James Adair, Indian Trader & Author

Not the same person as James Adair of Bladen County.
Not the same person as James Adair of Connecticut.
Not the same person as Dr. James Robert Adair who’s attached to this headstone (which is inaccurate, there is no evidence to support the supposition that the Indian trader and author was also a Doctor who practiced medicine on the Indians.)

Not the same person as James Adair, of Duncan’s Creek
Do not conflate with a possible son also named James Adair Sr. noted by Emmett Starr as having a father named ___ Adair, nor his son James Adair Jr.

Disputed Origins

Despite numerous claims in newspaper articles, a memorial placed by the Colonial Dames in Bladen County, N.C., the NCPedia and other places, James Adair the author is not the same man as James Adair of Virginia and North Carolina. The original source for the conflation seems to be an unsourced book, Adair History and Genealogy, compiled, edited and published by James Barnett Adair in 1924 [1] which was then used as the source for a 1934 book by a man named William Curry Harllee called Kinfolks : a genealogical and biographical record of Thomas and ELizabeth (Stuart) Harllee, Andrew and Agnes (Cade) Fulmore, [2] Both books conflate the two James Adairs, although they are two totally different and unrelated men. James Adair the author was living among the Indians by 1735, made his home in New Windsor, South Carolina, and never lived in North Carolina. A simple time line shows that James the author was documented with various Indian tribes while North Carolina James was living and raising a family in Virginia and North Carolina. Two examples: from January to July of 1740 Adair-the-author is documented as participating in the War of Jenkins Ear in Georgia and Florida, while North Carolina James was marrying Clark Hobson in Northumberland County, Virginia. In February and March of 1751 Adair-the-author is caught up in a case of theft from the Cherokee [3] while North Carolina James is petitioning the North Carolina council in New Bern, N.C. for a land grant. [4]

Disputed Family

James Adair, the author, is frequently listed as the father of John and Edward Adair, men who first appear in records about the time of the American Revolution. Both men married Cherokee women and had Cherokee families. There is nothing to connect them with this James Adair, who had no documented wife or children (he is believed to have had a Chickasaw wife).

Never Married - In the Introduction to the reprinted version of James Adair's book Samuel Cole Williams, editor, said that Emmett Starr, the Cherokee historian and genealogist, stated in a letter to him that Adair never married. ("Kinfolks" by Wm. C. Harllee, p. 1276)

Biography

James Adair came to America from Ireland and by 1735 was trading with the Catawba Indians. He spent almost his entire life in America trading and living with the Indians in the southeast. He had a Chickasaw wife and described himself as an "English Chickkasah." If he had children, they are unrecorded.[5] His interactions with the governments of North and South Carolina are well recorded, particularly his interaction with South Carolina governor James Glen. [6] Adair kept notes of his interactions with the Indians, beginning with events in 1736. [7] Although he spent much of his time traveling among and trading with the Indians, he maintained a home at New Windsor, on the Savannah River across from Augusta, Georgia.

in the 1760's he began writing his life's work, "The History of the American Indians." In 1768 he left his family and headed north to Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York to obtain support for his book and to get it published. [8] About 1772 he went to England, arriving in Cork Ireland on June 4,1772. [9] With the help of Benjamin Franklin he found a publisher, [10] finalized the book and was back in Georgia by the fall of 1774. He disappears from records after 1775.

Research Notes

The best sources for information about James Adair are the introductory material from the 2005 annotated edition of Adair's "The History of the American Indians" edited, introduced, and annotated by Kathryn E. Holland Braund and the book itself. The South Carolina Department of Archives and HIstory has numerous examples of his correspondence with various government officials.

