Samuel Adams (September 27, 1722 – October 2, 1803) was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to a father who was a prosperous brewer and a mother with strong religious convictions. He attended Harvard College at age fourteen and graduated in 1749. Also in 1749, he married Elizabeth Checkley. To support his family, he worked as a tax collector in Boston, but he mismanaged his collections and had to pay the difference from his own pocket when his accounts came up short. There doesn’t seem to be an allegation that he was corrupt, just inept.
In 1764, he married Elizabeth Wells after his first wife died in 1754. His second wife was a good manager of funds and this changed his life. He moved in political circles that offered good opportunities for him to share his views. He transformed from an inefficient tax collector into an American patriot. As a member of the Caucus Club, one of Boston’s local political organizations, he helped influence elections in 1764. When the British passed the Sugar Act of 1764, Adams helped organize the colonist against it. Adams maintained that the law violated the rights of the colonists because it had not been imposed with the approval of an elected representative. He argued that there should be no taxation without representation.
From 1764 – 1774, Adams wrote a series of essays about political ideas and ideals. Publishers printed his writings as fast as he wrote them. In 1765. The British passed the Stamp Act and he wrote fiery essays against it and urged colonists not to comply with the law. Based, in part, on the success of his essays in the Boston Gazette, Adams was elected to the legislature.
In 1767, Britain passed the Townshend Act. Which placed customs duties on imported goods. His stand against the Townshend Act put him front and center in the colonies’ political landscape. His stance against the Sugar Act, the Stamp Act, and the Townshend Act also gained him the personal hatred of British General Thomas Gage (1721-1787) and King George III (1728-1820). To protest the Townshend Act, Adams and others called for a boycott of British goods.
From 1774 to 1781, Adams served in the Continental Congress. However, after the first Continental Congress, his political power waned and his support from other Revolutionary leaders faded.
In 1779, Adams attended the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention, but didn’t figure prominently in the efforts of the convention.
From 1789-1792 he served as Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts. In 1790, he became a member of the Democratic-Republicans. From 1793 to 1797, he served three terms as the Governor of Massachusetts. He did not seek a fourth term.
He died on October 2, 1803, in Boston.
Patriot Parchment 