Chris & Julie Petersen's Genealogy

Adair

Male


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  • Name Adair 
    Gender Male 
    Person ID I3680  Petersen-de Lanskoy
    Last Modified 27 May 2021 

    Children 
     1. Joseph Adair,   b. Abt 1711, of, County Antrim, Ireland Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Aft 9 Jan 1788, , Laurens, South Carolina, United States Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age ~ 77 years)
     2. James Adair,   b. Abt 1714, of, County Antrim, Ireland Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. From 25 Feb 1784 to 12 Feb 1796, of, Laurens, South Carolina, United States Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age ~ 70 years)
     3. Jean Adare
     4. Unconnected Adairs
    Last Modified 28 May 2021 
    Family ID F1825  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Notes 
    • RESEARCH_NOTES:
      1. From Jett Hanna [jettplane@aol.com] 7 Jul 2005 (in speaking of the Old Swede's Church marriage record of this individual's son Joseph Adair to Sarah Lafferty in Wilmington, Delaware) expresses well my summation and feelings: "I can't be 100% sure it is the same batch of folks, but I think it is. It is also consistent with a couple of later deed records in Pennsylvania for a Joseph Adair, owning land from about 1750 to 1764. Joseph shows up in South Carolina records in 1768 - it was not unusual for it to take these frontier families awhile to get to paper work in Charleston about 200 miles away. If these folks were typical poor Scotch Irish, they had to work, whether as indentured servants or otherwise, for awhile after they got here in order to get their own land. The clues to origin are circumstantial - my recollection is that I've read that the church was one of the few in the area that serviced new immigrants - mostly "Scotch Irish" at the time - because it's members were technically dissenters like the Presbyterians since they were Swedish protestants. They got along just fine with Presbyterians who were mostly passing through to somewhere else. The likelihood that this Adair line can be tracked further, if this is that family, is remote. There aren't ship logs for the immigrations at the time. I've seen lineages that show descent of this line from landholding Adairs in Ulster and Scotland (one even shows descent from Adam!), but find them highly unlikely. Landholders didn't immigrate much at this time; renters subject to rack rents in Ulster did. There were lots Scotch Irish who never made it into records until they got to the US - rich people were in deed, probate and other records, and no immigration records were kept as the British saw the Scotch Irish immigration as getting more Protestants in the American colonies to fight Catholics from France and Spain should the need arise. Church records in Ireland/Ulster were very sparse until late 1700s - there are occasional tax and military records that are useful, but not enough to allow you to track families over generations unless they owned land. Scottish records aren't much better, though in some areas there are Church records as far back as the 1500s. From what I've seen of Scottish and Irish records, there were a lot of Adairs not very closely connected to landholding nobility with the same last name. Unless someone finds a diary of Sarah or Joseph or one of their traveling companions, I don't expect anyone to make the jump across the pond. At best, we might be able to identify a cluster of males with the same family names - Lafferty, Adair, Ramage, etc. - in some type of Irish records, but that will be a monstrous job that may not pay off for years. I've done a little of this kind of work on my Hanna lines, but so far looks very unlikely to yield results."
      Note: I have used the names Adair, McCreary, Lafferty, Hanna, and Ramage as a group and find that these names all occur in Ulster Ireland; however, due to the scarcity of records in the 17th Century, the names as group do not help in finding a specific Adair location or emigration.

      2. Migration of Adairs to America began during the early mid-1700s. They came from the Ulster counties in Northern Ireland, and from Galloway, Scotland, wrote Dr. James Barnett Adair in his 1924 book "Adair History and Genealogy." Adair's studies indicate these Adairs stopped in Maryland, New Jersey, and (in larger numbers) Pennsylvania, later scattering to South Carolina and other southern states. My research does place Joseph Adair in Delaware in association with some legal dealings for the Ramage family and also with a marriage record to Sarah Lafferty. By association, we have assumed his brother James may have been with him there, but this is conjecture without any proof even though very likely.
      Adair in his book purports that a Thomas Adair (who came from county Antrim in Ireland about 1730 to Chester County, Pa.) was believed to have three sons (James, Joseph, William) born in Ireland and who traveled to this country as single men. He further indicates Thomas came with his sons to Laurens Co., South Carolina. However, researchers have not found proof to connect a Thomas Adair with James and Joseph Adair who acquired land patents in 1768 on waters of Duncan Creek, which is now in Laurens County, So. Carolina; neither have they found proof of an early Thomas Adair in Laurens Co. East of Adair's settlement in Laurens Co. was the better known Waxaw Colony, settled by other Pennsylvania Scotch-Irish and of which a William Adair and his son John Adair was a part. This John Adair later achieves note by becoming Governor of Kentucky. Their is no proof that James and Joseph of Laurens Co., had a brother William or that this William was that brother. On the other hand, we are somewhat confident that James and Joseph were brothers based on Mildred Brownlee's well-documented work quoted elsewhere in this database. It is also the author Adair's unsupported contention that Thomas was the son of Alexander Adair, and grandson of Rev. Patrick Adair of County Antrim in Ireland. Rev. Patrick married his cousin, Miss Jean Adair, daughter of the first Sir Robert Adair. Rev. Patrick Adair had four sons and one daughter. His third son was Alexander Adair, the father of the supposed pioneer Thomas Adair. He states that the names of Alexander's wife and of the wife of Thomas Adair are not known.
      It should be noted that Adair in his book cannot be relied on for the origins of the American Adair lines since there are many proven errors and Adair fails to document his sources if indeed he had any on these early Colonial American Adairs. We have no proof they came from Scotland or Ireland except for the ethnicity of their surname Adair and that most of the early settlers of upcountry South Carolina were indeed Scotch-Irish. There also appears to have been several families that came to S.C. from Pennsylvania that knew each there including the Ramages and possibly the McCrearys. One other large failing in Adair's book is his contention that the earliest James Adair was the famous author and Indian trader; this, however, is very unlikely since our James was a cooper by trade and married to an Eleanor. Also, James the Indian trader, was constantly traveling throughout the Colonies and England, which doesn't jive with land transactions of our James in Laurens Co. This same James was fluent in Hebrew and Latin and an accomplished author which seems inconsistent with the other Adairs of Laurens County. It should also be noted that there were many Adairs in various parts of the Colonies in pre-Revolutionary America and they were not necessarily closely related. The prenames of James and Joseph were common and not all James Adairs and so forth in America at that time were the same individual.
      Abstracts from Benjamin Franklin's "Pennsylvania Gazette 1728-1748," part 1, p. 216, compiled in 1975 by Kenneth Scott, shows that in 1739 the "following persons have unclaimed letters at Post Office in Philadelphia since November 2 past: Adaire, Joseph." On 20 Aug 1750 (Lancaster Co., Pa.), Joseph Adaire received a land warranty of 250 acres (from "Pennsylvania Archives," printed in 1897, vol. 24, 3rd Series, pg. 352).
      Mildred Brownlee, researcher for Marty Ramage and whom I quote elsewhere in this database of early Laurens Co. Adairs, noted that Joseph Adair was in Lancaster Co., Pa. in 1759 "when he was given power of attorney to sell land" for the Ramage family. Cumberland Co., Pa. showed Willam Adaire receiving a 150 acre warranty on 7 June 1750 (Vol. 4, 3rd Series, pg. 627).