Research notes (Geni curator dvb 02/26/2023)

• was born in County Antrim, Ireland. With his father and three brothers he came to the colonies in 1730, settling first in Pennsylvania near the present town of Chester. (11-1)
• In Charleston, S.C., five years later, he became a partner to Indian trader George Galphin. (11-1)
• In 1744 he first traded with the Chickasaws; in 1747, at the behest of Governor James Glenn of South Carolina, he went on an expedition to open trade with the Choctaws (11-1)
• After Adair broke with Glenn in 1750, he moved to Johnston (later Dobbs, now Greene) County in North Carolina at the invitation of Governor Dobbs, his personal friend. (11-1)
• In the Cherokee war of 1760, Adair received a captain's commission and led the Chickasaws against the Cherokees. (11-1)
• There is no record of his education, but he practiced medicine among the Indians. (11-1)
• For two or three years after 1765 Adair was in America trading with the Chickasaws and Choctaws out of Mobile. (11-1)
• Late in 1768, he was in New York trying unsuccessfully to find a publisher for his book, History of American Indians, in which he tried to prove his theory that the Indians were the lost tribes of Israel; the book was published in London in 1775. (11-1)
• His book “The history of the American Indians” (the Jewish theory now debunked) can be found at https://archive.org/details/historyofamerica00adairich/page/10/mode...

“The history of the American Indians…” by James Adair. Image courtesy of the Internet Archive

11-1 Petersen, C. & Petersen, J. (2021, May 27). James Adair. Retrieved February 27, 2023, from https://myfamilysearch.net/getperson.php?personID=I3679&tree=20... (section 1 of Research Notes)

Sources

1. ↑ digitized at 1924
2. ↑ digitized on Ancestry at Harllee
3. ↑ Journal of the Commons House of Assembly of South ... 1750 Apr. 23/1751 Aug. 31. image at commons
4. ↑ https://docsouth.unc.edu/csr/index.php/document/csr04-0410
5. ↑ Adair, James. History of the American Indians. Holland Braund, Kathryn E., ed.University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa, 2005. p. 276
6. ↑ example: Gov. Glen to Board of Trade, 1751. South Carolina Department of Archives and History, cited in Holland Braund.
7. ↑ Adair, "History," p. 240
8. ↑ Letter of Introduction from Joseph Galloway to Benjamin Franklin, 12 Aug 1769.The Papers of Benjamin Franklin. V. 16, p. 184.
9. ↑ Tuckey, Francis H. The County and City of Cork Remembrancer. Savage and son, Cork, Ireland. 1837, pp. 162-163
10. ↑ Letter of Introduction from Benjamin Franklin to Charles and Edward Dilly, 25 Mar 1774. The Papers of Benjamin Franklin. V. 21, p. 154.

See also:

• Wikipedia article Adair
• Chickasaw Nation: https://www.chickasaw.tv/profiles/james-adair-profile

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Curator Note: what is usually 2nd in l8ne is the profile from Hicks, James R. “Cherokee Lineages: Register Report of James Robert Adair, Sr” Genealogy.com, Sites.Rootsweb.com, 2023, https://www.genealogy.com/ftm/h/i/c/James-R-Hicks-VA/BOOK-0001/0008.... but in this case his work is just as conflated as other sources so to avoid confusion it has been omitted.
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From: The Dictionary of American Biography

ADAIR, James (c1709-1783), pioneer Indian trader, and author is said to have been born in County Antrim, Ireland. The dates given above are merely conjectural (curator note: and the dats are confounded, birth date of one and death date of the other). (Curator note: the death date of 1783 belongs to a different James Adair, this James Adair died c. 1776)

It is certain that Adair was highly educated. By 1735 he had come to America, probably entering at the port of Charleston, SC. In that year he engaged in trade with the Catawbas and Cherokees, continuing with them until 1744. He then established himself among the Chickasaws, whose villages were on the headwaters of the Yazoo, in Mississippi, where he remained for about six years. During the latter part of this period, he frequently visited the Choctaws, in an effort to counteract the influence of the French and to win them to an alliance with the English. The effort was successful, but it involved him in difficulties with other traders and with James Glen, royal governor of South Carolina from 1743 to 1756, which resulted, he asserts, in his financial ruin.

