlin) (30 April 1777 – 1842) was a British merchant, trader in enslaved people, and politician.

Early life

He was born on 30 April 1777 in

Kingston, Jamaica Kingston is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long spit (landform), sand spit which connects the town of Por ...

the second but first surviving son of William Adams (born in

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) and his second wife Elizabeth Anne, daughter of Rev. Thomas Coxeter. After coming of age, Adams worked as a merchant in Kingston, establishing a partnership with Robert Robertson supplying enslaved labour to the colonial government including the provision of enslaved people to work in military camps.

Political career

In 1824, Adams, having moved to

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

, purchased Middleton Hall. He served as

High Sheriff of Carmarthenshire This is a list of High Sheriffs of Carmarthenshire. Carmarthenshire was originally created by the Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284. It became an administrative county in 1889 with a county council following the Local Government Act 1888. Under the Loc ...

in 1831. He was Member of Parliament for Carmarthenshire in 1833–4. Adams died on 30 May 1842. His granddaughter Violet Paget. who wrote as novelist Vernon Lee, later described him as "extremely doctrinaire and moral, an ardent Voltairian, who spent much of his time disputing with the local parsons and refusing to pay tithes".

Personal life and family

Adams married in 1796 Amelia Sophia MacPherson, daughter of Captain John MacPherson of Philadelphia. They had two sons. Edward, the elder son, took as his surname a Welsh form, Ab-Adam (from Ap Adam, see Welsh patronym) or Abadam; he married Louisa Taylor. Adams also came to purchase an inn in Porthyrhyd,

Carmarthenshire Carmarthenshire (; or informally ') is a Principal areas of Wales, county in the South West Wales, south-west of Wales. The three largest towns are Llanelli, Carmarthen and Ammanford. Carmarthen is the county town and administrative centre. ...

named the 'Lord Nelson', which is now named the 'Abadam Arms'. This inn was attacked in the

Rebecca Riots The Rebecca Riots () took place between 1839 and 1843 in West and Mid Wales. They were a series of protests undertaken by local farmers and agricultural workers in response to levels of taxation. The rioters, often men dressed as women, took ...

. There were three daughters of the marriage of Edward the elder and Amelia. They included Matilda Adams (1815–1896), who was the mother of Eugene Lee-Hamilton, by her first husband James Lee-Hamilton (died 1852), and

Vernon Lee Vernon Lee was the pseudonym of the French-born British writer Violet Paget (14 October 1856 – 13 February 1935). She is remembered today primarily for her supernatural fiction and her work on aesthetics. An early follower of Walter Pater, ...

(real name Violet Paget), by her second husband Henry Ferguson Paget. Edward Abadam (1809–1875) quarrelled with his younger brother William (1814–1851). He had four daughters, the youngest being Alice Abadam, who became a leader in the suffragist and Catholic feminist movement. He left Middleton Hall to his eldest daughter, Lucy (1840–1902), who married the Rev. Richard Gwynne Lawrence (1835–1923). It then passed to her sister Adah (1842–1914), and to her son William John Hamlin Hughes, who sold the estate in 1919.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Adams, Edward Hamlyn 1777 births 1842 deaths 19th-century British merchants Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Welsh constituencies UK MPs 1832–1835 19th-century Jamaican politicians