in figures in computed and measured miles’ (see Phil. Trans. xii. 886). But the work was declared by critical friends to be very roughly done, and Adams set to work to improve it. To supply temporarily the many omissions of villages, he laboriously drew up, in 1680, the ‘Index Villaris, or an Alphabetical Table of all Cities, Market-towns, Parishes, Villages, Private Seats in England and Wales,’ and dedicated it to Charles II. This ‘Index’ he reprinted with elaborate additions in 1690, and again in 1700. Meanwhile, under the patronage of several members of the Royal Society, he undertook a survey of the whole country, in order to make his map as full and correct as possible. He completed his journeys before 1685, and in that year published his newly revised map under the title of ‘Angliæ totius tabula.’ A reissue, called ‘A New Map of England,’ is ascribed in the British Museum Catalogue to 1693. Reduced and coloured copies of the revised map, which was of the original size (i.e. six feet square), were sold with the second and third editions of the ‘Index Villaris.’ Adams has been identified, on inadequate grounds, with a ‘Joannes Adamus Transylvanus,’ the author of a Latin poem describing the city of London, which was translated into English verse about 1675, and is reprinted in ‘Harleian Miscellany,’ x. 139–50.
[Gough's British Topography, i. 50–1, 724; Preface to Adams's Index, 1680; Lowndes's Bibliographer's Manual, ed. Bohn; S.D.U.K. Biog. Dict.; Brit. Mus. Cat. of Maps and of Printed Books.]
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.]
ADAMS, JOHN (1750?–1814), a voluminous compiler of books for young readers, was born at Aberdeen about 1750. Having graduated at the university there, he obtained a preaching license, and coming to London was appointed minister of the Scotch church in Hatton Garden. Subsequently he opened a school or ‘academy’ at Putney, which proved very successful. He died at Putney in 1814. Most of his numerous works passed through many editions, and were largely used in schools. Among them may be mentioned: 1. ‘The Flowers of Ancient History,’ 1788, reviewed in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ for April 1788 (lviii. 339). 2. ‘Elegant Anecdotes and Bon Mots,’ 1790. 3. ‘A View of Universal History’ (3 vols.), 1795, which includes a brief account of almost every country in the world down to the date of publication. 4. ‘The Flowers of Modern History,’ 1796. 5. ‘Curious Thoughts on the History of Man,’ 1799. 6. ‘The Flowers of Modern Travels’ (4th edition), 1802. Adams also published by subscription a volume of sermons dedicated to Lord Grantham in 1805, and he was the author of a very popular Latin schoolbook, entitled ‘Lectiones Selectæ,’ which reached an eleventh edition in 1823.
[Gorton's Biog. Dict. Appendix; S. D. U. K. Biog. Dict.; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
ADAMS, JOHN (1760?–1829), also known as Alexander Smith, seaman, mutineer, and settler, was serving under this latter name as an able seaman on board H.M.S. Bounty at the time of the mutiny and piratical seizure of that ship 28 April 1789 [see Bligh, William]. In this mutiny he took a prominent part, and stood sentry over the captain during the preparations for turning him adrift. Afterwards, when the ship returned to Tahiti, where several of the ship's company determined to stay, Smith, with eight others, was of opinion that such a plan was too dangerous. These nine men accordingly put to sea in the Bounty, taking with them from the island the women they had married and half a dozen men as servants; and notwithstanding the close search that was made for them [see Heywood, Peter] nothing was heard of them for nearly twenty years. In 1808 a Mr. Folger, commanding an American mer-
