Barton St David: the Somerset village with links to five US presidents
2025-01-19
Category: news

"John Adams? Good luck!"That's the line spoken by King George in the record-breaking musical Hamilton after Adams becomes the second US president in 1797, beating his eventual successor Thomas Jefferson.His place in American history is an important one, as one of the Founding Fathers, the first White House resident, an early campaigner against slavery and the first vice-president.But did you know he has a direct link to a small village in Somerset?
Barton St David is about five miles south of Glastonbury and 12 miles north of Yeovil.It has a population of about 600 people and a church which dates back to the 12th Century.And it was here, in 1583, where Henry Adams was born - the great, great, great grandfather of John Adams, and the great, great, great, great grandfather of John Quincy Adams - the sixth president of the US."Henry Adams was born in Barton St David, although there is a bit of a dispute about where he basically was," said Rob Butt, a member of the village's history club."He was a tenant farmer and farmed lands both here and in Charlton Mackrell. There would have been more important people than him in Barton."Mr Butt told BBC Radio Somerset how an early historical record showed Adams was once taken to court by a landowner for failure to pay a debt of animals upon his father's death in Barton St David. 
He later emigrated to the US, along with other puritan pilgrims, perhaps as a result of the catholic practices being reintroduced by King Charles I, Mr Butt said.Adams settled in Braintree, Massachusetts, which was named after the town in Essex where he had also lived during his time in England.Mr Butt said: "There is a plaque [in the church], and the most interesting thing is that we get various requests from America for people who are related to the Adams family."We've got the visitor book with various people with the surname Adams which have signed in... to come and look at the plaque which celebrates these two men."
But the links to Barton St David do not stop with John Adams and John Quincy Adams."Henry Adams married someone called Edith Squire," Mr Butt explained, adding: "She was the daughter of Henry Squire, who was the son of a reverend, William Squire of Charlton Mackrell."Edith and Henry Adams... through another son of theirs, after 12 generations, we get Calvin Coolidge, the 30th president of the United States."Edith Adams' sister, Anne Squire, married Aquilla Purchase, with a lineage that leads to Millard Fillmore, the 13th president.Another sister, Margaret Squire, married a man called John Shephard, and their family tree guides to William Howard Taft - the 27th president.It means this small corner of Somerset can claim to have the second, sixth, 13th, 27th and 30th presidents of the US traced back to it - and its nearby reverend.
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