William Adams (minister)

William Adams (January 25, 1807 – August 31, 1880) was a noted clergyman and academic. He was born to John Adams and Elizabeth Ripley Adams in Colchester, Connecticut in 1807.

He graduated from Yale University in 1827, going on to Andover Theological Seminary, where he graduated in 1830. In 1831, he married Susan P. Magoun in 1831 and became the pastor of the Congregational Church in Brighton, Massachusetts. He relocated to New York City and became the pastor of the Central Presbyterian Church there in 1832. In 1835, following the death of his first wife, he married Martha B. Magoun. In 1836, he was a member of the group that founded the Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. In 1852, he served as the moderator of the New School Party, and was chairman of the New School Committee of Conferences in 1866. In 1874, he became the president of the Union Theological Seminary which he had helped found earlier. He also served as a member of the American Board of Foreign Missions, and as the president of the Presbyterian Foreign Board. He died in 1880.

References

*"Who Was Who in America: Historical Volume, 1607-1896". Chicago: Marquis Who's Who, 1963.