  John Couch Adams predicted the location of Neptune in the sky, calculated the
expectation of the change in the mean motion of the Moon due to the Earth's
pull, and determined the origin and the orbit of the Leonids meteor shower
which had puzzled astronomers for almost a thousand years. With his
achievements Adams can be compared with his good friend George Stokes. Not only
were they born in the same year, but were also both senior wranglers, received
the Smith's Prizes and Copley medals, lived, thought and researched at Pembroke
College, and shared an appreciation of Newton. On the other hand, Adams'
prediction of Neptune's location had absolutely no influence on its discovery
in Berlin. His lunar theory did not offer a physical explanation for the Moon's
motion. The origin of the Leonids was explained by others before him. Adams
refused a knighthood and an appointment as Astronomer Royal. He was reluctant
and slow to publish, but loved to derive the values of logarithms to 263
decimal places. The maths and calculations at which he so excelled mark one of
the high points of celestial mechanics, but are rarely taught nowadays in
undergraduate courses. The differences and similarities between Adams and
Stokes could not be more striking. This volume attests to the lasting legacy of
Stokes' scientific work. What is then Adams' legacy? In this contribution I
will outline Adams' life, instances when Stokes' and Adams' lives touched the
most, his scientific achievements and a usually overlooked legacy: female
higher education and support of a woman astronomer.
