Re: Mr William Adams
Thread: Mr William Adams
Barrye started this thread some time ago, with the avowed intention of finding and contacting the descendents of 'Mr William Adams JP'.
I too am interested in William Adams, because he made my life possible.
I was born in 'Sorrento', not the romantic resort overlooking the Bay of Naples, but the Sorrento Maternity Home, which had been his family home until he, or possibly his widow, turned it into an institution for the poor and needy.
Many people have contributed helpful advice and information to this enquiry. The thread has become difficult to follow, so, as a little thank you to those willing helpers I have prepared this precis and deductions :
c.1858 William Adams was born in Sheffield, Yorkshire.
In 1865, the electroplating company William Adams Ltd. was established in Sheffield, but it is not known if the founder, William Adams, was the man Barrye wants to track; or his father; or someone unrelated.
In 1871, William Adams future wife, Martha Jane Rogerson, and her two sisters, were silver burnishers and her father a silversmith.
In 1879 William Adams was married to Martha Jane Rogerson (also born c1858 in Sheffield, Yorkshire). in Eccleshall, Bierlow, Yorkshire. William and Martha spent their honeymoon in Sorrento. One can only assume that it was probably in 1879 but, on a clerk's wages ? Or, perhaps, it was paid for by parents.
1881 Wm was a Clerk, living at 60 Winter Street, Sheffield with wife
and 1 child (Mabel ? born in Sheffield in 1881). In Victorian times some clerks were powerful and important people in companies, but William Adams might have been a humble pen pusher.
By 1881 William Adams' father in law, William Rogerson, was an insurance agent & grocer.
1885 Esther Adams, was born in Sheffield
1890 Hilda Adams was born in Sparkbrook Birmingham
1891 - William Adams was living in Inglewood, Holdenhurst, Bournemouth, Hampshire with his wife. Described as 'visitors in the Rogers' household'. Wm (Adams - but might have been Rogerson ?) was an 'Ins Co Manager'.
In 1901 William Rogerson was a Retired Insurance Agent.
At some time after its establishment in 1865, the William Adams Ltd. company was taken over by Henry Jenkins and Sons Ltd., although when is not known, which had as its address 40 Vittoria St. Birmingham - apparently an area of earlier patriotic fervour - Mikejee tells us that No 203 Barr St. was the Trafalgar public house. The registered office was changed to 40 Vittoria St. about 1971. Both companies have ceased trading.
The William Adams family appears to have moved to Birmingham between Esther's birth in 1885 and Hilda's in 1890.
William Adams Ltd. appears to have gone from the Sheffield crown hallmark to the Birmingham anchor in 1901.
In 1901 - William Adams was living in 'Sorrento', a large detached house, 15 Wake Green Road, Birmingham, with wife and children (Mabel, Gertrude, Esther and Hilda ?).
He was recorded as a 'Retired insurance co. manager'
In 1907, as 'President of Sparkbrook Club, William Adams commisioned a Silversmith in the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter, Vaughton & Sons in Hockley, acclaimed as making the FA Cup Trophy 1907, to make a trophy for the club.
By 1911 - at Sorrento, 15 Wake Green Road, Martha Jane Adams was a widow. She died in Birmingham in 1930. William Adams appears to have died between 1907 and 1911.
'Sorrento' was put up for sale during the Great War and Neville Chamberlain bought it in 1916 as a home for disabled soldiers mainly paraplegics.
It was taken over by Birmingham City in 1929 as a maternity home for women on low income.
Deductions
It appears likely that :
The founders of William Adams Ltd. and William Adams JP
were the same Adams family.
They relocated from Sheffield to Birmingham
between 1885 and 1890.
The company was sold to the Birmingham-based
company Henry Jenkins and Sons Ltd.,
possibly, between about 1880, when William Adams was in Sheffield, and 1890, when he had moved to Birmingham. At this time both the Adams and Rogersons had, apparently, entered the insurance business. However, the registered office was not changed to that of Henry Jenkins and Sons Ltd. until about 1971.
William Adams died between 1907 and 1911.
The Adams family home 'Sorrento' became an institution for the poor and needy, then a home for disabled soldiers, mainly paraplegics; a maternity home for women on low income; and was then demolished to make space for a housing development.
Martha Jane Adams died, in Birmingham, in 1930.
Success
Alison Merry is a descendant and appears in a family tree shown in 'Ancestry' and Barrye has been contacted by a grandson of William Adams.
I know a lot more about my benefctor.
Thank you.
...and in doing so I took a closer look at the Information on Birmingham, section in Kelly's rather than heading straight for the streets..I hadnt looked before but have now realised what I was missing out on.. 
