Career
His real name was John Adams, but he used the name Alexander Smith until he was discovered in 1808 by Captain Mayhew Folger of the American whaling ship Topaz. The mutineers of HMS Bounty and their Tahitian companions settled on the island and set fire to the Bounty. The wreck is still visible underwater in Bounty Bay.
Although the settlers were able to survive by farming and fishing, the initial period of settlement was marked by serious tensions among the settlers.
Alcoholism, murder, disease and other ills had taken the lives of most of the mutineers and Tahitian mentor John Adams, Ned Young, and Matthew Quintal were the last three mutineers surviving in 1799 when Adams and Young got the thuggish Quintal drunk and killed him with a hatchet.
Adams and Young then turned to the Scriptures using the ship"s Bible as their guide for a new and peaceful society. The American sailing ship Topaz was the first to rediscover Pitcairn in 1808.
John Adams was eventually granted amnesty for the mutiny.
On 17 December 1825 Adams was married to Teio, or "Mary", Teio had already borne Adams" only son, George Adams in 1804. John Adams" grave on Pitcairn is the only known grave site of a Bounty mutineer. lieutenant has a replacement headstone, the original lead-covered wooden grave marker having been taken back to Britain where it is now on display in the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London.
The main settlement and capital of Pitcairn, Adamstown, is named for John Adams.