The Founder of Wem School. in the reign of queen Elizabeth, Randal Adams held of the lord of Wem, a messuage and fifteen acres and a half of land, which probably he afterwards purchased. He had two sons, William who succeeded him in the estate at Northwood, and died in 1598; and Thomas, who was a farmer at Wem. This Thomas Adams married Margaret, daughter of John Erpe, of Shrewsbury, and lived in the house, which, before the fire, stood on that ground where now is the dwelling house of the head master. His tanpits, where he exercised his trade, were in that yard, where is now the school, its court and garden, and that plot on the other side the brook, where the business is still carried on. By his care and industry, he purchased an estate, in and about Wem, of about £25. a year. By Margaret, his wife, he had three sons. 1st, John, born 1584; 2nd, Thomas, born 1586, and baptized December 6th, that year; 3rd, William, born 1594. John, the eldest, was a farmer, inherited his father's estate at Wem, and died S. P. in 1631. Thomas seems to have been designed for the ministry; for he had his education at Cambridge, and took a degree there. But a more gainful prospect opening in the way of trade, he quitted the university, and applied himself to the business of a draper, in London. Here God so blessed his endeavours, that he grew rich, and married Ann, daughter of Humphrey Mapsted, of Trenton, in Essex, by whom he had five sons, and four Ꮓ The Founder of Wem School. daughters, of whom, only three daughters, and one son did survive him. In 1631, he succeeded to the estate at Wem, on his brother dying without issue. In 1639, he was chosen sheriff of the city of London; of which, one of his sons in law bringing him the news, he immediately dismissed the business he was about, and never after personally followed his trade, but gave himself up to the city concerns. January 11th, 1641-2, his wife died, who on her monument, has the character of uxor dulcissima. In 1646, he was lord mayor of London, in which station he scorned to make the usual advantage of selling places. The rebels imagining, that he concealed the king, searched his house, and pulled him out of bed by the heels. The next year, 1647, he was committed to the Tower with his lord mayor, and two other aldermen. About this time he sent £1000. in gold to the king, then confined at Hampton court. April 23rd, 1648, he and the other two aldermen refused to be carried before the lords, by the lieutenant of the Tower, and sent a petition to the The Founder of Wem School. lords assembled in parliament, with the reasons why they could not submit to their lordships' jurisdiction, nor answer before them to articles of impeachment of high treason, and other misdemeanors. 1649, They were degraded from the dignity of aldermen. In 1650, Thomas Adams, esq. founded the free school at Wem, and endowed it with the messuage and lands he had in, and about that town. But being sensible that his endowment would not be sufficient for the maintainance of three masters, he put the feoffees in a method to augment it by the contributions of others. In 1654, and 1656, he was burgess of parliament for the city of London; but the iniquity of the times would not permit him to take his seat there. In these perilous times, he harzarded his estate and life, by remitting large sums of money to king Charles II. the total amounting to £10,000. For the benefit of the Eastern people, by promoting the Christian religion among them, at the desire of Mr. Wheelock, he was at the charge of printing the Gospels in Persian, and transmitting them into those parts; thereby (to use his own expression) throwing a stone at the forehead of Mahomet the Great. The Founder of Wem School. May 11th, 1660, he (though above seventy-three years old) was one of the twenty most substantial citizens, whom the city of London sent as their commissioners, to wait on king Charles II. at the Hague, with a present of £10,000. and assurances of their fidelity, and submission; for which service, he and the rest of the deputies were knighted. And June 3rd, in that same year, he was advanced to the higher degree of a baronet. He was now restored to his place of alderman, and in a few years became the father of the city. He was a vigilant president of St. Thomas's Hospital, which probably would have been ruined, if his sagacity, and industry had not discovered the fraud of an unjust steward. In 1666, he founded an Arabic lecture at Cambridge, and settled upon the lecturer £40. per an num, to be paid by the Drapers' company for ever. In his latter years he sustained many great damagės to his estate, and some crosses in his near relations, particularly the death of four of his sons. He also suffered much pain from the stone in his bladder, which had been growing forty years, and when taken out, weighed twenty-five ounces. It is still preserved in the Laboratory at Cambridge. His water had'a passage through a channel in the said stone, otherwise the stoppage of his urine must have added to his pain, and shortened his days. It killed him at last, for stepping out of his coach, he happened to fall, which gave his bladder such a shock, that it forced The Founder of Wem School. the stone down, and stopped the urinal passage. He died February 24th, 1667--8, and in the eightysecond year of his age. March the 10th following, he was buried at Saint Catharine's, Cree-church, of which parish he had been fifteen years the chief inhabitant. Doctor Hardy, one of the king's chaplains in ordinary, preached his funeral sermon on Acts ch. 13th, v. 36th, and the same year printed it, and dedicated to his son, sir William Adams. Sir Thomas's body did not lye long here, before it was removed to Sprowston, in Norfolk, where he has à monument, with a long and elegant epitaph, reciting the most remarkable events of his life. He was a personable man; when young, handsome; when old, venerable, and yet amiable. His piety to God, and loyalty to the king was exemplary. He was another Aristides for integrity, another Moses for meekness. In the court of aldermen, he was an oracle; in his family a pattern of every private virtue. Schismatical conventicles he abhorred, but duly frequented the church assemblies. Great was his respect for the orthodox clergy; those that were sufferers, he charitably relieved; those who were labourers, he bountifully encouraged. When a private tradesman, he was diligent, and exact -in his bargains, and contracts; and when a public magistrate, he made it his business to understand, and maintain the liberties and privileges of the city, and to do justice between the citizens. Notwith |