William Adams (30 September 1752 – 21 September 1811) was a British merchant and

Tory A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. Th ...

politician. He was the eldest son of William Adams of

Totnes Totnes ( or ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish at the head of the estuary of the River Dart in Devon, England, within the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is about west of Paignton, about west-so ...

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

. He was made

Mayor of Totnes Totnes, Devon, England received its first borough charter from King John and the recorded list of mayors dates from 1359. The town was incorporated in 1505 with a governing structure consisting of a mayor, recorder and a single council of burgess ...

for 1780–81, 1788–89 and 1797–98 and served as town Recorder from 1807 to 1811. He was elected as the

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP) for

Plympton Erle Plympton is a suburb of the city of Plymouth in Devon, England. It is in origin an ancient stannary town. It was an important trading centre for locally mined tin, and a seaport before the River Plym silted up and trade moved down river to Pl ...

in 1796. He resigned that seat to be elected MP for

, his native town, at a by-election in June 1801, and was returned unopposed to the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

at the next three general elections, holding the seat until his death in 1811 at the age of 58. He married Anna Maria Dacres in 1774. She was a daughter of Richard Dacres of Leatherhead, Surrey and wet nurse to Princess Amelia, and by her he had two sons and two daughters. In 1810 he was living in Bowden House,

Ashprington Ashprington is a village and civil parish in the South Hams district of Devon, England. The village is not far from the River Dart, but high above it, and is about three miles south of Totnes. There is a local pub, hotel and phonebox. The civ ...

, near Totnes, which he had purchased from the Trist family in about 1800.

Pevsner, Nikolaus Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (19 ...

& Cherry, Bridget, The Buildings of England: Devon, London, 2004, p.195

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* 1752 births 1811 deaths English merchants UK MPs 1801–1802 UK MPs 1802–1806 UK MPs 1806–1807 UK MPs 1807–1812 Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Totnes Tory MPs (pre-1834) Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for Plympton Erle British MPs 1796–1800 Mayors of Totnes Tory members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom {{England-UK-MP-stub