In 1810, his father, Richard Adams, removed to Norwich, Connecticut, from which place the son entered Yale College, where he graduated in 1824.

Samuel J. Hitchcock, of New Haven, in 1824, and while resident published a small volume of poems in 1825, but soon embarked in the dry-goods jobbing business in New York City, in partnership with Felix A. Huntington, of Norwich.

In 1828, he started a newspaper called the Telegraph, in Stonington, Connecticut, which was merged the next year in the Norwich Republican, of which Adams continued the editor until 1834.

About this time he was admitted to the bar, and in 1835 he was elected Judge of Probate, but held the office for only a short period, resigning it to remove from town, at first to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and, afterwards to Michigan.

He devoted himself later to literary pursuits, and published several tales of American life, such as The Lost Hunter (N.Y., 1856), and The Knight of the Golden Melice (N.Y., 1860).