 In 1884 Adam was appointed Junior Fellow and soon thereafter Senior Lecturer in the Classics at Emmanuel College.In 1890, a former student of his, Adele Marion ("née" Kensington) (1866–1944), became his wife and lifelong collaborator.Their daughter, Barbara Frances (1897–1988), was the British sociologist and criminologist, Lady Barbara Wootton, one of their sons, Captain Arthur Innes Adam, was killed in France on 16 September 1916 and another son, Neil Kensington Adam, became a noted chemist.