William Adams was a 17th Century London Haberdasher born in Newport, Shropshire, who founded Adams' Grammar School in 1656. After his death in 1660, the school was governed by the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers.
William Adams D.D. (Shrewsbury, England, 1706/07 – 13 February 1789) was Fellow and Master of Pembroke College, Oxford. He was born at Shrewsbury, of a Shropshire family, and at the early age of thirteen was entered of Pembroke College, where he took his master's degree, April 18, 1727, and obtained a fellowship.