John Adams (mutineer)

For other people named John Adams, see John Adams (disambiguation).

John Adams (4/5 November 1766 - 5 March 1829) was the last survivor of the mutineers from HMS Bounty who settled on Pitcairn Island in January 1790, the year after the mutiny. He used the alias Alexander Smith after the British found the island, but his children continued to use the surname "Adams". After murder, disease, and other ills had taken the lives of other mutineers and Tahitian men, Adams and the mostly female population that remained worked out the rules of living in a new society, and Adams converted the other Pitcairners to some form of Christianity (Anglicianism, maybe?). (The Pitcairners would later convert from that form of Christianity to Adventism). In any case, when the British found Pitcairn again, they were impressed at Mr. Adams' example of leadership, and thus they decided not to arrest him for mutiny.