In 1751 he moved to District Ninety-six (the present Laurens County), SC, and resumed trade with the Cherokees, remaining there until about the end of 1759. His activities during these years covered a wide range. He was several times called in council by Gov. Glen, with whom he could never agree and whom he heartily detested. Among the Indians he was a diplomat and a peacemaker, but he was also a fighter--"a valiant warrior," says Logan; and when he could not compose their quarrels he did not infrequently take sides in their wars. At various times he was engaged in conflicts with the French. In the Indian war of 1760-61 he commanded a band of Chickasaws, receiving his supplies by way of Mobile. In 1769 he visited New York City. Either then or a few years later he probably voyaged to London. Of his later life nothing authentic is recorded. He was, as the conclusion of his book amply shows, a vigorous defender of the rights of the colonies, but there appears to be no mention of him in Revolutionary annals. He is said to have been married and to have has several children and also to have died in North Carolina shortly after the close of the Revolution.

Source: American History Told by Contemporaries: Building of the republic, 1689-1783 edited by Albert Bushnell Hart. Page 327. "The Life of an Indian Trader.". By James Adair (1775) link to
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“The following genealogical summary of the family of James Adair was provided to me from Shawn Potter Aug 2015. Shawn and his wife Lois are the authors of a book to be published sometime in the future entitled "Chickasaw Wife and Family of James Adair, Author of the History of the American Indians." The book uses extensive historical documentation and modern DNA analysis to assemble the following family. I provide only a summary of the family and the book should be consulted for the footnotes, more detail, and evidence which all support the following conclusions. (If you are a descendent of this family, Shawn would appreciate your contacting him if you are willing to submit your DNA test results as part of the study upon which the book will be based.) The summary:
"James Adair was born probably in Ireland say about 1714. He immigrated to America before 1735. James married Eleanor of the Chickasaw Nation in about 1744. Eleanor was born in the Chickasaw Nation say about 1726. She was a member of the Panther clan. James died probably in Laurens County, South Carolina, after 25 Feb 1784 and before 12 Feb 1796. Eleanor died probably in Laurens County after 3 Jan 1803. James and Eleanor were the parents of the following children:
1. James Adair, Jr., was born in the Chickasaw Nation say about 1748. He married Hannah probably in Laurens County say about 1772. Hannah was born probably in Laurens County on 28 Sep 1750. James died in Laurens County on 18 Aug 1818. Hannah died in Laurens County on 10 Nov 1826.
2. Joseph Adair was born in the Chickasaw Nation say about 1750. He married Sarah probably in Laurens County say about 1776. Joseph died perhaps in Laurens County after 5 Feb 1804.
3. John Adair was born in the Chickasaw Nation say about 1754. He married first Ga-Ho-Ga of the Cherokee Nation probably in Laurens County say about 1780. Ga-Ho-Ga was born in the Cherokee Nation say about 1760. Ga-Ho-Ga died perhaps in Laurens County after 7 Feb 1789. John married second Jane Kilgore probably in Laurens County say about 1790. Jane was born probably in Laurens County say about 1773. John died in present-day Oconee County, South Carolina, after 4 Nov 1815 and before 4 Dec 1815. Jane died perhaps in present-day Oconee County after 4 Dec 1815.
4. Edward Adair was born in the Chickasaw Nation say about 1756. He married first Margaret in Philadelphia on 7 Apr 1784. Edward married second Elizabeth Martin of the Cherokee Nation probably in the Cherokee Nation say about 1789. Elizabeth was born probably in the Cherokee Nation say about 1769. Edward died probably in present-day Oconee County after 3 Nov 1800. Elizabeth died probably in the Cherokee Nation after 13 Jul 1816.
N.B. James and Eleanor had "children" in 1748; and a daughter lived in Georgia between 1788 and 1791." “

Source: Petersen, C. & Petersen, J. (2021, May 27). James Adair. Retrieved February 27, 2023, from https://myfamilysearch.net/getperson.php?personID=I3679&tree=2005217a''
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(Curator Note: the following discussion seems to suggest that James Adair Indian Trader had a brother Joseph Adair, rather than a son of that name, so that his sons would have been only John and Edward)

