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From:
Subject: [ADAIR] James Adair
Date: Sun, 10 Nov 2002 22:40:50 EST

I can't resist putting in my two cents worth on James the author again. I
just don't see anything that fits with James m. to Eleanor as the Author. I
think that the writer had to be quite well off, and James m. to Eleanor did
not have a will. By standards of the time, their land holdings in SC were
quite modest. Scotch Irish in the backcountry were generally too busy trying
to survive to write books and get them published in London.

I've not gone through all of the evidence, but I'm intrigued by the time line
that Lisa Bowes gives on her website drawn from data provided by "Marj." See <A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Valley/9708/marj.html">;
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Valley/9708/marj.html</A>;. It indicates
evidence that James the Author left the Chicksaws in May 1768 to visit in New
York and returned south in Apr of 1769. The earliest James Adair petition
for warrant of survey in the Laurens area was in December 1768. If the dates
for the author's travels are accurate, I think that rules out James m. to
Eleanor as the author.

It seems as if everyone likes to start with their lines and try to connect
them, rather than seeing how much can be determined about the author and his
life first. Since we are all genealogists, it is hard for anyone to research
the author without knowing if we are chasing a rabbit trail. I'm so sure my
line isn't connected that I won't be the one doing that research.

There is some good circumstantial evidence of the possibility that the James
Robert Adair from Bladen was the author is the 1778 will in Bladen Co, NC
(also described on Lisa's site). It is clear that he had some connection to
the landed gentry of Ulster via his connection to Robert Adair of Ballymena,
making it possible he had the kind of wealth to allow him the time to devote
to writing. Also quite telling is the statement on Lisa's site that James
Adair brought the manuscript to Elizabethtown for editing. That would seem
to indicate a local connection-Elizabethtown is the county seat. I've not
checked any of the sources Lisa gives.

One question unresolved in my mind is how certain it is that the author
started the Cherokee Adair line. It seems pretty clear that the author had
contact with the Cherokee, but there were undoubtedly other Adairs who had
contact with them, too. What is now Laurens County bordered on the eastern
side of reserved Indian territory. Not until after the American revolution
did some Cherokee families begin to be documented in property records, and
then only a very few of the wealthiest and most assimilated families. The
first documentation of the Cherokee Adairs is in the 1790's in Pendleton
County, SC. I have not fully researched Pendleton records, but I recall a
James Adair receiving a grant there in the 1790's but no further record of
him appears there. That can't be the same James from Bladen Co. NC, since he
died in 1779. Clearly, however, Pendleton is where the documented Cherokee
Adair line begins.

Jett Hanna
7006 Edgefield Drive
Austin, TX 78731
phone 512.349.7253
email
http://www.jetthanna.com

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