William Ada

22/12/1767 — 12/12/1837
A brief biography

Ancestors


Thomas Ada ±1710 —
Thomas Ada ±1734 —
William Ada 1767 — 1837
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The 1806 marriage of William Ada and Jan ...

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Jane Mary Jeffress 1778 — 1857   Jane Ada 1805 — 1871   William Ada 1807 — 1883   John Francis Ada 1812 — 1837   Eliza Ada 1815 —   Mary Ann Ada 1817 —   Rebecca Ada 1819 —   Stephen William Ada 1820 — 1820  

William Ada


Son of Thomas Ada and Rebecca Ada. .

Born in 1767, the seventh year of the reign of King George III, and died aged sixty-nine in the year Queen Victoria took to the throne.   He has 162 direct descendants in the family.


Born in the Lying In Hospital, Endell Street, Covent Garden, London on 22nd December, 1767. This was one of the institutions known as Foundling Hospitals where destitute mothers went to give birth. There were rumours in the family that William Ada was the result of a royal liaison, and this story must have some age as both the Australian Adas and the English Adas related this, despite not being in contact with each other for over a hundred years. This story might have been invented to cover the fact that his origins were in fact circumstances of acute poverty.
This photo is of the later Lying In Hospital, built in 1840 after the earlier building was condemned by the authorities.

In 1791, at the age of 24, appointed a tax inspector: It appearing to the Board by the representations of the Supervisors of Canterbury, Sandwich, Cranbrook and Maidstone Districts, Canterbury Collection, with the reports of the general Examiners thereon, that for equalizing the Business of the Officers in the said Districts it is proper to make some alterations therein and that ..... the great Weight of Business in the Faversham Division and Ride renders it necessary for the Security of the Revenue to appoint an Assistant thereto. Ordered that an Assistant be appointed to Faversham Division and Ride accordingly, that his Business together with that of the Officers in the said District proposed to be altered, be laid out and performed agreeably to the new Schemes thereof sent up by the said Supervisors; that the said assistant be continued to the end of the ensuing 7th Round, that he have a salary at a rate of £45 per annum payable from the Candles; and that William Ada be the said Assistant, on the Head of The Board.
William would have travelled armed with a sabre with a brass guard and ribbed iron grip, a state-of-the-art sword exclusive to His Majesty's Customs men.


The Tring Ride


According to the records, on 03/05/1792 William Ada, dropt Assistant in Canterbury Collection, was ordered to succeed George Wright as Officer of Tring Ride, Uxbridge Collection. A Collection was a County sized area split into Divisions, which were further split into Rides. A Ride was an area that one man on horseback, (thus Ride), could cover to perform his duties of assessing and collecting Duty. Excise duty was levied on many products and the list of products changed with time. The necessities of life - meat, salt, leather, beer & clothes were all affected and the Excise Officer had wide powers of entry and search. Duty on brewing and distilling were the major part of the role. William was an Excise Officer during the era (1709 - 1831) of the very unpopular candle tax, (taxed at 1d a pound).

The Hop Supervisor

From 1793, when he was granted permission to move from Uxbridge to replace Richard Kirton as Officer of Faversham Ride in Kent, William Ada worked for the next 40 years in various offices in Kent. In 1796 he was ordered to move from Faversham Ride to succeed John Hodge as an Officer of Maidstone 1st Division. In 1798 he was appointed Hop Supervisor in Canterbury Collection in the room of Thomas Bett. Hops were introduced from Flanders and started to be taxed in 1710. The Hop Supervisor came to be detested as his rulings could bankrupt hop farmers - a newspaper article of 1862 related that ''The excise man was a worse foe than the hop pests, as he was the most incessant and relentless. He comes down upon the hop-grower whether the season be good or bad, to take tithe and toll. He watches every pocket... from the ground to the storehouse - stands by at the weighing and counting - affixes his mark and exacts his price - and leaves the grower, perhaps to heavy loss: certainly to a time of harassing anxiety until the market is reached''. The hop tax was repealed the same year.


Later years


In 1828, at the age of 59, he was able to enlist his son, William Ada, into the Dover Division where he was stationed. Three years later he was moved to Chertey in Surrey to succeed James Crowfoot as Officer of Chertsey Division, Surry Collection. Within a year he was dropt in consequence of the repeal of the Duties on candles. Fortunately his (unpaid) unemployment lasted only four months - he was ordered to succeed Francis Ratt, Officer of Brompton Division, who was discharged for suffering a Chandler under his Survey to remove Candles from his Premises without charging the same with Duty or entering any Account thereof in his books.

By 1837 he was an Officer of Brompton Division, Surry Collection, and ordered to be Officer of Kensington 1st Division, same Collection. He was soon after retired with a pension of £84, but died within three months of Decay of Nature at his home in 2 Chapel Place, Brompton. It was a week before his 70th birthday.

The photo is of The Oxford Chapel (now St Peters) in Brompton, and Chapel Place formed part of the piazza of the church, now redeveloped.

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