Samuel “Sam” Adams

Directory: Massachusetts Political Directory

Elected Public Offices

Tax Collector, Boston

Service: 1756–1764 ^{1, 2, 3}

Member, Massachusetts General Court

Service: 1765–1774 ¹

Delegate, First Continental Congress

Service: 1774 ^{1, 2}

Delegate, Second Continental Congress

Service: 1775–1781 ^{1, 2}

Member, Massachusetts Constitutional Convention

Service: 1779 ^{1, 2}

Delegate, Confederation Congress

Service: 1781 ^{4, 5}

Member, Massachusetts Senate

Service: Full Membership Interval Not Verified ^{1, 6}

Leadership: President of the Massachusetts Senate, 1781–1785 ^{7, 10, 11, 12}

Leadership: President of the Massachusetts Senate, 1787–1788 ^{7, 12, 13, 14}

Member, Massachusetts Constitutional Convention

Service: 1788 ¹

Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts

Service: 1789–1794 ^{1, 7, 8, 6}

Governor of Massachusetts

Service: Acting Duties from October 1793; Elected Service 1794–June 1797 ^{2, 8, 9, 6}

Related Office Page: Governor of Massachusetts

Official Resources

• Massachusetts House of Representatives — Sam Adams’s earlier General Court service was under the colonial government. ^{15, 6, 1}
• Massachusetts Senate — The Massachusetts Senate is the current chamber corresponding to Sam Adams’s elected Senate office; documented presidency periods appear under that office. ^{16, 7}
• Massachusetts Governor’s Council — The governor presides over this constitutional council. The lieutenant governor is a member except during a vacancy in the governor’s chair and presides in the governor’s absence. ^{17, 6}

Sources and Verification

Last Reviewed: October 19th, 2026

Image Credit: John Singleton Copley; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Deposited by the City of Boston; L-R 30.76c; Circa 1772

Image Context: John Singleton Copley painted Sam Adams circa 1772.

Image Source

• Delegate, Confederation Congress: Congressional journals document Sam Adams’s attendance on March 2nd and participation on April 10th, 1781. He declined a later election on June 22nd. His final service date remains unverified.
• Member, Massachusetts Senate: The dated Senate-presidency evidence below establishes leadership periods. It does not establish a continuous elected membership interval between them or the full boundaries of Senate membership. John Adams addressed Sam Adams as Senate President on April 27th, 1785; a contemporary Senate resolve was signed by Samuel Phillips, Jr., as President on July 1st. These dated records support the 1785 ending year over the retrospective State House directory’s 1786 listing; the exact handoff day remains unverified. Sam Adams’s 1787–1788 Senate presidency was separate from his 1781–1785 presidency. An archival manuscript’s endorsement records Adams signing as Senate President on February 28th, 1788; a June 5th Senate order names Phillips as President. These dated actions do not establish the precise election or handoff days.
• Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: Sam Adams retained the lieutenant-governor title while exercising gubernatorial powers after John Hancock’s death. The February 19th, 1794 proclamation still uses that title. His precise qualification date as elected governor remains unverified.
• Governor of Massachusetts: Sam Adams exercised the vacant governor’s powers before his election in 1794. His May 31st, 1794 address confirms gubernatorial duties by that date. Contemporary correspondence and the Massachusetts Historical Society’s edition place Increase Sumner’s introduction and oath on June 2nd, 1797; the ending month follows that successor transition.

1. Adams, Samuel

U.S. House of Representatives, Office of the Historian and Office of Art & Archives — Concise Biography

2. Samuel Adams

National Park Service — Public-Office Service Paragraphs

3. Samuel Adams: Boston’s Radical Revolutionary

National Park Service — The Young Politician; Paragraph Beginning in 1756

4. Journals of the Continental Congress, Volume 19 (1781)

Library of Congress, Journals of the Continental Congress — March 2nd, 1781, Massachusetts Attendance; April 10th, 1781, Motion by Samuel Adams, Printed Page 368

5. Letters of Delegates to Congress, Volume 18, September 1781–July 1782

Library of Congress — List of Delegates to Congress, Massachusetts, Samuel Adams Entry, Printed Page xviii

6. Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts

The General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts — Part II, Chapter I, Section I, Article I; Original Provisions of Chapter II Concerning Governor and Lieutenant Governor

7. A Pocket Almanack — Historical Office Lists (1845)

Massachusetts State Library Digital Repository, Commonwealth of Massachusetts — Historical Tables: 'Presidents of the Senate'; 'Governors' and 'Lieutenant Governors' under the New Constitution; PDF Page 97 for Senate List and Nearby Preceding Historical Table for Governors

8. Samuel Adams — Gubernatorial Addresses and Proclamation, 1794

Samuel Adams; The Writings of Samuel Adams, Edited by Harry Alonzo Cushing, Volume 4 — Addresses to the Massachusetts Legislature, January 17th and May 31st, 1794; Proclamation Dated February 19th, 1794

9. Thomas Welsh to Abigail Adams, June 2nd, 1797

Massachusetts Historical Society, Adams Papers Digital Edition — Letter Dated Boston, June 2nd, 1797; Accompanying Editorial Note Identifying Evidence for Sumner’s Oath

10. John Adams to Samuel Adams, April 27th, 1785

Massachusetts Historical Society, Adams Papers Digital Edition — Editorial Note / Letter Address and Endorsement; Address Identifies Recipient as President of the Senate and Endorsement Dates the Letter April 27th, 1785

11. American State Papers, Foreign Relations, Volume 1 — Massachusetts Resolve, July 1st, 1785

United States Congress; Gales and Seaton Edition, Digitized Facsimile — Printed p. 95 (PDF p. 87), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, in Senate, July 1st, 1785; Signature and House Concurrence

12. The State House — Historical Appendix and Biographical Directory

Massachusetts State Library Digital Repository, Commonwealth of Massachusetts — Appendix, Samuel Adams Entry, Printed Page 97

13. The Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution, Volume 7 — Hancock’s Address and Endorsements

State Historical Society of Wisconsin; University of Wisconsin Digital Collections — Printed pp. 1667–1669, Source Note 1: Massachusetts Archives, Miscellaneous Legislative Papers, House Files No. 2898; Senate Endorsement, February 28th, 1788

14. Massachusetts Legislative Broadside — Revolutionary War Bounties, 1783 and 1788

Commonwealth of Massachusetts; Library of Congress, Rare Book and Special Collections Division — Second Order: In Senate, June 5th, 1788; Samuel Phillips, Jr., Signature; PDF pp. 2–3

15. House of Representatives

Massachusetts General Court — About the House of Representatives

16. Senate

Massachusetts General Court — About the Senate

17. Massachusetts Governor’s Council

Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Mass.gov — Official Council Overview; Constitutional Relationship Is Supported by the Separately Cited Massachusetts Constitution

18. From Samuel Adams, April 16th, 1784

Massachusetts Historical Society, Adams Papers Digital Edition — Letter Endorsement, Printed Page 164