William Adams (January 25, 1807 – August 31, 1880) was a noted clergyman and academic.

He was a founder as well as the first president of the Union Theological Seminary in New York City. He also served as the pastor of the Congregational Church in Brighton, Massachusetts and the Madison Square Presbyterian Church in New York City.

WILLIAM ADAMS, fourth son and sixth child of John Adams (Yale Class 1795), and Elizabeth (Ripley) Adams, was born in Colchester, Conn., where his father was then Preceptor of Bacon Academy, Jan. 25, 1807. Two of his elder brothers were graduated at this College in 1821 and 1825. In 1810 his father, an eminent teacher, became the Principal of Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass., where he was prepared to enter the Sophomore class of this College, in December, 1824.
Immediately after graduation he entered the Theological Seminary in Andover, where he completed the regular course in September, 1830. After preaching for a few months in the Congregational Church in Brighton, Mass., he was ordained and installed as its pastor, Feb. 2, 1831. Being obliged, in 1834, by the illness of his wife to leave this place, he was invited in the same summer to the pastorate of the Central Presbyterian Church, in Broome street, New York City, and was installed Nov 13. In 1853 a large body colonized from this church to the corner of Madison Square and 24th street, where they erected a splendid building; of this church—containing in later years over a thousand members, and distinguished for its intelligence, liberality, and usefulness. Dr. Adams was the pastor from its organization until his resignation in the spring of 1874. On the 11th of May, 1874, he was installed as President of the Union Theological Seminary, in New York City, a position which he had twice declined (in 1840 and 1871), but which, with the Professorship of Sacred Rhetoric, he now held till his death. He died at his country residence, on Orange Mountain, N J., Aug. 31, 1880, in his 74th year, after a severe illness of more than two months. He was married, in July, 1831, to Miss Susan P, daughter of Thatcher Magoun, Esq., of Medford, Mass. She died in New York City, May 22, 1834. In August, 1835, he was married to Martha B. Magoun, a sister of his first wife, who survives him. The only child by his first marriage, and two others by his second marriage, died in infancy; two sons (members of this College in the classes of 1858 and 1861) and two daughters survive him. (Yale University Graduates Obituary Records, 1880 – 1890).
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