      The date that Joseph Adair arrived in S.C. is unknown, but he is listed with those who united in 1763/1764 to build a house of worship (George Howe, D.D.'s "History of the Presb. church in SC). Brownlee's research included an article from the June 9, 1896, issue of the "Laurens Advertiser," celebrating the 130th anniversary of the Duncan Creek Presbyterian Church which was "organized in the summer of 1766."
      Even though I do not accept the following, I include it for reference only. Adair, in his book, purports that the Indian trader, James Adair, was granted land in the Lauren's Co. area from King George II of Great Britain due to his commercial influence and patronage. This land was beyond the Indian frontier of that time. Supposedly James influenced his father Thomas and his two brothers, William and Joseph, to come from Pennsylvania to settle on the land. In going from the settlements to see this land, they found no roads, no surveys and no white settlements; just a virgin forest, but a beautiful country. So they cut out a road as they went in order that they might find their way out again. After examining the land, and selecting their locations, some of the party went to work to build houses and clear land for cultivation, while others were sent back to Pennsylvania after their livestock with they drove overland on foot from the Susquehanna River to Duncan's Creek. Their corn mill was also brought along and set up for operation by nailing it to a tree. It was something like an old-fashion coffee mill. It was a curiosity to the Indians, who had been accustomed to grind their corn by rubbing it between two stones. This colony obtained their supply of corn the first year by trading with the Indians. My review of this story is that the land James and Joseph obtained in the 1760s was directly from the South Carolina government and at the same time in conjunction with each other which does not support James granting land to his family. Additionally Adair calls this settlement the Adair Colony which was never its name since Duncan had been the first into that part of the land and it was he that influenced many of his previous acquaintances from Pennsylvania to immigrate to South Carolina.
      During our country's struggle for independence, Adairs joined the American side from South Carolina with at least ten Adairs in the war. At age 70, Joseph Adair, Sr., was commissary in Col. Casey's Regiment.

      3. There are many published quotes concerning William Adair being the brother of James and Joseph Adair of Laurens Co. that all seem to be based on the erroneous and undocumented genealogy published by Dr. James B. Adair in the book "Adair History and Genealogy." As a research reference, I include some info as follows on the William Adair that did exist in South Carolina during the Revolutionary War. William appears to have lived in what was called the Waxaw or Waxhaw Colony of Scotch-Irish in present-day Chester County of South Carolina. This is the same place where Pres. Andrew Jackson was born. It is at least 50 to 60 miles northeast from Duncan's Creek and almost a suburb of Charlotte, North Carolina. It does not appear to be to me that Duncan's Creek and Waxhaw were necessarily linked together. Williams famous son, John, was Governor of Kentucky. Some information on William which may or may not be correct:
      A. FHL film 446460, Patron Research Dept. film for Marie G. Sheranian: "William Adair born in Ireland 1730, emigrated 1736. His mother was Elisabeth Ware or Were. His grandmother on paternal side was Mary Irvine and other grandmother, Mary Moore (p. 267, Scotch-Irish in Amer., 2nd Cong. 1890, by Rev. H.A. White). William Adair had sons, William, John, James, perhaps others. John Adair, (b. abt 1756) entered Revolutionary Army in 1777, served three tours of duty as private in the South Carolina Regiment commanded by Colonel Richard Winn; from 1780 to the end of the war, served as Private, Captain, and Major in Colonel Sumpter's S.C. Regiment, participated in 14 battles; after war removed to Kentucky, later serving the state as Governor, U.S. Senator, and Brig-Gen., commanded Kentucky troops at Battle of New Orleans under General Andrew Jackson... [This is the Adair for whom numerous counties in the United States are named.]
      Edward Lacey, the subject of "The Life of Gen. Edward Lacey," by M.A. Moore, Sr., Spartanburg, S.C., Douglas, Evins and Co., 1859, is reported to at the age of 16 run away from his father to Chester District, S.C. where he bound himself as an apprentice to William Adair. It also notes on page 7: "The Whigs... took the trail of the British army; on their way they passed old Mr. William Dair's, a wealthy man of that day and a bountiful liver. Here they halted to get some refreshments. the old man informed them that (the British leader) had taken away every eatable from him, that he had 'not meal enough to make himself a hoe-cake'... the old gentlemen had two sons, James and John Adair, then in the ranks under Lacey (his son William was in the continental service)"...
      In Chester, S.C., there is a chapter of the DAR named the "Mary Adair Chapter" and some of its members joined on the merits of James Adair, the son of William Adair. "On the S.C. Pension Roll of Revolutionary soldiers, Chester County has this record: 'James Adair, S.C. Militia, placed Apr 20, 1833, aged 82.'"
      More on John Adair: "Born in Chester Co., S.C. 8 Jan 1759, d. Mercer Co., Ky., May 19, 1840, enlisted in Revolution at age of 17... Married Kate Palmer in 1784..."
      B. There is a line of Adairs that intermarried into the Cherokee Indian tribe that are generally credited as descendants of William Adair. Also same for James Adair the Indian trader.
      C. Copy of letter on file from Frank Smith, Superviser, Reseach Department of the Genealogical Society (Family History Library) in Salt Lake City, dated Oct. 25, 1965, to Mrs. Leo Goates, 9923 Knoll Crest Drive, Dallas, Texas, 95238, from FHL film 0446460 Patron Research Files for Marie Sheranian (mother to Mrs. Leo Goates). The following two Adairs appear to perhaps be the sons of William:
      "A pension record of one James Adair, Sr. was obtained. He stated he was born in 1752 in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and removed from there to Yorks District, South Carolina, and during the war to Craven County, South Carolina, which is now the Chester District. He lived in the latter place when he applied for his pension.
      "The pension record of a William Adair was obtained, the application being by his wife Catherine. She was living in St. Francis County, Missouri, in 1840, age 78. She stated she married William in 1783 in Lincoln County, North Carolina, and that he died there in 1806 (unclear typing: 1808?). A record of their children from a Bible record was attached. William served from South Carolina, but the county was not given."
      D. John Adair is listed in the book "Revolutionary War Pension Applicants who Served from South Carolina," by Janye Conway Garlington Pruitt, FHL book 975.7 M24p: "Adair, John, S.C., Indian War 1792, Ky. War 1812 (Catherine) (W. 2895; BLWt. 24750-160-50; War 1812 service)."
      E. Ronald B. Hales to his researcher Barbara R. Langdon, P.O. Box 633, Columbia, S.C. in their 1982 correspondence on file with me indicates a surmised family tree for William as follows:
      William Adair m. Mary Moore, dau. of James Moore and Eliza Newfville. Children:
      a. Betsy, b. ca. 1756, m. James Moore.
      b. John, b. 1757, m. Catherine Palmer.
      c. William, b. 1759, m. Mary Irvin.
      d. James, b. 1761, d. 1790, unmarried.
      e. Mary, b. 1763, m. (1) John Nixon, m. (2) David McCalla.
      f. Alexander, d. age 16.
