Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Adams, Eliphalet

ADAMS, Eliphalet, clergyman, b. in Dedham, Mass., 26 March, 1677; d. in New London, Conn., 4 Oct., 1753. He was the son of Rev. William Adams, the second minister of Dedham, Mass., was graduated at Harvard college in 1694, preached in various places without settlement for ten years, and in 1709 was ordained a Congregational minister in New London, Conn. He was a man of learning, and was an eminent Hebraist. A diary kept by him for several years is preserved in the "Massachusetts Historical Collection," iv, 1. Having become interested in the welfare of the Lidians in the region, he acquired their language. As a preacher he was popular, and various of his sermons were delivered before bodies educational and political. Many of them were published, the principal ones being, one on the death of Rev. James Noyes, of Stonington, 1706; election sermons, 1710 and 1713; a discourse occasioned by a storm, 1717; Thanksgiving sermon, 1721; on the death of Gov. Saltonstail, 1724; on the ordination of Rev. William Gager, 1725; on the ordination of Thos. Clap, 1726, and a discourse before young men, 1727.