Adlam, Samuel

Adlam, Samuel, a Baptist minister, was born in Temple Parish, Bristol, England, Feb. 4, 1798. As a child he exhibited remarkable mental powers, and at a very early age became proficient as a student in grammar and acquired a knowledge of Latin, Greek, and French. He came to the United States in 1821 and took up his residence in Boston, where he devoted himself to his trade, that of a manufacturer of philosophical instruments. His establishment was large enough to give employment to nineteen apprentices. Not long after settling in Boston, he became a member of the First Baptist Church, then under the pastoral care of Rev. Dr. Francis Wayland, by whom he was baptized. Feeling a desire to preach the Gospel, he studied theology with his revered pastor, and was ordained Nov. 1,1824, as the minister of the Church in West Dedham, Mass. He completed his somewhat imperfect preparation for the ministry by spending some time at the Newton Theological Institution, where he graduated in the class of 1838. He was subsequently settled at Marblehead, Mass., and Hallowell and Dover, Me. From the latter place he removed to Newport, R. I., where he became pastor of the' First Baptist Church, his ministry with this Church continuing from 1849 to 1865. In the latter year he retired from the pastorate, and for some time devoted himself to the work of fitting young men for college. He visited England in 1871, and interested himself in researches into the archives of several institutions there, to discover documents and facts bearing upon Rhode Island history. Until smitten by the cerebral disease which afflicted the closing years of his life, he spent much of his time in his valuable library, engaged in those literary employments to which his cultivated tastes inclined him. "For his talents, scholarship, piety, industry, fidelity, and success, both as a preacher and a writer, he deserves an honorable niche in our-country." He died at Newport, Oct. 18, 1880. See Providence Journal, Oct. 20, 1880. (J. . S.)