      F. Uncited book of which I have a copy of p. 55, which page is entitled "The names as far as can be ascertained of the officer who served in the South Carolina Regiments on the continental establishment prepared by Wilmot G. DeSoussure, published by order of the General Assembly, 1886. This list is made from the Journals of the Provincial Congress, so far as the same have been accessible; from the Journals of the Council of Safety... from the Moultrie Revolution, from Ramsay Revolution, from such orderly books of General William Moultrie and General Francis Marion as are accessbilbe, from various books relating to the Revolution, from extracts from the revolutionary muster-rolls, etc., on file in the Dept. of State at Washington... [listed]: William Adair, Lieutenant 6th Regiment.

      4. Ronald B. Hales from his researcher Barbara R. Langdon, P.O. Box 633, Columbia, S.C. in their 1981 correspondence on file with me indicates the following Adairs near Charleston as follows all of whom I currently consider unrelated. Quotes:
      "Among the Adairs near Charleston there are:
      a. State Grants 1784-1821 (unpublished): James Adare, Georgetown District, 100 acres, 5 March 1787.
      b. "History of Williamsburg," by W.W. Boddie, The State Co., Columbia, S.C., 1923"
      P. 188: John Adair among those who furnished supplies for Marion's Brigade.
      P. 115: Soldiers in Marion's Brigade: Alexander Adair, Benjamin Adair, John Adair.
      P. 153: Samuel Adair owned lot #390 in the town of Williamsburg.
      Pp. 142, 153, 154: "Samuel Adair in Williamsburg, 25 Mar 1789. Claims granted in 1735 to William Hamilton. Present propietor: Samuel Adair, lot #390."
      "There are numerous references ot Adairs in the areas north of Charleston, which in the 18th century were Georgetown and Williamsburg. The men in this area were often involved in General Francis Marion's Brigade during the Revolution. The Revolutionary War Records are available, but they contain mostly pay vouchers. The records of these areas, Horry and Williamsburg Counties were destroyed during the Civil War. Horry and Williamsburg Counties sent their courthouse records inland to Chesterfield County for safety during Sherman's march to the sea. Horry and Williamsburg were among the surviving courthouses. Chesterfield burned. The connections between the Adairs near Charleston and the Laurens County Adairs will be difficult."
      "Williamsburg census, 1790: Samuel Adair, 1-3-3-14."
      "I have not completed the search for the Williamsburg County material that I mentioned in my last letter, but enclosed here is some Charleston data. There is an Edward and Samuel again... and another Joseph."

      5. 1790 Census per the book "Heads of Families at the First Census of the United State Taken in the Year 1790 South Carolina," by the Washington Government Printing Office, 1908, FHL book 975.7x2p 1790, lists all the South Carolina Adairs as follows [with my notes bracketed]. The rows of numbers are as follows: Males 16+, males under 16, females, other free persons, slaves. The Adairs:
      Camden District, Chester County: (This group are family and John becomes the Gov. of Kentucky; no known relation to Laurens Co. Adairs.]
      Wm. Odair 1-1-3-0-0
      James Adair 1-3-4-0-5
      John Adair 1-0-1-0-0
      Georgetown District, Prince Fredericks Parish: [No known relationship to Laurens Co. Adairs.]
      Samuel Adair, 1-3-3-0-14
      Ninety-Six District, Laurens County:
      James Adair, 3-2-7-0-0 [Most likely the son of the original James considering the number of daughters and no slaves.]
      Joseph Adair, 1-3-3-0-0
      Joseph Adair, 4-1-4-0-5 [The original Joseph Adair because of slave ownership.]
      John Adair, 1-2-3-0-0
      Alexander Adair, 1-1-4-0-0 [The immigrant - unknown connection so far to the rest of the Adairs.]
      James Adair, 1-1-5-0-2
      Benjamin Adair, 1-3-3-0-0 [Son of the original Joseph.]

      6. There are various publications that pass on the following ancient origins of the surname Adair/Adare which may or may not pertain. I have found no proven linkage and I believe the Scotch-Irish connection is the most likely scenario. The following version is from the publication "Laurens County Kinfolks Volume 1 Book 2," by Richard W. Fowler. It is probably taken from the Adair Genealogy book of James B. Adair.
      "The word DERA in Celtic (Gaelic) meant Oak Tree, and from this word came the name Druids. The Celts considered the Oak a link with God, and the Druids would climb the oaks to cut mistletoe, from which they made magic potions, giving origin to our use of mistletoe at the Christmas season. The Druids were thus the priests of the ancient Celts, and the most feared and respected members of a tribe. They have been attributed with some of the later constructions at Stonehenge, and they held ritualistic conventions in the area near Chartres, France each year, where they studied and mapped the stars. They also believed in human sacrifice.
      The word ATH meant a ford in a river. The Celts had no word for Bridge, because they never built them, and they had no word for Road, because they preferred to stay put in their tiny settlements, once established, and made almost no journeys. A place called ATH-DARA or ATHDERA, in County Limerick, Ireland, was obviously the name given to a water crossing at a huge oak tree. Thus the corruption Adair was given to a resident of this place. Today Adair is a touristy little town with thatched roofs and a distinctive architecture."
      Kerry's note: The town in Northern Ireland known as Londonderry to the Protestants or Derry to the Catholics is also derived from the same root as A-dair. Derry or Doire also means oak tree.

      7. Adair family research notes from my visit to Belfast in Northern Ireland, 20-22 May 2009, and to Edinburgh in Scotland, 28 May 2009, by Kerry Petersen:
      Part 1: Belfast:
      The official records archive for the Ulster region of Ireland, also known currently as Northern Ireland, from where our Adair ancestors most likely immigrated to America is in Belfast at PRONI (Public Records Office of Northern Ireland). The Archives catalog is online and word searchable. A search on Adair brings up references to several hundred documents, but most can be quickly eliminated in that they are too modern to have bearing on our particular Adairs who emigrated from the area to the Philadelphia/Delaware area prior to about 1750. PRONI proved to be my best source for research.
      Another society that I visited was the Ulster Historical Society in Belfast which has been established for about fifty years. They have no library at this time and their mission is to research and publish local history and genealogy. They had nothing for me to search. They do have, however, a website that they sponsor and are currently indexing and adding large amounts of genealogical information which they extract from PRONI films. The data being added to their Website is ongoing and extensive and could prove beneficial to our research in the future. It should be checked from time to time. I believe their website is www.ancestryireland/scotsinulster <http://www.ancestryireland/scotsinulster>, but since I am still traveling as I write this, I have not yet had the opportunity to check the website.
      I also visited the Linen Hall Library in downtown Belfast, one of Belfast's oldest public libraries. It has a small but significant local history and genealogy section. Their records were general in nature for Ulster with several references to the established Sir Robert Adair line of Ballymena in County Antrim, which I will call the gentry Adair line (GAL) for purposes of this paper. There were several name history books showing the standard Adair information generally available from James B. Adair's 1924 book "Adair History and Genealogy" concerning the origins of the general name of Adair through Scotland - but nothing that specifically tied our Adairs to that established history. One book did list sources of published histories on the various families; there evidently is one for the "Adairs of Kinhalt" written by David Murray Rose located in the Aberdeen University Library, Queen Mother Library, Meston Walk, Aberdeen, Scotland, AB9-2UE. There is no publisher nor publishing date listed for this publication. It could be of interest to our general family background since I believe the Kinhalt area of Scotland is part of the pre-Ulster Adair genealogical line.