Manuscript "Early Adairs of Laurens County, South Carolina," compiled by Mildred Brownlee, 1990, copy at the Laurens County Library; Source Records: Wills; Intestate Estates; Deeds; Court Records; Cemetery Inscriptions. Some dates of birth and death obtained from Lineage Charts. Dates of birth and death subject to correction. Spelling of names subject to correction." [Note that bracketed comments are later additions by other reviewers including myself - Kerry Petersen.]:
A. "SC Archives, Council Journal 34 p. 39, 2 Feb. 1768 - Petitions for Warrants of Survey:
James Adair - 150 a. - Waters of Duncan Creek - granted 1768 (James was noted as James, Sr. up to his death.)
Joseph Adair - 250 a. - Waters of Duncan Creek
Council Journal 34, p. 236, 7 Dec. 1768 - Petitions to Prolong Warrants:
Joseph Adair - 250 a. - on Duncan Creek
His 250 a. was granted in 1770 (where Duncan Creek Church now stands). Joseph Adair sold this grant in 1778 to Benjamin Adair. (Deed Bk. A, p. 189)
The above is the first record for Joseph Adair, Sr., cooper, found in Laurens Co. [This is incorrect. Joseph Adair petitioned for 200 acres on the Waters of the Santee (Council Journal of 3 Dec 1766, p. 874). The Memorial for this property reads as follows: A Memorial exhibited by Joseph Adair, 200 acres of a Plantation or tract of land contg. 200 acres situate in Berkly County on the So. side of Enoree River on a branch thereof called Millers Creek bounded Ewardly on land of Frances McCall, and on all other sides on vacant land. Survey certified the 7th of March 1769 (Plat Book 9, p. 341) and granted the 2nd day of June 1769 to the memorialist. Quit rent to commence two years hence. SC Memorial Book 8, p. 482. 9 Sep 1769]. James Adair who petitioned for land on the same date as Joseph is possibly the James Adair who married Eleanor and who had died in Laurens Co. prior to 12 Feb. 1796. Early deeds refer to him as James Adair, cooper. His 150 a. grant is evidently the one shown on Union Co. Land Grant map #4 and #12 on a branch of Duncan Creek which is called McCall's Branch on map #4. Other early maps refer to this branch as Miller's Fork. On present day maps it is called Sand Creek ... NE of Clinton, in the area between Hwy. 72 and Hwy. 98. Since available deeds do not make clear the disposition of the above 150 a., there is still some uncertainty that the grant was to James Adair, wife Eleanor; however, it is certain that he was in Laurens Co. 11 Aug. 1774 when he received a grant of 200 a. on a branch of Duncan Creek. Land Grant map #4 says granted in 1770 but deeds say 1774; this grant lying between the main branch of Duncan and Philson's Crossroad, and very near to Joseph Adair, Sr.'s original grant.
Since both Joseph Adair and James Adair have been identified as coopers and they both petitioned for land on the same date, it seems logical to think that they were brothers. (Dr. James Adair's History states that James Adair, Indian trader, was a brother of Joseph Adair, Sr.) [Modern DNA research on descendants of the Indian trader James Adair provided me in 2015 by Shawn Potter now substantiates this claim.]
Council Journal 34 should be consulted for any other possible information which might be contained in the land petitions of Joseph and James Adair in 1768.
The exact year that Joseph Adair arrived in South Carolina has not been determined. He was in Lancaster Co., Pa. in 1759 when he was given Power-of-Attorney to sell land for John, Josiah, and Jennet Ramage. In his History of the Presbyterian Church in SC, George Howe, D.D. states that in 1763 or 1766, Joseph Adair, Thomas Ewing, Wm. Hanna, and the McCrearys had united in building a house of worship. The June 9, 1896 issue of The Laurens Advertiser has an article about the 130th anniversary of Duncan Creek Presbyterian Church which was "organized in summer of 1766."
B. "James Adair, Sr., cooper, & Eleanor, his wife. As stated on p. 1, it has not been definitely determined that this James Adair was the one who petitioned for land along with Joseph Adair, cooper, in 1767; however, he has been documented as the James Adair who received a grant of 200 a. on Duncan Creek 11 Aug. 1774. Surety for this grant was certified 3 June 1773, so James Adair was in Laurens Co. before that date, (See Deed Bk. F, pp. 8, 9, 10).
He is also considered to have been the James Adair, cooper, to whom John Brotherton and wife, Esther, sold in 1774, 60 a. on a spring branch of Duncan Creek. (See Deed Bk. A, p. 185.)
Birth date of James Adair, Sr., cooper, is not known. He died sometime between 24 Feb. 1784 (date of deed to John Jones, blacksmith) and 12 Feb. 1796 (date of deed to which Eleanor, widow of James Adair, dec'd, released her right of dower). Birthdate of Eleanor Adair is unknown; last record of her is also 12 Feb. 1796, release of dower. On 6 Feb. 1792, she was witness to a deed from William Price and wife Margaret, to James Adair, son of James. [Actually Eleanor's last mention is 7 Jan 1803 with her release of dower in a land transaction as reported further below.]
James Adair, Sr. left no will in Laurens Co. No estate papers have been located in Laurens Co. Eleanor Adair left no will or estate papers in Laurens Co. Data from Laurens Co. deeds indicate that a son of James and Eleanor was Joseph Adair.
Deed Bk. F, p. 109 - 12 Feb. 1796, Joseph Adair, Jr. to Wm. Holland, 120 a. on a small branch of Duncan Creek. N on John McCreary now John A. Elmore, SW by John Adair now Benj. Adair, S by me, a grant of 2 Oct, 1786; the other plantation of 100 a. purchased from Samuel Ewing 16 Dec. 1778, part of 150 a. grant to Samuel Ewing 30 Sept. 1774, Joining the above tract.
Joseph Adair, Jr.
Wit: B.H. Saxon, JA Elmore, Basil Holland
Release of dower: Sarah Adair, wife of Joseph Adair, Jr.; Eleanor (x) Adair. Widow of James Adair, dec'd.
(Joseph Adair called "Jr." to distinguish from Joseph Adair, son of Joseph Adair, cooper, who was at that time called Joseph Adair, "Sr.", after the death of his father in 1789.)
Deed Bk, G, p. 570 - 7 Jan. 1803, Joseph Adair, planter, to John Daniel Kern of Charleston, merchant, 86 a. on N side of Duncan Creek, adj. said J. D. Kern. N 10, W 40, S 30, etc., on Joseph Adair line, S 80, E ??, etc. on Mistres ?Musgrove (seems to be error for "Mistress Montgomery").
Joseph Adair
Wit: Thomas Martin, Tailor; William Dabbage
Release of Dower: Sarah Adair, wife of Joseph Adair, Jr.; Eleanor (x) Adair, widow of James Adair, dec'd."

