John Adams 1766-1858
John Adams was born at Ashby de La Zouch and was apprenticed to a Leicester hosier. It was in Leicester in 1788 that Adams' sister, Jane, met and married a young clergyman from Lancaster ca lled Robert Housman. At this time the leading hosiers of Leicester were experimenting with new spinning machinery based on Arkwright's Water Frame. Major industrial disturbances in Leicester in 1788 persuaded one hosier, John Coltman, to spin his yarn well away from Leicestershire. He sent his young partner, John Adams, to Worcestershire to manage the spinning frames in Bromsgrove's former cotton mill. There was no opposition to the new machinery in Bromsgrove and the mill was to employ 150 men, women and children, making John Adams the largest employer in the town. The remains of the huge millpond are still a feature of Bromsgrove's Sanders Park, (see No. 4 on the walk).
John Adams lived at Perry Hall, the large house on the Kidderminster Road which is now part of Bromsgrove School. The ruins of an older house in the garden were converted into a dye works by Adams. Initially it was run by his nephew John Housman. Adams was the the prime mover in the Bromsgrove Volunteers and used the title of Captain. After his first wife Dorothy and infant son died in 1796, John Adams was left without an heir, so he promoted the careers of his sister Jane's three sons John, William and Thomas Housman. The youngest, Thomas Housman, became the first Vicar of Catshill in 1838. John Adams married again in 1835 to a widow, Kezia Ramsden, at Halifax. She was the sister of his friend Isaac Buxton.
John Adams died at Perry Hall in 1858, and Kezia died the following year. After her death the Rev. Thomas Housman's son, Edward, by this time a Bromsgrove solicitor, moved into Perry Hall. It was here that Edward Housman's son, Alfred Edward Housman, grew up. He was to write the famous collection of poems entitled 'A Shropshire Lad', which was first published in 1896. Perry Hall is now named Housman Hall in honour of the poet.
