49 Fun Facts About Sam Adams

How many of Deacon Samuel Adams and Mary Fifield's twelve children lived past their third birthday?

Three: of the twelve children born to Deacon Samuel Adams and Mary Fifield, only three, Samuel among them, lived past their third birthday in an age of high infant mortality.

Samuel, the Boston patriot, was a second cousin of which future US president?

John Adams, Samuel's second cousin, was the future president; when John reached France in 1778 he had to explain that he was not Samuel, 'the famous Adams'.

Which college did Samuel Adams enter in 1736 at the age of 14?

Harvard admitted Samuel Adams in 1736, when he was 14; his parents hoped the schooling would lead to the ministry, but he graduated in 1740 and took a master's degree in 1743.

Samuel Adams's 1743 thesis argued it was lawful to resist whom, if the Commonwealth could not otherwise survive?

The Supreme Magistrate: his 1743 master's thesis asked 'whether it be lawful to resist the Supreme Magistrate, if the Commonwealth cannot be otherwise preserved', and Adams argued that it was.

Samuel Adams is often called a brewer, but evidence suggests he actually worked as what?

A maltster: Adams inherited the family malthouse, which produced malt for Boston's brewers rather than beer; his poor business sense eventually ran it into the ground.

Samuel Adams's father was ruined by the 1741 collapse of which Massachusetts scheme he had helped create?

The Land Bank, which issued paper currency backed by land, was dissolved by Parliament in 1741; its directors became personally liable, and lawsuits dogged the Adams family for years.

Which town office did Samuel Adams perform so poorly that his accounts fell 8,000 pounds into arrears?

Tax collector: Adams rarely pressed his neighbours for payment, a laxity that boosted his popularity but eventually left his accounts roughly 8,000 pounds in arrears.

Which weekly newspaper did Samuel Adams and friends launch in 1748?

The Independent Advertiser, a weekly Adams and his friends launched in 1748, ran essays steeped in John Locke's ideas of natural rights and government by consent.

Under which of these pen names did Samuel Adams write essays in the Boston Gazette?

Vindex was among Samuel Adams's Boston Gazette pen names, alongside Candidus and Valerius Poplicola; Publius belonged to the Federalist authors and Silence Dogood to a teenage Ben Franklin.

What did Boston's Town Meeting declare on 24 May 1764, following Samuel Adams's written instructions?

That Parliament could not constitutionally tax the colonists: the instructions, answering the Sugar Act, argued that taxes imposed without the colonists' consent violated their rights as British subjects.

Which Sons of Liberty precursor organised Boston's 1765 Stamp Act protests — a group Adams never joined?

The Loyal Nine, a group of Boston shopkeepers and artisans, organised the 14 August 1765 protest that hanged stamp distributor Andrew Oliver in effigy from a great elm in Boston's South End; Adams was not a member.

Samuel Adams entered the Massachusetts House in 1765, replacing which deceased Boston representative?

Oxenbridge Thacher, the Boston lawyer who had argued the writs of assistance case, died in July 1765; Adams was elected to his seat that September and soon drafted the House's anti-Stamp Act resolutions.

Which wealthy young merchant joined Samuel Adams in the Massachusetts House in 1766 as his protege?

The two later fell out over Hancock's taste for finery, then reconciled in time to back the Constitution together in 1788.

What was the vote when the Massachusetts House refused in 1768 to rescind Adams's Circular Letter?

92 to 17: the House voted by that margin on 30 June 1768 not to rescind the Circular Letter, so Governor Bernard dissolved it; the 'Glorious 92' became a patriot rallying number.

Which sloop's seizure by customs officials in Boston in June 1768 sparked a riot?

The Liberty, a merchant sloop accused of landing Madeira wine without paying duty, was seized on 10 June 1768; a crowd then beat the customs officers, who fled to the warship Romney.

Which Boston lawyer helped defend the British soldiers tried for the Boston Massacre?

Josiah Quincy, a young patriot lawyer, joined the soldiers' defence despite his father's objections; Samuel Adams wanted the trial to show Boston was not ruled by a mob, then wrote essays arguing the acquitted men deserved conviction.

In November 1772 Samuel Adams created which network so Massachusetts towns could share political news?

Committees of correspondence: the Boston committee Adams formed in November 1772, after the Crown took over paying the governor and judges, circulated a statement of colonial rights and invited every town to reply.

