Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 1 Vol 1.djvu/133

 AP- ADAM. 1 1 I of East Harptree, co. Somerset, &e., and, on 26 Jim. 129G-7, was sum. to attend the King nt Salisbury (1296-7), 25 Ed. I, but such summons cannot be considered in the light of a regular writ of summons to Pari. , b ) He was, however, again sum. to Pari, as a liaron (LORD AP-ADAM) from 6 Feb. (1298-9), 27 Ed. I, to 13 Dec. (1309), 3 Ed. II. He attended the King fa the wars with Scotland 1299-1306, and in (1300-1), 29 Ed. I, was one of the Barons who subscribed the celebrated letter to Pope Boniface VIII. being therein described as "Johannes Ap Adam, Dominus de Beverstoue." He was also Bum. in 130S to attend the Coronation of Edward EL He was living 19 Sep. 1310 but rf., soon afterwards, in that same year. Herberts [therein considered to have been ancestors of the said Sir Thomas] obtained thfe Gloucestershire Betelse and also I.lanllowell in Monmouthshire by successive mar- riages." "Some Genealogists" (continues Dr. (Jrmerod) " have considered Sir John Al' An.M above mentioned to have been identical with this Sir Thomas ; others have stated him to be his son without evidence of any kind, but the writer has to aver that he never met with any document giving proof of his [Sir John's] parentage in any way." The arms of this Baron " on a cross, 5 mullets," with which he sealed the letter to the Pope in 1301, and which appear in the old stained glass at Tidenham church (as also fa stone carving at Beverstoue church), somewhat favor a descent from the Herbert family, as they are mid to have been the arms of Blethin Broadspere, Lord of Llanowell, whose da. and h. Alice was (according to the usually received genealogy of Herbert) great grand- mother of Lord Ap Adam, being wife of Peter Eitz Reginald, wdiose 2nd s., Herbert Fitz Peter, was father of Adam Eitz Herbert [Lord of Llanowell, co. Monmouth, and "f H't'-slev in Tidrnh uu. co. ( iloueester], the father of the said Lord Ap Adam (called, however, in the " commission " above alluded to, Thomas instead of John), and of Jenkin, ancestor of the Earls of Pembroke. See Meyrick's ''Visitations" as above quoted, &e. The pedign f Adams of Tunstead and Ferine, co. Devon, of which no less than 13 (!) generations are recorded in the Visitation of that co. in 1;>64, is certainly fabulous as to the career generations which commence with "John Ap Adam of Charlton, Somerset, ami Elizabeth his wife, da. ami 1l of John, Lord Gurney," whose s. and h. John Ap Adam [a pel-son who certainly never existed] is said to be ancestor in the male line (in the 6th generation) of Roger Adams of Eenne, Devon, great great grandfather of Nicholas Adams of Tunstead, for wdiom and for whose children the pedigree is recorded, and whose arms (ipiartering Gurney and many other families) are given as " Or, semee of cross crosslets fitchee, Sa., a lion rampant, (rules," an entirely different coat from that born by Lord Ap Adam. Still less regard can be given to a pedigree most opportunely " discovered [sic] among the papers of the late Edward Hamlin Adams, M.P. for co. Carmarthen," by his relative, W. Downing Bruce, F.S.A., who had long been seeking to establish for his said consul a descent from Ap Adam. This remarkable document (which is not corroborated by any evidence aliunde) supplies not only arms but even a crest (" Out of a ducal coronet, Or, a demi lion atlroiitee, liulcs") as also a direct male descent from Lord Ap Adam, (1) to Conrad Adams of Barbados (great grandfather of Mr. E. H. Adams); and (2) to Henry Adams of liraintree in New England (ancestor of the well known John Adams, President of the L.S.A.), &c, &c, &c. To the persons in the lust generation (the 13th from Lord Ap Adam) of tliis most Opportunely , ""T" 1 Plwfyjree, the word "li" is added and the date 1680, Mr. Bruce tells us t " at "'i " stands for " living " — ted quere. The pedigree is printed in the " History of the Thomas Adams and Thomas Hastings families of Amherst, Massachusetts," by Herbert Baxter Adams, 1880 ; and very aptly does that gentleman remark (in a letter, t ff 1 1SSf) > to the late Col. Chester), " I dont quite understand how the genealogy J* ,, 11 Mams, which Mr. Bruce professed to have found, ever came into existence at W The validity of the writ of 1297 as a regular writ of summons to Pari, (such as would originate a Peerage) is discussed at great length, in " Nicolas" (p. 242), under I'lTz John," ; n a long and elaborate note by the learned Editor, reprinted in "Cour- ttiope, with a few slight alterations, but without any acknowledgment of its authorship, the doubt of such validity was suggested by the following note (written, apparently, ey John Vincent, s. of the well known Augustine Vincent, in a copv of the BUmuionsea in the College of Arms. "This can be no summons, because it is only K. 2