Astronomische Gesellschaft. The practical part of the work was done by Mr. Graham, Adams's assistant, and the primary results were published in 1897.
Adams presided over the Royal Astronomical Society for the terms 1851–3 and 1874–6. A testimonial was bestowed upon him by the society in 1848 for his researches into the perturbations of Uranus, and their gold medal in 1866 for his contributions to lunar theory. The Royal Society adjudged him the Copley medal in 1848. Honorary degrees were conferred upon him by the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, of Edinburgh, Dublin, and Bologna. He was a corresponding member of many foreign societies, including the Academies of Paris and St. Petersburg. He declined the office of astronomer royal on Airy's resignation of it in 1881. In 1884 he acted as one of the delegates for Great Britain at the International Meridian Conference of Washington.
He died after a long illness on 21 Jan. 1892, and was buried in St. Giles's cemetery, Cambridge. A portrait medallion of him by Mr. Bruce Joy was in 1895 placed in Westminster Abbey, close to the grave of Newton, and a bust by the same artist was presented by Mrs. Adams to St. John's College. Portraits of him, painted respectively by Mogford in 1851 and by Herkomer in 1888, are in the combination rooms of St. John's and of Pembroke Colleges. A memorial tablet to him was erected in Truro Cathedral on 27 May 1893 (Observatory, xvi. 378), and a bust, executed when he was a young man, stands on the staircase of the Royal Astronomical Society's rooms in Burlington House. A photograph of him, taken by Mrs. Myers four months before his death, was engraved in the 'Observatory' for April 1892.
'Adams was a man of learning as well as a man of science. He was an omnivorous reader, and, his memory being exact and retentive, there were few subjects upon which he was not possessed of accurate information. Botany, geology, history, and divinity, all had their share of his eager attention' (Glaisher). He enjoyed novels, and collected eight hundred volumes of early printed books, which he bequeathed to the University library of Cambridge. Great political questions affected him deeply, and 'in times of public excitement his interest was so intense that he could scarcely work or sleep.' 'His nature was sympathetic and generous, and in few men have the moral and intellectual qualities been more perfectly balanced.' The honours showered upon him. Dr. Donald MacAlister wrote, 'left him as they found him—modest, gentle, and sincere.' He married in 1863 Eliza, daughter of Haliday Bruce of Dublin, who survives him.
The first volume of his 'Scientific Papers' was published in 1896 at the University Press, Cambridge, under the editorship of his youngest brother, Professor William Grylls Adams, F.R.S. A biographical notice by Dr. J. W. L. Glaisher, and a steel engraving by Stodart from a photograph of Adams by Mayall, are prefixed. This volume includes all his published writings. A second volume containing those left in manuscript, so far as they could be made available for publication, appeared in 1901, edited by Prof. W. Grylls Adams and Mr. R. A. Sampson, M.A.
[Memoir by Dr. Glaisher prefixed to Adams's Scientific Papers; Monthly Notices, liii. 184; Observatory, xv. 174; Nature, xxxiv. 565, xlv. 301; Astronomical Journal, No. 254; Grant's History of Physical Astronomy, p. 168; Edinburgh Review, No. 381, p. 72.]
ADAMS, WILLIAM HENRY DAVENPORT (1828–1891), miscellaneous writer, born in London on 5 May 1828, grandson of Captain Adams, R.N. (d. 1806), was the only son of Samuel Adams (b. Ashburton, in Devonshire, 1798, d. 1853), who married in 1827 Elizabeth Mary Snell. He was christened William Henry, and assumed the additional name of Davenport by the desire of his great-uncle. Major Davenport. He was educated privately, under George Dawson, and became an omnivorous reader. After some experience as a teacher of special subjects in private families, he began a life of unceasing literary toil by editing a provincial newspaper in the Isle of Wight, and while still young established a connection with the London press through such journals as the 'Literary Gazette,' the 'London Journal,' and 'London Society.' He made some reputation in turn as a writer of popular science, a writer for boys, a translator, and a lexicographer. He supervised a new edition of Mackenzie's 'National Cyclopedia,' and did a large amount of reading and writing for Messrs. Black (for whom he wrote 'Guides' to Kent and Surrey), for Blackie & Son of Glasgow, and Nelson & Sons, Edinburgh. In 1870 he founded the 'Scottish Guardian,' which he edited down to 1878, and subsequently he projected and edited a series of volumes called 'The Whitefriars Library of Wit and Humour.' He died at Wimbledon on 30 Dec. 1891, and was buried at Kensal Green. He married in 1850 Sarah Esther Morgan, a Welsh lady, by whom he left two sons and two daughters, his eldest son, W. Davenport Adams, being the author