Whose private letters urging 'an abridgement of ... English liberties' did Samuel Adams reveal in 1773?

The House petitioned the king for his recall; the same governor's refusal to let the tea ships leave set up the Tea Party months later.

The mass gathering Adams called for 29 November 1773 outgrew Faneuil Hall and moved to which building?

The Old South Meeting House took the overflow crowd; on 16 December thousands were packed there when word came that the governor would not let the tea ships leave.

Which of the tea ships was stranded near Cape Cod and never reached Boston in December 1773?

The William ran aground off Cape Cod on 10 December 1773; the remaining tea ships were boarded on 16 December, when 342 chests went into the harbour over the course of the evening.

When did the claim that Adams's remark signalled the Boston Tea Party first appear in print?

Nearly a century later, in a biography by his great-grandson: William V. Wells's 1865 life of Adams first printed the signal story; eyewitnesses said people lingered ten or fifteen minutes and Adams tried to keep the meeting going.

Why was Samuel Adams's 1774 journey to the First Continental Congress personally notable?

He had never before left Massachusetts: Adams set out for Philadelphia in August 1774 in new clothes his friends had bought him, his expenses paid, on his first trip beyond his home province.

Who sent Paul Revere from Boston on 18 April 1775 to warn the leaders at Lexington?

Joseph Warren, the Boston physician who led the patriots after Adams left for Congress, dispatched Revere; Gage's written orders never mentioned arresting the two leaders, though London papers had reported that Adams would hang if caught.

At whose Lexington parsonage was Samuel Adams staying when Paul Revere arrived on 18 April 1775?

Jonas Clarke, Lexington's minister, was hosting Adams and a fellow patriot leader at his parsonage when Revere rode in; the pair left for Woburn before the British column reached the town.

Samuel Adams served in the Continental Congress from 1774 until which year?

1781: Adams sat in the Continental Congress from its first session in 1774 until 1781, when he went home to Massachusetts for good and turned to state politics.

Jefferson called Samuel Adams the Revolution's Palinurus, a figure who was what in Virgil's Aeneid?

Aeneas's helmsman: Palinurus steered Aeneas's fleet from Troy until he fell overboard off Italy, so the compliment credits Adams with steering Congress toward independence; Jefferson also called him 'truly the Man of the Revolution'.

Who joined the two Adams cousins on the subcommittee that drafted the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780?

James Bowdoin, president of the 1779-80 convention, sat with the two Adamses on the drafting subcommittee; voters had rejected an earlier draft in 1778, and the 1780 text set up annual elections and a separation of powers.

Which two documents of the Revolution did Samuel Adams sign?

The Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation: Adams signed both, having sat on the committee that drafted the Articles; he did not attend the 1787 Philadelphia Convention, so the Constitution lacks his name.

About which uprising did Samuel Adams say a man who rebels against a republic's laws 'ought to suffer death'?

Shays' Rebellion, the 1786-87 rising of indebted western Massachusetts farmers, drew the remark; Adams saw no contradiction with 1776, since rebelling against an unrepresentative king differed from taking up arms against a republic of fellow citizens.

By what margin did Massachusetts ratify the US Constitution in February 1788?

187 to 168: Massachusetts ratified on 6 February 1788 by that narrow vote; Adams, who had confessed 'as I enter the Building I stumble at the Threshold', backed it on the proviso that amendments would follow.

Samuel Adams lost the December 1788 US House election to whom?

Fisher Ames, a 30-year-old Federalist lawyer from Dedham, beat Adams for the Boston-area House seat; newspapers cast it as old revolutionary against new constructive statesman, and Adams kept pressing for the amendments that became the Bill of Rights.

Which Massachusetts office did Samuel Adams hold from 1789 until October 1793?

Lieutenant governor: Adams won the post in 1789 and held it until the sitting governor died in October 1793, when he became acting governor; he was then elected governor in his own right in 1794.

In which state did Republican electors cast 15 votes for Samuel Adams as Jefferson's running mate in 1796?

Virginia: the state's Republican electors gave Adams 15 votes as Jefferson's running mate, enough for fifth place nationally; the presidency went to his Federalist cousin, and Samuel was pleased when Jefferson won in 1800.

Which movement disorder do historians believe left Samuel Adams unable to write in his final decade?

