Abijah Adams

Abijah Adams (c.1754-May 18, 1816) was a journalist who frequently found himself involved in controversies. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts.

He was trained as a tailor, and married Lucy Ballard in 1790. In 1799, he took a job with the newspaper the "Independent Chroncile", a Jeffersonian newspaper controlled by his brother, Thomas Adams. That same year, he was indicated for libel in a case filed based on the newspaper's stand on the Alien and Sedition Acts, for which he received a short jail sentence. The following year, he was promoted to the position of editor, which he shared with Ebenezer Rhodes. In 1811, he received a conviction for libel arising from his comments on the conduct in office of Theophilus Parsons, who was at the time the Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, but was later pardoned. He died in 1816.

References

*"Who Was Who in America, Historical Volume, 1607-1896." Chicago: Marquis Who's Who, 1963.