      Northern Ireland has just recently opened up there are a to tourism following the peaceful cessation of political violence associated the centuries-old Troubles. My wife and I were able to travel through the County Antrim area which we found to be stunningly beautiful - perhaps even more so than the other areas of Ireland most tourists frequent in the South. One area, the Giant's Causeway, is the only world heritage site in all of Ireland and it is located in County Antrim. We also found the people of area to be were very nice, open, and welcoming. One thing that amazed me was the geographic proximity of County Antrim to lowland Scotland with only twelve miles of sea separating the two at the narrowest point. We could clearly see Scotland and it became apparent to us why the Scotch ended up in this part of Ireland. I have read that the original Scottish colonies on the Antrim coast, when engaged in fighting the native Irish, could easily and quickly get military reinforcements from Scotland even the same day after setting signaling bonfires on the Antrim hills.
      What follows are the opinions I gleaned from my research. Unfortunately, there were no monumental finds, but the research did continue to reinforce both my conviction that our Adairs came from Ulster and/or the adjoining Portpatrick area of nearby Scotland (only twenty miles across the channel) and that they were not necessarily directly tied to the tail-end of the established landed and established gentry line of Adairs of Ballymena as has been erroneously purported by James B. Adair in his 1924 book. It is apparent that there were many other Adairs in the area and if there was a common connection, it would have been further in the past and not necessarily recorded. Even though there is much circumstantial evidence of our passing through the area, it also became apparent that we may never make a certain connection in Ulster due to the decidedly sparse records covering our time period and locality. Research in the Portpatrick area in Scotland may be fruitful now that we know which area in Scotland to focus on. Hopefully newer and better records will be found on both sides of the Atlantic in the future and continue to be made available by the Internet and other means.
      It became obvious quickly that records of emigration do not exist until much later since the authorities apparently were not organized nor interested enough to have kept such records at such an early date; however, later when they did, they were more concerned with whom was entering the country and not with whom was leaving. It is presumed that our Adairs emigrated in the second Scotch-Irish wave in the early mid-1700s; however, there were approximately 70,000 in this wave with no real records kept of most emigrants.
      We do know that our earliest Adairs in Laurens County, South Carolina, helped establish the Duncan's Creek Presbyterian Church. That they were Presbyterian is typical of most of the Scotch-Irish for whom the free and open practice of their beliefs was one of the main reasons they left Ulster Ireland for America. Presbyterianism came to Ulster from Scotland in the 17th century but, like the Roman Catholics, Presbyterians were restricted by law from fully practicing their religion. This religious and civil persecution meant that some early baptisms, marriages, and burials will be found in the registers of the Church of Ireland (also known as the Established Church - the Irish equivalent of the Church of England), a practice that continued well into the 18th century. Burial registers for Presbyterian churches are uncommon as there were few Presbyterian burial grounds. Due to certain laws peculiar to Ireland, several denominations have no records predating 1800. The church records copied by PRONI cover most of the churches in Northern Ireland.
      I confirmed for myself that indeed church records rarely exist in Ulster prior to 1800 with only a very few exceptions. Changes in church or parish structure have resulted in some churches changing name - or even parish - thereby making it difficult to trace the records. Not knowing the exact parish our Adairs came from makes a specific search problematic. Another problem is that the records of over a 1000 Church of Ireland parishes were lost in the disastrous 1923 fire that burned down the Irish Archives. My approach was to review the online archival catalog from which I made a list of the various localities mentioned in conjunction with any Adair. The Scotch-Irish were generally of the ancient Counties Antrim and Down which make up Ulster. Since PRONI has most parish records, I checked their index of the dates of the earliest held records by individual parish which only confirmed that such records were indeed non-existent. My search was very targeted and quick, but future researchers should again review other parishes if specific new information is found as to from which specific parish they came. The following are the localities I checked and the earliest dates of their parish records (note I could not readily identify the parishes for some locations): Genoch - parish unknown, Cairncastle - 1832, Clonterry - parish unknown, Donegor or Donagore - 1806, Ballynure - 1812, Lurgan - 1755, Parkgate - parish unknown, Carrickfergus - 1815, Ballymena (Kirkinriola/Kilconriola) - 1800, Ballymony - 1751, Dundreain - parish unknown, Kenaughty - parish unknown, Loughanmore - parish unknown (may be on the border with the Republic of Ireland), Downpatrick - 1733-4/1750, and Larne - 1720. Since Larne was the only parish on my targeted list that had records early enough, I did search their records with unsuccessful results. It should be noted that the ancestral home of the landed and titled gentry Adair line is Ballymena in Co. Antrim. There is another short two or three generation line also found in the probates in Louganmore/Lougamore.
      In further regards to the Presbyterian Church, there are some early organizational records and minutes held by the Presbyterian Historical Society in Belfast, but they are neither genealogical in nature nor searchable by a surname. Since a parish would need to be known to do an efficient search and since our time was so limited, I decided a search among parish histories would probably be unfruitful. Since the name Adair is relatively common in the Ulster, there would probably be some results but I suspect they would only mention an individual Adair name without genealogical linkage or family context.
      It should be mentioned that the most well-known historian and reverend of the early Presbyterian Church in Ulster was the Rev. Patrick Adair. It is from his published work that we know the history of the Church in Ulster in the mid-1600s. This is the same Patrick Adair to whom the author James B. Adair (JBA) has us supposedly linked (without any documentation). JBA would have us believe that a Thomas Adair came from county Antrim about 1730 to Chester County, Pennsylvania (and then to Laurens Co., So. Carolina) with three sons James, Joseph, and William. We modern researchers have not yet found proof to connect any Thomas or William Adair with our James and Joseph Adair who acquired land patents in 1768 on waters of Duncan Creek, which is now in Laurens County, So. Carolina. JBA also purports the same Thomas to be the son of Alexander Adair, who was in turn the third son of the above-mentioned Rev. Patrick Adair. Patrick had married his first cousin, Jean Adair, daughter of Sir Robert Adair of the GAL and had four sons and one daughter. I could find no proof or even a hint of the Thomas connection from the PRONI records which had much on Robert and Patrick and the Adair line since this is the Ballymena gentry Adair line (GAL). There is even some speculation as to how many children Patrick had with definite proof of only one - Rev. William Adair. Patrick definitely does not help by not giving us more family data in his published history. I can see JBA's temptation to link us to the gentry Adair line any way he could since this is about the only branch of the Adair family well documented in the area. On the other hand, we cannot discount that we may in fact connect back much further in the 400 year history of the line. See more on this subject in part 2 of this report.
