The Biographical Dictionary of America/Adams, William Forbes

ADAMS, William Forbes, second bishop of Easton, and 109th in succession in the American Episcopate, was born in Enniskillen, Ireland, Jan. 2, 1833. At an early age he was brought to America by his parents, who settled in Kentucky. Young Adams was fitted for Yale, but pecuniary reverses attendant upon the failure of his father in business, obliged him to forego his plans. He bravely accepted the change in his circumstances, obtained a mercantile situation, and in his leisure time studied law. At the age of twenty-one he was admitted to the Mississippi bar. He removed to Tennessee, and pursued his theological studies with a view to entering the church; he returned to Mississippi before the completion of his course, and was ordained a deacon in St. Andrew's church, Jackson, Miss., in 1859; he was admitted to full orders July 29, 1860. His first charge, which he held for six years, was St. Paul's, Woodville, Miss.; in 1866 he became rector of St. Peter's, New Orleans, and took charge of St. Paul's in the same city the following year, where he remained until his consecration as first missionary bishop of New Mexico and Arizona in 1875. He accepted the duties of his charge with every promise of abundant success, but the fatigues of the long and painful journeys, necessary in so new and extensive a diocese, undermined a constitution already impaired by his ministrations to sufferers from yellow fever in Louisiana, and compelled his resignation, which in 1877 was accepted by the house of bishops. From 1876 to 1887 Dr. Adams was rector of Holy Trinity, Vicksburg, Miss., when he was again elected to the episcopal office, as bishop of Easton. He received the degree of D.C.L. from the university of the South, Sewanee, Tenn.