[1] Adams was born on January 2, 1833, in Enniskillen, Ireland, and when he was eight, he and his family arrived in the United States, who settled in Kentucky.

[2] Young Adams was fitted for Yale, but pecuniary reverses attendant upon the failure of his father in business, obliged him to forego his plans, then he bravely accepted the change in his circumstances, obtained a mercantile situation, and in his leisure time studied law, so, in 1854 he was admitted to the Mississippi bar.

[2] He removed to Tennessee, and pursued his theological studies with a view to entering the church, then returned to Mississippi before the completion of his course, and was ordained a deacon in St. Andrew's church, Jackson, Mississippi, on December 15, 1859, admitted to full orders as priest on July 29, 1860.

[2] He was consecrated on January 17, 1875, by Bishop William Mercer Green of Mississippi in St Paul's Church in New Orleans.

In 1876 Dr. Adams became rector of Holy Trinity, Vicksburg, Mississippi, in the next year, he was accepted by the House of Bishops, continued to serve as rector of Holy Trinity Church until 1887, when he was again elected to the Episcopal office, as Bishop of Easton; he was 109th in succession in the American Episcopate.