      First thing to remember is that our ancestors were coopers and they were neither clergy nor titled as was the GAL. Most of the gentry tended to be of the Established Church, which was something our Adairs definitely were not being Presbyterian (with the exception of Patrick and his son William). It was also not the landed gentry that emigrated since one of the main reasons for doing so was the huge increase in rack rent rates demanded of the gentry for the tenant farmers. While at PRONI I was able to see the 1747 estate or demesne plat (PRONI document T/1333/3) as well as many of the mundane rent and business transactions involved with this family and their estate. It should be noted that most of these type estates were from 1000 to 100.000 acres; this one was in the smaller range of about 1000 acres.
      In researching our South Carolina Adairs, one readily discovers that the same personal names are repeated over and over in the ongoing generations making it sometimes difficult to separate the various James and Josephs in Laurens Co. This was also true with the GAL line in Ballymena. The only problem is that the names don't coincide. PRONI document D10/1/24/19 is a memoir of the Kirkinriola parish which also details the GAL, the most prominent family in Ballymena. This document has an extended pedigree of the GAL prepared in the mid 1800s. From the earliest progenitor, the male names go as follows: Thomas, Maurice, Robert, Ninian, William, Robert, William, Robert, Ninian, William, Robert, William, etc. The pedigree has a few very short single generation side branches included and in counting the occurrence of each name over the 19 generations, I get the following tabulation: Thomas 1, Maurice 2, John 2, Robert 10, Ninian 2, William 9, Patrick 2, and Alexander 1. Compare this to the male names of our American Adairs using James and Joseph and their immediate sons: James 3, Joseph 3, John 2, Benjamin 1, and Laferty 1. The two most prevalent names of the GAL, Robert and William do not show up in our American early line nor do the two most prevalent American names, James and Joseph, show up with the GAL. Likewise, if we were really directly descended from the illustrious Patrick as JBA purported, we would surely find the occurrence of the name Patrick in our American line, which we never do over several generations. Our side branch most likely developed for a few generations before the two brothers James and Joseph show up. I should also mention that I surprisingly did not find even one mention of any Joseph Adair in any record in my research in Ireland. James Adair was also surprisingly rare with just a few random occurrences. As more information from Ireland goes online, I would recommend that we keep our eyes open for Joseph and James Adair since this may be a key to earlier generations of our particular line.
      In further discussion of this same above-referenced pedigree at PRONI, it could also be relatively significant since our branch probably does connect in at some point - perhaps quite early in the Kinhalt area of Scotland as is discussed below in further depth in part 2 covering my Scottish research. I did not fully realize its potential importance until after I got to Scotland, so unfortunately I did not copy all of it with the various notes. I will need to write PRONI and see if they will photocopy it for me. It is of course the specific direct line that follows the specific gentrified Adair line of Ballymena back, so it is not specific to our immediate direct line except for the strong probability that we connect in somewhere in the over 400-year history of the Adairs this pedigree incorporates. It takes the position that the original Adair was the runaway Irish Thomas of Adare in County Limerick by calling him Thomas, 6th Earl of Desmond. As you will see below in my Scottish research, many of these names are part of the Scottish heritage in Portpatrick Parish in Wigtownshire of Scotland. For better or worse, the following is what I copied. What I did not copy was more information on the family names and parents on the wives and some of the brief notes that accompany the names:
      Thomas, 6th Earl of Desmond m. Catherine.
      They had two sons, Maurice and John (Claragh), d. 1452.
      Maurice had two sons, Robert Adaire, who m. Arabella, and Maurice.
      Robert and Arabella had Sir Ninian Adair who m. Arabella.
      They had Sir William who m. Mabilia.
      They had Sir Robert, who m. Arabella.
      They had Sir William, who m. Juliana. (Juliana is then crossed out and written in the same penmanship is "1546 Wm. = Helen Kennedy.
      They had Sir Robert who m. Anne.
      They had Ninian who m. Elizabeth. It notes "Charter 1595, 1596, 1599 and alive in 1602.
      They had two sons, William of 1626, who m. Jane, and Patrick.
      William and Jane had three sons, Sir Robert of March 1655 who marries Jane, Alexander, 9 Mar 1664, and Rev. William. Rev. William's son was the famous Rev. Patrick, who in turn has William for a son, who was also a reverend.
      Robert and Jane have two children, William who marries Anna Helena, and a youngest daughter (unnamed) who marries her first cousin the Rev. Patrick, the son of her uncle William.
      William and Anna Helena have Robert who m. Penelope plus three other wives whom I did not record.
      They had William Robert, who m. Catherine.
      There are then four more generations recorded from 1798 onwards which also include Sir Robert Shafto Adair. I did not copy this part since it would have been after our Adair family left for America.
      Another research strategy I used while in Ireland was to also follow back the family surnames (Lafferty, Ramage, and McCreary) with which the Adairs became associated with early in southeast Pennsylvania and then subsequently in Laurens Co., So. Carolina. It appears that in America these families may have even migrated together down the pre-colonial Great Wagon Road from Pennsylvania to So. Carolina following the Scotch-Irish established patterns. It is possible that perhaps these families also knew each other in Ulster and that such association could help identify a group emigration or mother parish from Ulster. Unfortunately, this strategy did not work since the emigration and parish records don't exist. On the other hand, I did confirm that all of these surnames are indeed found in Ulster, which helps to strengthen our working opinion that Ulster is the likely home to our Adairs. There are variations of these surnames such as McCrea, McCrey, O'Lafferty, O'Flaherty (silent F), Flaherty (silent F), Laverty, Ramadge, etc.
      The name Lafferty especially interests me since we now have the record that Joseph Adair, the emigrant, marries Sarah Lafferty in America. James, his brother, than names one of his sons Laferty as well. In the Linen Hall Library, I found a name history on this name. As just mentioned above, there are several variations on the name spelling-wise. It is a common name in counties Antrim, Tyrone, Donegal, and Londonderry - but definitely most pronounced in Co. Antrim. It is most often written Laverty and the name preceded the 1600s plantation period of the Scots-Irish arrival into Ireland and goes back quite anciently in Ireland. I also learned that the use of prefix "Mac" meant "son of," whereas "O'" means "grandson or descendant of." The names of the original Mac or O' generally go back to about 900 to 1000 A.D. when surnames became fixed. Also, one of the theories of the origin of the name Adair, but not necessarily one that I subscribe to, is that "Ath" means "crossing of." and "Dair" means "oak tree," or "crossing at the oak tree." If this is the case then interestingly the town of Londonderry (as it is known to the Protestants) or Derry (as it is known to the Catholics), is also derived from the Celtic "Doire," which also means oak tree.
      One of the PRONI resources I searched was a surname index to births, marriages, and deaths reported in the Belfast Newsletter (newspaper) from 1738 - 1800. Even though it is localized to Belfast, it gives a good representation of the distribution of the surnames mentioned above: 16 listings of "Adair", 1 "Laverty", several "McCrea", 1 "McCreary", 1 "McCrey", and 4 "Ramadge/Ramage/Rammage." None of the Adair listings were helpful since they were not specific enough, i.e. Miss, Mrs., or Widow; additionally there were no James or Joseph Adairs - my two targeted Adair names.
