evidence: John Adams was many things: lawyer, diplomat, member of the Continental Congress, and one of the original signers of the Declaration of Independence. Adams was born in Braintree, Massachusetts, in 1735. He proposed to Abigail Smith in 1762 and they married two years later. The couple had six children. [...] Receiving seventy-one electoral votes, only three more votes than his opponent, Adams won the election and assumed the presidency at the age of 61.