Q 01/05

How many of Deacon Samuel Adams and Mary Fifield's twelve children lived past their third birthday?

A) Three

B) Five

C) Eight

D) Eleven

Answer · why

A) Three

The family were devout Puritans of the Old South Congregational Church, and Samuel carried Puritan ideas of virtue into his politics all his life.

Q 02/05

Samuel, the Boston patriot, was a second cousin of which future US president?

A) Thomas Jefferson

B) James Madison

C) John Adams

D) James Monroe

Answer · why

C) John Adams

When the cousin later travelled to France he had to explain that he was not Samuel, 'the famous Adams'.

Q 03/05

Which college did Samuel Adams enter in 1736 at the age of 14?

A) Yale

B) Harvard

C) William & Mary

D) Princeton

Answer · why

B) Harvard

His parents hoped the schooling would lead to the ministry; he graduated in 1740 and took a master's degree in 1743.

Q 04/05

Samuel Adams's 1743 thesis argued it was lawful to resist whom, if the Commonwealth could not otherwise survive?

A) The Supreme Magistrate

B) The Established Church

C) The Provincial Governor

D) The Colonial Assembly

Answer · why

A) The Supreme Magistrate

The thesis signalled that his politics, like his father's, were oriented toward colonial rights three decades before independence.

Q 05/05

Samuel Adams is often called a brewer, but evidence suggests he actually worked as what?

A) A cooper

B) A distiller

C) A maltster

D) A hop merchant

Answer · why

C) A maltster

The Adamses had produced malt for brewers for generations; Samuel's poor business sense eventually closed the malthouse.