The ADAMSON SAGA 1536-1936
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The ADAMSON SAGA 1536-1936 By Major P. E. ADAMSON, M. B. E., E. D. ROBARTS LIMITED EDMONTON,ALBERTA,CANADA 1962 The ADAMSON SAGA 1536-1936 By Major P. E. ADAMSON, M. B. E., E. D. Major P. E. ADAMSON, M. B. E., E. D. I dedicate these chapters to our ANCESTORS ... our chant rolls on and on, one hundred strong join heart and song, 1n praise of those .... who've gone before. 11 It is indeed a de sir able thing to be well descended, 11 but the glory belongs to our ancestors • Plutarch. PROLOGUE I am convinced that few people pay any attention to the introduct ory pages of a book. In spite of this, I feel it is necessary that my writing be given an introductiono It concerns itself with pedigree. We all agree that in this day and age, people are regarded by what they are themselves and not by their pedigree. Nevertheless I think it good that they should know about their forebears. I do not view this work as a book, but rather my effort to put down in writing the history of the descent of our family from a common ancestor. It is an attempt to capture, for those who may be interested, the names and something of the experiences of those people whose blood is in our veins O Ancestors who lived from the days of the Tudors and the Stuarts to the close of the Victorian era. My problems commence at once. The most serious of these is the fact that our early ancestors left nothing pertaining to their lives that can be said to be first hand. With this I must not quarrel. Our forebears of the fifteen, sixteen and seventeen hundreds lived in a period when the keeping of registries was not compulsory. There were many important people among these fir st ance stars and yet, in spite of this, I have been unable to discover a single story that has been written for a permanent record concerning them. Families in to which they married can be found in Irish bibliographic lists but no one, to my knowledge, has written about the family whose Arms we bear. I find myself with the choice of either ignoring one hundred years or more of history or of overtly intruding my own account of that obscure period between the middle of the sixteenth century and the time when our fir st ance star landed in Ireland in 1689. In order to at least cast a shadow of what may have happened befoi:_e the family's representative arrived· to take part in the Battle of the Boyne, I have chosen the latter course. The Tudor and the Stuart period, in my opinion, is too absorbing to omit. This very lack of family history is history itself. I can begin at the beginning. It is somewhat of a novelty and this novelty gives me inspiration. It is in this light, before it is too late, that I set it down so that for those who come after, the record may endure. This then is the premise of this writing. I seek redress against some family member, past or pre sent, with capabilities gr eater than mine, for not doing what I am about to do. If the quality of be ing intrepid is necessary for such an undertaking, let me say at the outset that I am still uncertain that such dauntlessness has been attained. Story writing to me is experimental. In every experiment there is always a tendency toward perfection. In writing about one I s ancestors there is a natural tendency to place some, if not all, on a pedestal. I will make no attempt to glamorize any individual beyond their worth. I will tell his or her story as I unroll the time and the place in which they lived. Names will appear that many of us have heard much about -- men of 'reputation' or,. as our ancestors would say, a 'considerable' man. Names will also appear of the kindly, quiet, 'little people' who play ed their part, and an important part, in giving us what character we· possess. Thomas Paine puts it nicely: "Reputation is what men and 11 women think of us; Character is what God and the Angels know of us • A hundred years bring many changes in a family. Visiting Ireland today you will not find many, if indeed any, of our branch of the family. There are, however, many to be found in Dublin City and the County of Westmeath with the blood of that fir st Thomas Adamson in their veins. You will be told that the Adamsons are a very old Irish family and few, if any, 11 sat below the salt". When I say we are an old Irish family, my tongue is slightly in my cheek. I realize I am referring to a country the memory of whose inhabitants is long. I can already hear an 11 0 11 or a "Mick" challenge our right to call ourselves Irish. I am also aware that things I will write will provoke controversy. The very fact that it records the lives of an Irish family assures one of argument. That I look upon as a calculated risk which I must accept. What I wish most particularly is not to arouse the reader's ex pectations to a point which I may not fulfill. May the controversies I have provoked be more provocative than controversial is all I ask . at all, at all! BOOK ONE Chapter 1 THE ADAMSON ORIGIN The origin of anything is its beginning. I have therefore chosen the wrong title for this fir st chapter. In case we may have in our large family, students or followers of the theories of Lamark or Darwin, let me say at once that I make no attempt to go back to the "beginning" of our blood stream, but only to a period in history that may be of interest to us, so far as ancestry is concerned. It is by no means an easy task. My wanderings have taken me through England and Scotland, across the channel to France and the Low Countries and like the true wanderer I have travelled in a circle and come back to the spot from which I set out. Many versions have been given by different members of the fam ily as to the "origin" of our family prior to their coming to Ireland. When one sets out on an exploration of discovery, it is then that he realizes that the source is as difficult to find as the fir st small trickle that is to become a mighty river. That Captain, or maybe Colonel, Thomas Adamson came to Ireland with the forces of William III in 1689 and, at the end of hostil ities, was give land m the Counties of Louth and Westmeath and remained in Ireland, 1s an accepted fact. We are also told that he 1 married the Honourable Mary Somerset of Temple House, Coombe, Somersetshire and that they had issue. In this period in history, there were no official records kept and it is, therefore, not possible to get documented evidence as to how, or when, this officer arrived in England. There is a legend that he came from the continent with the Prince of Orange 1 s army, while another story has it that he came from Scotland and was a descendent of Patrick Adamson, Archbishop of St. Andrews, whose family belonged to the MacIntosh clan. After many months of searching, I have found no evidence where by one might conclude that he was of Dutch or Danish origin. Of all the leads that I, or professional searchers, have followed in tracing this officer's lineage, the one ending in Patrick is by far the more conclusive. To attempt to go back beyond Patrick would be only guess work. At this time in history, Scotland had their own monarchs and the government in that country, as well as England, was very unstable. In Scotland, where Patrick was born, the records in the custody of the Registrar General's office, prior to 1855, are the old parochial records formerly kept in every parish in Scotland under the administration of the established church. These records are not kept in family form, there being a separate record for each parish and an alphabetical index is not available. When a person left a parish he became, for research purposes, lost. A family remaining in the same parish, generation after generation, has no trouble obtaining a record. Patrick's family for four generations remained in the same par ish. The fifth generation left the parish. It is then that some shad ows of the de scent appear and we have to gather historical events in order to attempt to find him. And here it might be said that one cannot rely too greatly on professional searchers. I have been told by one that the Adamsons are a sept of the MacAdams and they give as their reasoning tp.at one of the quarterings on the Adamson coat of-arms is that of the MacAdams of Galoway. After searches made in Scotland, I find this to be erroneous .... in fact, the MacAdams have no clan of their own but belong to the Clan Macgregor. The same authority in Scotland tells me that the Adamsons are a sept of the MacIntosh clan and are shown on the list. 2 They also adv~se me that there are no written records to be found as to how, when, or why certain families became affiliated with cer tain clans.