      One of my research strategies was to also look for guild or apprenticeship records for James and Joseph Adair (our ancestor and his brother born circa 1715 and 1718 respectively). From South Carolina records, we know that both of these brothers were coopers by trade - something they probably did not learn in the back hills of South Carolina. I was unsuccessful because no such guild or apprenticeship records for this early period in Ulster seem to exist. Being both were coopers, it would not be unreasonable to assume that perhaps their father was also a cooper from whom they learned their trade. It should also be noted that has craftsman, they may not have been tenanted on a farm and most likely not with the landed GAL who would have been gentlemen and not craftsmen.
      One of the better resources at PRONI was an alphabetized index of the "Hearth Money Rolls of 1666." Arranged by county and parish, the Rolls list the name of the householder and the number of hearths on which he was taxed at the rate of 2 shillings on every hearth or fireplace in the decade from 1660 to 1670. They survive for half the counties of Ireland with coverage the most complete in Ulster. They cannot be taken as a complete record since there seems to have been considerable evasion, while for many houses of a less permanent nature occupied by Irish families no hearth tax was paid. The following are the Adair entries all with one hearth unless noted otherwise in brackets. All of the Adair entries seem to fall within County Antrim even though Counties Down, Londonderry, and Tyrone are included in Ulster. They also are generally dated 1669 and indicate which Barony (a division within the county), parish, and locality within the parish (note that the names of these parishes and localities use the old names and not necessarily the more modern name in usage today). From the date, one of these entries could possibly even be a grandparent of our Adairs if we could make a connection:
      Adaire, Allex: Antrym barony, Ballyclug parish, Ballykeele
      Adaire, Patt: Antrym barony, Ballyclug parish, Tannaghbreke
      Adare, Archd (4): Antrym barony, Dunygore parish, Tubbergill
      Adare, John: Carey barony, Nobilly
      Adare, John: Tuam barony, Ballymenock (Ballymena)
      Adare, Patr: Carey barony, Denard
      Adare, Patr: Glenarm barony, Linfford
      Adare, Robert: Carey barony, Nobilly
      Adare, Tho: Tuam barony, Ballymenock (Ballymena)
      Adare, Wm (Sen.): Tuam barony, Ballymenock (Ballymena)
      Adayre, James (2): Antrym barony, Dunegore parish, Dunigor
      Adayre, James: Antrym barony, Dunethery
      Adayre, John: Antrym barony, Ballyclug parish, Slatte
      Adayre, Robert (2): Antrym barony, Tobbernevaran
      Addare, Ninian, Antrym barony, Dunegore parish, Dunigor
      Adeare, Andr: Dunluce barony, Magherboy
      Adeare, John: Belfast barony, Deragy parish, Killetey
      Adeare, Patrick, Mazareene barony, Upper Ballyclan
      Adeare, William: Belfast barony, Belfast parish
      Adeare, William, Belfast barony, Ballycreagee
      Adeare, William (3): Tuam barony, Bellymenock (Ballymena)
      Adeare, William (Sen): Tuam barony, Bellymenock (Ballymena)
      In the same Hearth Roll Index, we also find in County Antrim:
      Lavertie, John: Belfast barony, Carrickfergus town
      Laverty, James (2): Mazareene barony, Maghragill parish, Mullaghcarton
      Laverty, Widow: Carey barony, Romoan parish, Drombeg
      McCreary (or variation thereof): (Over 20 entries)
      No Ramage or variations thereof.
      Another very limited PRONI source was the 1740 Protestant Householders Census. It is very incomplete except closer to Londonderry with some in adjoining County Antrim. No tabulation appears for County Down. Could the James Adair listed below perhaps be the father to our James and Joseph:
      Ballymenagh (Ballymena) parish, Toome barony, Co. Antrim:
      James Adair
      Mr. John Adair
      Agnus Adair (next door to Willm Adair)
      Willm Adair (next door to Agnus Adair)
      Wid. Adair
      Aghoghel parish, Toome barony, Co. Antrim:
      Mr. Adair
      While at PRONI, I was able to look at the various archived probates for the Adairs. There are only about half a dozen and they were not helpful. They do indicate a line of Adairs in Louganmore which no longer shows up on modern maps and was located near the southern border between Ulster the Republic of Ireland southeast of Newry.
      One of the other items I looked at was a collection of Adair family genealogical research done by some unidentified Adair in the late 1800s. I forgot to write down the PRONI archival reference number but I believe it is D1430/E/18.) All the 50 pages or so of extensive notes are handwritten and collected from various sources. They are in no particular pedigree form and are mainly tidbits and snippets of information. I studied these at length and could not find connections with our James or Joseph. The names of any James or Joseph are non-existent except his noting that James Adair, Indian trader published a book on the history of the early Indians of America. He could not connect this James Adair to any Ulster lines. We of course are familiar with this James since many new Adair researchers continue to confuse him for our James Adair, the cooper, because of erroneous genealogy given by the author James B Adair in his above-referenced 1924 book "Adair History and Genealogy."
      One of the items at PRONI I did not research since our time was limited was the Registry of Deeds. The Registry of Deeds, Dublin, is one of the most valuable sources of ancestral information of the eighteenth century particularly as many original wills were destroyed in the Public Record Office of Ireland in the fire of 1922. The information contained in this archive relates not only to the wealthier landlords but also can include details of the most humble of tenants. More than half a million registered deeds were deposited up to 1832. However, this is probably only a small percentage of the land transactions which took place as during the early years as registration was voluntary. The Irish Registry of Deeds was founded in 1708 and one of its main functions was to ensure the enforcement of legislation which prevented Catholics from buying or taking long leases on land. These records are available on microfilm (1,914 reels) from 1708-1929, with only a few gaps, under the PRONI reference MIC/311. Unfortunately these transcripts are indexed only by the name of the grantor or by town lands by barony and county. There is no grantee index where I would expect to find our more humble family. It would be a major project taking a lot of time to research these documents. Hopefully someday there may be an index made of all names making this much easier.
      Hopefully this report will help the next researchers build upon my efforts in Northern Ireland to further our study of the Adair family history and to eventually make the "leap across the pond."

      Part 2: Research at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland, May 28, 2009.
      After leaving Ireland, my wife and I took a cruise from Dublin to the Baltic on the Tahitian Princess. One our port calls was in Edinburgh, Scotland where we were able to visit the National Library to research the origins of the Adair name. We had great success and even though we could find no direct linkage, it is apparent from the published histories of Scotland that probably all of the Adairs of Ulster came from the Portpatrick parish of Wigtownshire in Scotland. This area is part of the traditional Galloway region on the west coast of Scotland directly due east of and in close proximity to Belfast, Ireland. It was actually the port area that serviced the Scottish colonies in Ulster with many direct links back and forth between the two. Even though it is known as Portpatrick parish today, it had different names at various times in history including the Rinne/Ryne (Peninsula), Kildonan, Kinhalt/Kinhilt, Drumore/Dromore, Portree, and Dunskey.
