Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Adams, John (1662-1720)
ADAMS, JOHN (1662–1720), provost of King's College, Cambridge, was the son of a Lisbon merchant in the city of London. He was educated at Eton, went to King's College, Cambridge, in 1678, graduated B.A. in 1682 and M.A. 1686. He afterwards travelled in France and Italy, and became an accomplished linguist. He was presented by Jeffreys to Hickam in Leicestershire in 1687. He afterwards became rector of St. Alban's, Wood Street, in the gift of Eton College, and was presented to the rectory of St. Bartholomew by the lord chancellor Harcourt. He became prebendary of Canterbury in 1702 and canon of Windsor in 1708. He was chaplain to King William and to Queen Anne, with the last of whom he was a great favourite. Swift dined with him at Windsor, and says that he was ‘very obliging’ (Journal to Stella, 12 Aug., 16 and 20 Sept. 1711). In 1712 he was elected provost of King's College, and resigned the lectureship of St. Clement Danes. He was Boyle lecturer in 1703, but his lectures were never printed. He died of apoplexy on 29 Jan. 1720. He was considered to be an eloquent preacher, and fifteen of his sermons are in print.
[Chalmers's Dictionary; Addit. MSS. 5802, 135, 136; Harwood's Alumni Etonenses.]
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.2
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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| 98 | ii | 1 | Adams, John (1662-1720): after never printed insert He was vice-chancellor of Cambridge University 1712-3 |