Source: Petersen, C. & Petersen, J. (2021, May 27). James Adair. Retrieved February 27, 2023, from https://myfamilysearch.net/getperson.php?personID=I3679&tree=2005217a''
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From The Project Gutenberg eBook of Adair's History of the American Indians, by James Adair as cited below

• **

(Extracted by the Curator (dvb) from The Project Gutenberg eBook of Adair's History of the American Indians, editors preface and introduction, by James Adair to tell in brief, his story with the Chickasaw, Choctaw and Cherokee Indians, and provide his timeline in early Colonial America)

• **

James Adair’s History of the American Indians, published in London in 1775, has always been regarded and treated by ethnologists and historians as reliable authority on the Southern Indians, as well as on Southern history in a period of no little obscurity…

James Adair is silent on the point of his parentage and birth-date; but it is probable that he was a younger son of this last mentioned Sir Robert Adair (see original document); and that, as has been the case with so many scions of noble and other houses of Great Britain, facing the vice-grip of the law primogeniture, he preferred the freedom and opportunities of distant climes…

Animated by something of the spirit of his distant ancestor, James Adair migrated and appeared in South Carolina in 1735, landing at Charles Town, in high probability [4] …

Shortly after his arrival Adair engaged in the Indian trade, then a business more gainful than was the case in the later years of his career. In 1736 he was a trader to the Cherokees, and mentions an incident “in Kanootare, the most northern town of the Cherokee.”[5] This town was probably identical with Connutre laid down on George
Hunter’s Map of 1730, in the upper part of the territory occupied by the Middle Cherokees in the southwestern part of North Carolina'

Adair’s book gives evidence of the fact that he was among the Overhill (or Western) Cherokees in the Tennessee Country, whose towns were on the Tennessee (now Little Tennessee) River, and its branches. Our author, however, is tantalizingly sparing of dates in that regard…

