The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Adams, Hon. Robert Patten
Adams, Hon. Robert Patten, puisne judge, Tasmania, third son of James White Adams, of Martook, Somerset, and Mary Anne Elizabeth his wife, was born on March 4th, 1831, and educated at Martock grammar school and at King's College School, London. He entered at the Middle Temple in April 1851, and was called to the bar on May 1st, 1854. Mr. Justice Adams emigrated to Tasmania, and was called to the bar there on Sept. 25th, 1856. He subsequently became Chairman of Quarter Sessions and a Commissioner of the Court of Requests for the northern division of Tasmania. Having embraced political life, he entered the House of Assembly, and was returned for Hobart in 1859, 1861, and from 1862-6. He became Solicitor-General in 1867, and held the appointment till 1887, when on March 14th he was appointed a puisne judge. He is Chancellor of the Diocese of Tasmania, and has been twice married; his first wife, who died in 1867, being Harriett Matilda, daughter of the late Captain George King, R.N. He married secondly Kate, daughter of the late George Francis Huston, J. P., of New Norfolk, Tasmania.