Adams, Samuel 1722-1803
American revolutionary politician

Born in Boston, the second cousin of John Adams, 2nd President of the USA, he was chief agitator at the so-called Boston Tea Party (1773). He became a tax collector and then a member of the Massachusetts legislature (1765-74). He organized opposition to the Stamp Act (1765), and organized the Non-Importation Association (1798) and the Boston Committee of Correspondence (1772). After the Boston Tea Party he was a delegate to the First and Second Continental Congresses (1774-75), and signed the Declaration of Independence (1776). He anticipated Napoleon I by calling the English 'a nation of shopkeepers' in 1776. He was Lieutenant-Governor of Massachusetts from 1789 to 1794, and Governor from 1794 to 1797.

Bibliography: Stewart Beach, Samuel Adams: The Fateful Years, 1764-1776 (1965)