The same thing is true of the Catawbas. He speaks of his “residence with them,” but his census of them, of the year 1743, is the only indication of the period of his stay…

In 1744 Adair transferred his residence and operations to the Chickasaw nation in what is now North Mississippi. An eastern band of that tribe had a considerable village across the Savannah River from Augusta, Georgia, in South Carolina. It is likely that Adair conducted a trade with the warriors of that village, either from the Congaree or Charles Town; and becoming measurably conversant with the Chickasaw language, sought a trade among the main branch of the tribe in the West, where competition was less keen…

It was among his “cheerful brave Chikkasah” that Adair brought his career as a trader and diplomat to peak. The innate independence and bravery of the Chickasaws appealed to him. The glorious history they had but recently made in two contests with the French and their numerous red allies under Bienville challenged his admiration. The Chickasaws reciprocated. They and Adair were well met. Theirs was a kinship of spirit. It is manifest that he, alongside their chiefs, was their leader on bloody forays against enemy Indians, particularly the Shawnees, then in the French interest. If that were possible, he instilled in the Chickasaws a stronger dislike of the French. That age-old hatred did more and very much more to save the Mississippi Valley to the English than histories of our country have so far recorded…

About a year or two after Adair entered upon his life among the Chickasaws, in the winter of 1745-46, he saw an opportunity to extend the influence of the Anglo-Americans of Carolina and win at least a portion of the populous Choctaw nation from the French at New Orleans. This chance lay in the fact that the goods supplied the Choctaws by French traders were inferior to goods of English make; and, usually, they were sold at higher prices. Added to this were the seeds of a schism among the Choctaws…

During the summer of 1746, with the authority and concurrence of Governor James Glen, of South Carolina, Adair made presents to the already deeply incensed Red Shoes and to his followers. The two leaders, white and red, planned a break with the French—called by the French “the Choctaw rebellion.”…

As successful intriguer Adair naturally expected to be rewarded by the South Carolina government. He claimed that Governor Glen had committed himself to see to the grant to Adair and his friends of a monopoly of the Choctaw trade for a term of years.[8] Instead, Glen, it was charged, formed a company—called by Adair the “Sphynx Company”—composed of his brother and two others to conduct the trade thus opened up. The sight of three hundred and sixty horse-loads of goods passing to the Choctaw Country must have enraged Adair. His bitterness towards Governor Glen was ever afterwards manifest, often in biting sarcasm and invective.[9] Adair attributed to this breach of plighted faith his personal bankruptcy…

(Curator note: There followed until 1751 an on again off again battle of words between James Adair and Governor Glen)…

In 1753, Cornelius Doherty, the old trader, wrote Governor Glen that “a great many of the Cherokees were gone to Chickasaws to assist them against the French.” Under Adair’s prompting, in order to aid his well loved tribe in their dire straits?…

On Governor Glen’s visit to Ninety-Six in May, 1756, Adair saw him and gives details in his book (p. 244). He also met Governor William Henry Lyttleton at Fort Moore two years later. Lyttleton seems to have made a favorable impression upon him—quite in contrast with Glen…

Adair was emboldened by the new Governor’s attitude again to petition for a reimbursement of losses incident to the Choctaw affair. In so doing he was not able to refrain from tart language. This the legislature of the province was glad enough to seize upon, with result:
“April 28, 1761. A memorial of James Adair was presented to the House and the same containing improper and indecent language was Rejected without being read thro’.”
Adair evidently thought that his former service followed by aid he had given to the province in its war with the Cherokees just terminated had justly earned for him better treatment. Into that struggle he had thrown himself whole-heartedly…

…war with the Cherokees was in prospect towards the middle of the year 1759, and flagrant in the winter and summer following.[14]…

Adair in his History says that “having been in a singular manner recommended to his Excellency [Lyttleton], the general, I was preëngaged for that campaign”—to lead a body of the Eastern Chickasaws…

Letters from the expeditionary force, yet preserved in the archives at Columbia, show that Captain Adair and his party of Chickasaws were bold and active, doubtless serving as scouts.[19] In July following, the sum of two hundred pounds, currency, was included in the appropriation bill as his compensation. Adair, in 1759, was for attacking and vigorously pressing the war, but his advice was not attended to. In the meantime aid had come to the Cherokees from the Creeks under Great Mortar…

