95 High Street, the Simon and Hannah Adams house (c. 1700)

Simon Adams was born in Ipswich on 1655 to William Adams and Elizabeth Stacy. Simon Adams was a weaver by trade and a soldier in the campaign against “King Phillip,” the hostile Indian chief and his followers at Narragansett.

The Simon Adams house at 95 High Street in Ipswich was built in approximately 1700. The first mention of the house at this spot is in the ancient deeds of the adjoining (Jewett) property in 1707, but it could well have been as early as 1678. The house sits slightly askew of the foundation, which suggests that it may have been moved to this location.

Simon Adams grew up near the present Ipswich train station in his father William’s house. We read in Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony that in 1678, “Simon Adams, a weaver, conveyed to John Kimball, wheelwright, a house and land, “which lyeth next and doth adjoyn with Capt. Appleton, his land toward ye southwest and next unto Ensign French, his land, toward the northwest . . . which said house and land was my father, Will Adams, his homestead.”

From the MACRIS listing:

“Simon Adams, a weaver and veteran of King Philip’s, owned this property in 1707, according to a deed of the adjoining property. (20:15). This “half-house” was originally extended as a leanto over the rear rooms. Perhaps at the same time the rear roof was raised to cover a full two stories and Georgian trim was added. Surviving elements of that trim include a cornice in the front room, and some fine raised-field paneling On the fireplace wall in the rear chamber. The staircase and the majority of the trim in the house are later. In 1906 the front door and old sash were changed and around 1919 the east ell was added.”

We can follow some of the history of the ownership of this and other houses from old Ipswich maps that listed the owner of each residence. The house was owned by Henry Russell, who deeded to Mary and Sarah Russell in 1802 (source), and still owned by the Russell family in 1832 according to the Philander map of Ipswich. In 1856 D. Russell and “Mrs. Sherburne” are listed but by 1872 Nathan Jewett is in residence, and he operates a store next door.

Adams (aka Addams) family in Ipswich

William Addams was a commoner of Ipswich in 1641. The inventory of his estate is dated, 1658, (24, 11). He possessed a “dwelling house and orchard together with six or seven acres of marsh near to Mr. William Payne’s, sixty acres or thereabouts of land on the south side of the river by John Addams.” He died Jan. 18, 1658.

Simon Adams was born in 1652, the son of William. With Hannah his wife. Simon Adams Sr. died in Ipswich on October 17, 1723 and Hannah died May 6, 1727.Their children were:

• Hannah, born Jan. 18, 1691
• Simon, b Oct. 20, 1694, died of smallpox, Dec. 24, 1721.
• Daniel, born Nov. 26, 1697, died Oct. 17, 1723.
• Sarah who married Henry Russell of Ipswich

Sources:

• Ancestry.com
• T.F. Waters, Ipswich in the Mass. Bay Colony, vol. I: Samuel Adams house
• Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, transfer of William Adams house by Samuel Adams in 1678
• MACRIS
• Hammatt Papers: Early inhabitants of Ipswich, Mass. 1633-1700 by Abraham Hammat
• Some descendants of William Adams of Ipswich, Mass.
• Maps of original land grants: Diagram No. 2