Essential tremor is the modern diagnosis for the shaking that left Adams unable to write in his final decade, forcing him to dictate his letters; he died in Boston at 81 in October 1803.

Which two people founded the Boston Beer Company, maker of Samuel Adams, in 1984?

Jim Koch and Rhonda Kallman founded the company in 1984; Koch put in $100,000 of his own savings and raised the rest from family, friends and former Boston Consulting Group colleagues.

The first Samuel Adams Boston Lager used a family recipe named after which ancestor of the founder?

Louis Koch, Jim Koch's great-great-grandfather, brewed the original lager recipe in the 19th century; Jim, the sixth-generation eldest son to brew, retrieved it from his father's attic after years at Boston Consulting Group.

Six weeks after its 1985 launch, Samuel Adams Boston Lager was voted 'Best in America' at which event?

The Great American Beer Festival gave the lager its 'Best Beer in America' consumer-poll win in June 1985, six weeks after it first went on tap at Doyle's Cafe in Jamaica Plain.

Under what ticker symbol does the Boston Beer Company trade on the New York Stock Exchange?

Public shareholders hold Class A stock; Koch owns 100% of the Class B shares that control the company. TAP belongs to Molson Coors.

What was the ABV of Samuel Adams Utopias in 2002, when it was marketed as the world's strongest beer?

24%: the 2002 Utopias MMII carried that ABV and was marketed as the world's strongest beer; it comes uncarbonated in a ceramic bottle shaped like a copper brew kettle, and later editions went higher.

Which hard iced tea brand did the Boston Beer Company introduce in the early 2000s?

Twisted Tea, a malt-based hard iced tea, joined the Boston Beer portfolio in the early 2000s; the company later added Angry Orchard cider and, in 2016, Truly hard seltzer.

In May 2019 the Boston Beer Company bought which Delaware craft brewery for about $300 million?

Dogfish Head, founded by Sam Calagione in Rehoboth Beach in 1995, merged into Boston Beer in a deal valued at about $300 million in cash and stock; Calagione and his wife Mariah took shares as part of the price.

In which city, its founder's hometown, did Boston Beer buy the Hudepohl-Schoenling Brewery in 1997?

Cincinnati, the founder's hometown, had the Hudepohl-Schoenling plant Boston Beer bought in 1997; its first batches of Boston Lager had been contract-brewed at the Pittsburgh Brewing Company.

Samuel Adams's first wife, Elizabeth Checkley, whom he married in 1749, was the daughter of whom?

His pastor: Elizabeth was the daughter of the Reverend Samuel Checkley, whose church Adams attended; only two of their six children reached adulthood, and after her death in 1757 he married Elizabeth Wells in 1764.

Which learned society did Samuel Adams help found as a charter member in 1780?

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences was chartered by the Massachusetts legislature in May 1780 with Adams among its charter members; he also pushed Boston to provide free public schooling even for girls, a controversial stance then.

Which organisation of former army officers did Adams, like Jefferson, denounce after the war?

The Society of the Cincinnati, founded in 1783 by Continental Army officers with membership passing to eldest sons, struck Adams as 'a stride towards an hereditary military nobility'; Jefferson and Franklin attacked it too.

What was the profession of Samuel Adams Jr., who died during the 1788 Massachusetts ratifying convention?

Surgeon: Samuel Adams Jr. served as an army surgeon in the Revolutionary War, fell ill and never fully recovered; his death in January 1788 was a stunning blow to his father.

Which exiled Loyalist chief justice called Adams a devious Machiavellian with a 'cloven Foot'?

Peter Oliver, chief justice of Massachusetts until the Revolution drove him into exile, wrote in his account of the rebellion that Adams was a Machiavellian with a 'cloven Foot'; his brother Andrew was the stamp distributor hanged in effigy.

Why did Adams lose his job at Thomas Cushing's counting house after only a few months?

He was too preoccupied with politics for the counting house, so Cushing let him go; his father then lent him 1,000 pounds to go into business, half of which Adams promptly lent to a friend and never saw again.

In which Boston burying ground was Samuel Adams interred after his death in 1803?

Granary Burying Ground, on Tremont Street, holds Samuel Adams's grave alongside Paul Revere, the Boston Massacre victims and other Revolutionary figures; a large boulder with a plaque marks his plot.