English village associated with five American presidents

“John Adams? Good luck!”

This is the line spoken by King George in the record-breaking musical Hamilton after Adams defeated his eventual successor Thomas Jefferson to become the second President of the United States in 1797.

His place in American history is an important one, as one of the Founding Fathers, the first resident of the White House, an early campaigner against slavery, and the first Vice President.

But did you know that it has a direct connection to a small village in Somerset?

Barton St David’s is about five miles south of Glastonbury and 12 miles north of Yeovil.

It has a population of about 600 people and a church that dates back to the 12th century.

And it was here, in 1583, that Henry Adams was born – the great-great-grandfather of John Adams, and the great-great-grandfather of John Quincy Adams, America’s sixth president.

Village history club member Rob Butt said, “Henry Adams was born in Barton St David’s, although there is a bit of controversy as to where he was originally from.”

“He was a tenant farmer and farmed both here and at Charlton Mackerel. There may have been more important people than him at Barton.”

Mr Butt told BBC Radio Somerset how an early historical record shows that Adams was once taken to court by a landowner in Barton St David for failing to repay a debt for animals following his father’s death Was.

He later moved to America with other Puritan pilgrims, perhaps as a result of King Charles I’s resumption of Catholic practices, Mr. Butt said.

Adams settled in Braintree, Massachusetts, named after the town in Essex where he also lived during his time in England.

Mr Butt said: “There is a plaque in the church, and the most interesting thing is that we get various requests from America for people related to the Addams Family.

“We’ve got a visitor’s book of various people with the Adams surname who have signed… to come and see the plaque that celebrates these two individuals.”

But Barton St. David’s connections don’t stop at John Adams and John Quincy Adams.

“Henry Adams married a person called Edith Squire,” Mr Butt explained, adding: “She was the daughter of Henry Squire, who was the son of a Reverend William Squire of Charlton Mackerel.

“Edith and Henry Adams…through another of their sons, 12 generations later, we have Calvin Coolidge, the 30th President of the United States.”

Edith Adams’s sister Anne Squire married Aquila Purchase, whose lineage traces back to Millard Fillmore, the 13th President.

Another sister, Margaret Squire, married a man named John Shepherd, and their family traces back to the 27th President William Howard Taft.

That means this little corner of Somerset can lay claim to the fact that America’s second, sixth, 13th, 27th and 30th presidents can be traced here – and revered nearby, too.