preached by Dr. Hardy, at St Katherine Cree Church, before his children and many of his relations. He was buried in a barrel vault excavated under the altar of St Mary and St Margaret Church, Sprowston, Norfolk, and a large marble monument was erected above it. His descendants enjoyed the title down to Sir Thomas Adams, the sixth baronet, who died a captain in the Royal Navy in 1770. Legacy Renowned as a public benefactor, in his lifetime Sir Thomas gave his house at Wem as a free-school (Thomas Adams School) to the town, and endowed it; he founded an Arabic professorship at Cambridge in 1643, and paid for the printing of the Gospels in Persian, and for sending them into the east. Despite suffering great losses in his estate, he left legacies to the poor of many parishes, to hospitals, and ministers' widows in his will. His title and Sprowston estate passed to his eldest son William (1634–1687). His second son Richard is remembered for a collection of verse. Sources Chalmers, Alexander. The General Biographical Dictionary: Containing an Historical and Critical Account of the Lives and Writings of the most Eminent Persons in Every Nation; Particularly the British and Irish; from the Earliest Accounts to the Present Time. new ed. rev. and enl. London: Nichols [et al.], 1812–1817. 32 vols. Keith Roberts, London And Liberty: Ensigns of the London Trained Bands, Eastwood, Nottinghamshire: Partizan Press, 1987, ISBN 0-946525-16-1. External links British Civil War Project Notes 1586 births 1660s deaths Year of death uncertain People educated at Shrewsbury School Alumni of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge Sheriffs of the City of London 17th-century lord mayors of London London Trained Bands officers Baronets in the Baronetage of England People from Wem Members of the Parliament of England for the City of London Prisoners in the Tower of London People from Sprowston English MPs 1654–1655 English MPs 1656–1658