Born: February 19, 1806, Salem, Massachusetts.
Died: October 6, 1878, Boston, Massachusetts.
Buried: Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Nehemiah was the son of Nehemiah Adams and Mehitabel Torrey. He married twice: to Martha Hooper (1834) and Sarah Williston Brackett (1816–1854).
He graduated from Harvard College in 1826, and Andover Theological Seminary in 1829.
He then became pastor of a Congregational church in Cambridge, Massachusetts, staying until 1834, when he became pastor of the Essex Street Church in Boston.