      Even though all the Adairs in the area appear to come from a common root in the 1300s, it appears that a certain line within the general Adairs of the area was prominent until the early 1600s when their fortunes declined. Apparently, William Adair of this line who owned the Dunskey estate at the time in Portpatrick parish traded for an estate in Ulster in Ballymena of County Antrim where his line in Ireland became the gentry and landed line with which we are familiar. He was actually the proprietor of one of the very earliest Scottish Ulster colonial estates as we shall see below. We are also familiar with his line backwards at Dunskey with the various Williams, Ninians, and so forth. With about 300 years of history in Portpatrick parish and over 100 years in Ulster before our Adairs came to America in the early mid-1700s, we can postulate that our branch of Adairs probably grew out of some point of this tree in either Scotland or later in Ulster. There is also a chance that perhaps our Adairs immigrated directly from this part of Scotland bypassing Ulster altogether. We know of course that the first two brothers of the American Adairs, James and Joseph, were both coopers - a trade that would lend itself perhaps better to a port area such as Portpatrick. We also know that Joseph Adair married Sarah Lafferty shortly after arriving in America and that his brother James named one of his sons Laferty. As I will report below, I was surprised to find a book of gravestone transcriptions from one of the parish cemeteries of Wigtownshire near Portpatrick parish that had both Laffertys and Adairs buried in the late 1700s and early 1800s. In fact one Adair was married to a tradesman who was a cooper. Another family that we see in Laurens Co., South Carolina associated with the Adairs is the Hanna family. With only a quick cursory look, it appears that there are many Hanna/Hannays also in the same area of Scotland near the Adairs as well as some McCreys, but no Ramages. It is apparent that we need to do some serious genealogical research into the Portpatrick parish records.
      You will also see that there are various versions as to the origins of the first Adair which I will quote below from the published histories. Currently I am personally leaning towards to the Edzear version in association with the Scottish Robert the Bruce. The opposing theory is of the runaway Fitzgerald from the Adare estate of Ireland, but I discount this version as do some of the histories I quote below. Note that Robert the Bruce was the first King of Scotland and is the Robert portrayed with William Wallace in Mel Gibson's movie "Braveheart."
      There is one book we found that listed sources of published histories on the various families including one for the "Adairs of Kinhalt" written by David Murray Rose located in the Aberdeen University Library, Queen Mother Library, Meston Walk, Aberdeen, Scotland, AB9-2UE. There is neither a publisher nor a publishing date listed for this publication, but I believe it important that we try to get a copy of it since it deals directly with the Adairs of this area. Another source that we found is actually to be found in the Library of Congress in Washington DC. It provides history on the Adairs in this same area of Scotland. Its reference: "The Hereditary Sheriffs of Galloway; Their Forebears and Friends, Their Courts and Customs of Their Times, with Notes of the Early History, Ecclesiastical Legends, the Baronage and Place-names of the Province," by the late Sir Andrew Agnew, Edinburgh, Scotland, D. Douglas, 1893, 2v fronts., illus. 4 pl. (1 col.) 23 cm. (covers the period A.D. 79-1792. 3-28044. DA880.G1A2."
      Even though we only had about four hours at the library, the following quotes are surprisingly quite comprehensive, but we are only scratching the surface thus far:
      A. The book "The Surnames of Scotland, Their Origin, Meaning, and History," by George G. Black, The New York Public Library; Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations, pp. 6-7: "Adair. The tradition of the foundation of the family of Adair of Dunskey and Kinhilt originating from a fugitive son of Fitzgerald, Earl Desmond of Adair in Ireland, taking as surname his father's estate name seems too hypothetical for belief. Chalmers and others think that Adair is but a different pronunciation of Edzear (z=y) or Edgar. It is a fact that Thomas Edzear or Odeir had a charter of the lands of Kildonan in the Rynes of Galloway from Robert I (RMS., I, App. II, 681). From the Bruce, also, various parties of the same patronymic had grants of land in Dumfries, Richard dictus Edger, for example, had a charter of the "place of Seneschar (Sanquhar) and half the barony thereof" (RMS., I, 27). As Bruce died in 1329, and if Adair and Edzear are the same it is clear that the surname was located in Galloway much earlier than 1388, when the Fitzgerald of Adare is supposed to have acquired the lands. "As a matter of fact... the name is... simply a form of Edgar, (the) progenitor being probably Edgar, son of Duvenald, a leader at the Battle of the Standard, grandson of Donegal of Morton Castle, a descendant of whom, Robert (sic, Thomas) Edzear had a charter from Robert Bruce of the land of Kildonan, adjacent to which are those of Kinhilt. In confirmation of this we also find the name Edgar attaching to a hill on his property at Dromore" (Agnew, I, p. 220). In a footnote Agnew adds: "In the Lochnaw charter chest various deeds prove the name Edzear and Adair to have been interchangeable with the Galloway Adairs. In a charter dated 1625 the name is spelled in both forms on the same page." John Adair had a commission for a survey of Scotland in 1681 (RPC., 3, ser. XII, introduction)."
      B. The book "Collins Scottish Clan & Family Encyclopedia," by George Way of Plean and Romilly Squire, Harper/Collins Publishers, updated edition: "Adair. The origin of this Gaelic name appears to be a variation of Edzaer and the first of the name is generally held to have been a son of Duvenald, a leader at the Battle of the Standard in 1138 and grandson of Donegal of Morton Castle, a descendent of whose had a charter from Robert the Bruce of the lands of Kildonan. Sir Andrew Agnew states, in his work on the hereditary sheriffs of Galloway, that "in the Lochnaw charter chest various deeds prove the name Edzaer and Adair to have been interchangeable with the Galloway Adairs. In a charter dated 1625 the name is spelt in both forms on the same page." Many of the Galloway Adairs went to Ulster during the time of the Elizabethan plantation and settled mainly in County Antrim. One Patrick Adair who settled in Antrim around 1641 became famous as the author of a major work on the rise of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. James Adair, who died around 1783, was an American pioneer and wrote one of the earliest histories of the American Indians. The principal families record in the registers at the Lyon Court are those of Kinhilt and Genoch. Sir Robert Shafto Adair [of Ballymena] was created a baronet on 2 August 1838 and his son was raised to the peerage as Baron Waveney of South Elmham, Suffolk. The peerage became extinct but the baronetcy devolved upon a younger brother, whose line continues to this day." The book also mentions: "Arms (LR I/238): Argent, three acorns slipped Vert; Crest: A demi-savage holding in his dexter hand three laurel slips fructed Proper; Motto: Rupte robore nati (We are born in a weak condition)."
      C. The book "History of the Lands and Their Owners in Galloway, with Historical Sketches of the District," by P. H. McKerlie, New Edition, Vol. I, Paisley: Alexander Garner, Published by Appointment to the late Queen Victoria, 1906. Note that this book has an art picture of the Dunskey Castle ruins on a precipice over the ocean. Selected quotes from p. 376-379:
      "Portree now Dunskey [or Portpatrick]. The early possessors of this property are not to be traced. One named Currie has been mentioned in the fourteenth century, who is supposed to have been the son of Walter Currie, entrusted in 1291, by King Edward I. [King of England], with the keeping of Wigton Castle. It has been related that for some cause or other he was declared a rebel [or pirate], and a proclamation issued that whoever produced him dead or alive, would be rewarded with his lands. The remainder of the account goes on to state that about 1388, Robert Fitzgerald, a son of the Earl of Desmond (Norman origin), who owned the lands of Adare, in [Southern] Ireland [near Limerick], fled to Galloway [Scotland], and assumed the name of Robert Adare. Being an adventurer, and hearing about Currie, he watched for a long time, and at last getting an opportunity, he killed him, and the castle and lands became his. This account of the origin of the Adairs is said to have been obtained from a MS history in the possession of the late Mr. John Adair of Balkail, parish of Glenluce, who died in Australia in 1864. It must, however, be received with caution, for the Curries did not belong to Galloway, and as the rule with the foreigners, a charter would be possessed. Of this there is no trace, nor is there any mention of Portree, the Curries, or the Adairs, in Robertson's Index of the Missing Charters of King Robert the Bruce and his successors.
