🇺🇸✨ USA 250: Somerset's Link To Five US Presidents

Happy 250th Birthday USA!

My other half is OBSESSED with Hamilton. She has seen it multiple times and plays the soundtrack on loop. So, when I told her that John Adams' bloodline originated from Somerset...well, she couldn't care less, but she did break into a song about him.

It is remarkable though, that the origins of this 250 year old powerhouse of a nation have links to Somerset - thanks to the small villages of Barton St David and Charlton Mackrell...

 Barton St David: The Adams Family Roots

Barton St David was once home to Henry Adams. He was born here around 1583, and his family had lived in the parish for at least three generations. In 1609, Henry married Edith Squire at the nearby Charlton Mackrell Church.

In 1638, Henry and his family left Somerset — probably sailing from Plymouth — and settled in New England, Massachusetts. From here Henry Adams became the ancestor of:

• John Adams, 2nd President of the United States (1797–1801)

• John Quincy Adams, 6th President of the United States (1825–1829)

Both men were central figures in the birth of the America — Founding Fathers, diplomats, and architects of early U.S. democracy. And their ancestral home was a quiet Somerset parish surrounded by orchards and hedgerows.

 Charlton Mackrell: A Second Presidential Line

Charlton Mackrell, just a short walk from Barton St David, has its own presidential connection — and it begins with the same Squire family Henry Adams married into. The wider Adams/Squire family is reported to include ancestral links to three more U.S. Presidents:

• Millard Fillmore (13th President)

• William Howard Taft (27th President)

• Calvin Coolidge (30th President)

Calvin Coolidge (Left) William Howard Taft (Middle) and Millard Fillmore (Right)

That means within just a few square miles of Somerset countryside, you’ll find ancestral connections to FIVE U.S. Presidents — plus Samuel Adams, the revolutionary politician immortalised today in the name of a Boston beer.

Don't forget to visit Barton St David Church to see a commemorative plaque dedicated to this history!

Happy 4th July to all my American friends and followers!