James W Adams was the son of James Adams, Sr. and Anne (Nancy) Reid. He is mentioned in more records than anyone else in his family. At one point he was simply known as James but obviously had to be uniquely identified when other relatives were also named James. He was identifed as James, Jr in his father's will and some census records. He spent the first years of his life in Pendleton Dist, SC on his father's farm. There he met and married his wife and settled on the waters of Brushy Creek on land acquired from his brother Mathew in 1816. He later sold out and bought property on Doddy's Creek next to his father-in-law Jeptha Freeman. He was still living in Pendleton Dist in 1820, but by Dec 1822 he had moved into Georgia and bought some land in Habersham (now White) Co, near the present city of Cleveland. Over the next 3 decades he bought and sold many pieces of property to and from relatives and others. He even sold the property willed to his mother which would be his when his mother died. Apparently he sold it more than once and was indicted and tried "as a common cheat and swindler." In 1839 he was found not guilty by a jury in Habersham Co. During the same year his wife and daughter received an inheritance from Bethena's father.
After the death of his wife about 1845 and the settlement of his mother's estate in 1846, James appears to have fallen on hard times. In 1850 he and his two youngest sons were living in the household of Ezekiet Catlett, husband of Bethena's sister. At that time he gave his occupation as farmer. All of James' older children had either gone to Walker or Gordon Counties. In 1851 James and the other heirs of Jeptha Freeman sold 12 acres of land to Jeptha Murdock a grandson of Jeptha Freeman. A year later he sold property to his son William L in Habersham Co and as power of attorney he sold other property to his son Francis Marion. Within the following decade James' two remaining sons also went west, one to Gordon Co and the other to Oregon. By 1860 James W was working as a day laborer and living with his widowed sister Lucinda Merritt near the Mt Yonah community. In 1870 he was still living with his sister and was apparently in poor health. Early researchers who actually knew members of the family living in the early part of the twentieth century say he was blind and didn't live long after 1870.