      "We have been unable to trace anything more in regard to Walter de Currie, excepting that there was a family with that name and of that Ilk in Annandale, one of whom was slain at the Battle of Largs in 1263.
      "As to the name Adair, we may mention that the ancient name of the Hill of Howth, at the mouth of Dublin Bay, was Ben Edair; as in Gaelic, so in Irish, ben being the word for a mountain. Whether or not this has anything to do with the surname as now known, we cannot say; but we may add that, in "The war of the Gaedhill and Gaill," we find it Clontarf, which is not far from Howth; a part of the ancient plain was called "Sean Magh Ealta Edair." We have already mentioned that the Fitzgeralds were foreigners in Ireland, and of Anglo-Norman blood. They obtained in Ireland lands also called Adare or Adair, comprising a parish, in the baronies of Coshma, Kenry and Upper Conello, County Limerick. The name was, therefore, not limited to one locality. Some consider it as applied to the lands above-mentioned, to be a corruption of Athdare or Athdaar, "the ford of the Oaks." There is also the village or town of Adare, in the parish, in which an abbey was founded by John, Earl of Kildare, in 1315; also another religious edifice, stated to have been founded by Thomas Fitzgerald, father of the first Earls of Desmond and Kildare. It will thus be seen that Adare or Adair is Irish; but that it was assumed as a surname by a Fitzgerald, is we fear beyond being traced.
      "Chalmers and others think that Adair is but a different pronunciation of Edzear or Edgar; and it is a fact that Thomas Edzear had a charter of the lands of Kildonan in the Rhinns of Galloway from King Robert I, which in part form a portion of the present estate of Dunskey. From that monarch also, various parties of the same patronymic had grants of lands in Dumfriesshire. Richard Edzear, for example, had a charter of the place of Sancher (Sanquhar) and half of the barony thereof. As Bruce died in 1329, and if Adair and Edzear are the same, it is clear that the surname was in Galloway much earlier than 1380.
      "The Adairs of Portree, in whatever way they came to possess the property, occupied an older house or castle than that now a ruin. It is related that in 1489, Sir Alexander McCulloch of Myreton had a feud with the Adairs, and assisted by the McKies, and the McDowells of Garthland, invested the castle. After starving them into submission, they pillaged and burned the stronghold. After this event, about 1510, the account is that it was rebuilt by William or Ninian Adair of Kinhilt, whose castle had been built by a later generation, and from which, as stated, they took their designation. We have to remark, however, that Kinhilt as a property is found before Portree, as Thomas de Kinhilt was one of those traitors in Galloway who acknowledged Edward I in 1296. He was not an Adair, but doubtless one of the foreigners who had obtained a settlement. In corroboration of the burning of Portree alias Dunskey, there is found in Pitcairn's "Criminal Trials," the following information: - "In 1508, one Makkinze had a remission for art and part of the fire raising and burning of Drumskey and Ardwall, in company with the Laird of Garthland." Sir Alexander McCulloch of Myreton, became his surety.
      "The property of Portree appears to have begun to be broken up and disposed of by the Adairs early in the sixteenth century. The following is a charter granted to Alexander Hannay, who purchased Kirkdale, parish of Kirkmabreck: - "Carta Confirmationis Alexandro Ahannay burgensi Burgi do Wigtoun Patricii Ahannay de Sorby heredibus suis et assignatis super Cartamsibi factam per dictam. paricium de data 8 die Maii 1539. De omnibus et singulis quatuor mercatis et dimidia mercata terrarum subscipt. antiqui extentus viz. duabus mercatis et dimidia mercata terrarum de Killantrenane mercata terrarum de Craiginlee et mercata terrarum de Auchinree, cum omnibus suis pertinentij jacend. in parochia de Inche et infra vic'ty. de Wigtoun, Tenend. de Rege, etc. Reddendo jura et servita demita et consueta Testibus ut in aliis dat. apud Sanctum Andream 12 die Maii 1539"
      "In June, 1627, Andro Hannay had sasine of the lands of Killantrinzeane; also, in January, 1628, there was a reversion by Patrick Adair to John, Earl of Cassilis, of the land of Portslogan, parish of Lewalt.
      "The next record is dated 5th March, 1630, when Viscount Montgomery of Ardes, Ireland, had sasine of the lands of Killantringzeane and others. About, 1604, Sir Hew Montgomerie of Braidstone in Ayrshire, having obtained a Crown grant of one-grant of the O'Neil lands [in Ulster], led over a colony of Scots, chiefly form the west country. The statement that he thus peopled almost the entire county of Ulster is exaggeration to a large extent. In 1622, Sir Hew was raised to the peerage in Ireland as Viscount Montgomery of Ardes, county Down, of whom we have already made mention. We may add that the Montgomeries are of Anglo-Norman lineage.
      " The previous intercourse between Ireland and the West of Scotland, was greatly increased by the settlers, and largely so with Galloway, from which district a considerable portion of the supplies were drawn for the colony. Amongst others, some of the Adair family had gone over and settled there. Archibald, who had a charter of confirmation of Kinhilt in 1621, is therein described "Decano de Rapho," of which diocese Viscount Montgomery was patron. The intercourse thus established between the families, no doubt led to the exchange by William Adair, probably father of Archibald, and the Viscount, of the castle and lands of Portree, for the lands of Ballymena in Ireland. The Viscount had various other lands in Galloway. Hugh, the second Viscount, had sasine of Portree, including the patronage of the church of Portpatrick, changed to Port Montgomery, with the lands of Killingtringan, Uchtred-McKayne, Craigbowie, and Portree, with the castle and port, 25th October, 1636.
      "The Montgomeries did not long retain the lands; on the 15th August, 1648, the Rev. James Blair had sasine of the Portree property-previously he had acquired various lands in the adjoining parish of Stoneykirk..."
      E. The book "Galloway, A Land Apart," by Andrew McCullough, Publisher Birlinn, pp. 176, 256-259, 318-320. I also copied a map of the parishes from the back of the book which shows the Galloway parishes with five located on the Rhinn peninsula in the following order north to south: Kirkcolm, Leswalt, Portpatrick, Stoneykirk, and Kirkmaiden; also with Inch on the east. The Rhinn Peninsula looks like a hammer head with Portpatrick being the center connecting to the handle.
      "King Robert and his brother Edward used the forfeited lands in Galloway to establish a network of loyal supporters in the region... Thomas Edzear (or Edgar), a native of Nithsdale, was given