Robert H. Adams

Who was Robert H. Adams?

Robert Huntington Adams was a Mississippi lawyer and politician who, in the final months of his life, briefly served as United States senator from Mississippi.

The year of Adams' birth in Rockbridge County, Virginia is known to history but, as was common in the 18th century, the day and month went unrecorded. As a young boy he became a cooper's apprentice, but by the age of 13 or 14, in 1806, had attained sufficient learning to graduate from Washington College at Lexington, Virginia. He subsequently studied law, was admitted to the bar, and started a legal practice in Knoxville, Tennessee.

In 1819 Adams moved to Natchez, Mississippi and by 1828 was a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives. In the 19th century, state legislatures elected U.S. senators, thus a little more than a year after becoming a state representative, when a vacancy opened due to the death of U.S. senator Thomas B. Reed, Adams, a Jacksonian, advanced to the office and was sworn in on January 6, 1830.

Less than six months later, Robert Huntington Adams died in Natchez of an unknown cause at the age of 37 or 38. He was interred in Natchez City Cemetery.