To the far-away Chickasaws, the trader turned to recoup his fortunes after the termination of the Cherokee War and his repulse in the matter of his second memorial. There was real need for Adair’s services on the part of that gallant people. The French were attempting to make a breach between them and the Choctaws. They were “in great want of ammunition” and goods.[21] Adair chose Mobile as mart for his peltry, after the surrender of the country by the French under the peace treaty of 1763…

Existing records testify to the fact that Adair aided the authorities in efforts to prevent the Chickasaws being debauched by rum and to hold unprincipled traders in leash. He supported the commissary of the government of West Florida, in February, 1766…

It was during this stay (1761-68) among them that the greater portion of his History of the American Indians was written. He left his oft-tried and true friends, the Chickasaws, in the early part of May, 1768,[23] and went to the North—doubtless to interview Sir Wm. Johnson for materials with which to enlarge the scope of his work, his own experience and observations having been confined to the leading tribes of the South…

Of Adair in London in 1775 we have not a glimpse. Did he visit Scotland and Ireland among his kinsmen?…

His closing years constitute for the researcher the most baffling period of his career. Dr. James B. Adair in his Adair History and Genealogy (1924) says that he settled and married in North Carolina after his return from London in 1775. The locality and name of the woman he is supposed to have married are not given. On the other hand, Emmett Starr, the Cherokee historian and genealogist, states in a letter to the writer that Adair never married. If an inference may be indulged, it seems that it was in the western part of North Carolina that he settled—the region west of the Alleghanies, now known as Lower East Tennessee, near the Tennessee-Georgia line. There a landing on Conesauga River bore the name “Adair,” a point of transit of shipments by way of the Hiwassee after portage from Hildebrand’s landing on the Hiwassee, in a somewhat later period. Just across the state line in Georgia is the village of Adair.

Another fact adds weight to the inference: the descendants of Adair related their nativity to that region. Without doubt Adair left his blood strain among the Cherokee and Chickasaws. As those of colonial days would express it, he was too “full-habited” to have made himself an exception to the custom of traders resident among the red tribes to form alliance with Indian maidens, with resultant offspring.

Emmett Starr, in his History of the Cherokee Indians, 403, gives:
“11———— Adair
12 John Adair m. Jennie Kilgore
22 Edward Adair m. Elizabeth Martin.”

The name of the mother of these two sons of “—— Adair” is not given. Starr’s genealogical table gives the descendants down to recent times, among them those of the Mayes family. The blank in the name of the father may be supplied from a sketch of Joel Bryan Mayes, a Cherokee chief, and chief justice of the court of last resort of the Cherokee Nation, in Appleton’s Encyclopedia of American Biography, IV, 275: Mayes “was born in the Cherokee reservation in Georgia, October 2, 1833. His mother was of mixed blood and descended on the paternal side from James Adair, an Indian agent [trader] under George III.”[24]…

Starr in a letter to the editor says: “John and Edward Adair, brothers, married Cherokees and have had a numerous progeny. Their descendants furnished the most brilliant strain in the old Cherokee Nation, especially when their blood was blended with the blood of descendants of General Joseph Martin,[25] of Virginia-Tennessee, whose descendants have always been numerous in the Nation. Two of these, William Penn Adair and Lucian Burr Bell were the brainiest men that I ever met.” Elizabeth Martin, mentioned above, was in girlhood a resident of Lower East Tennessee, at Wachowee on a branch of Hiwassee River. Her mother, Betty, was the daughter of the great Nancy Ward, the Beloved Woman of the Overhill Cherokees and friend of the white race, and her father was General Joseph Martin, agent of Virginia among the Cherokees.[26]…

That Adair was a man of liberal education, for his period, seems clear. A self-disclosure is that of his applying himself to the mastery of the rudiments of the Hebrew language among the redmen whom he was studying…

Wherever and however seen, his was an unusual figure, riding, we may be sure, a coveted Chickasaw steed through vast forest reaches, silhouetted against a background of forest-green. Whether knight errant or dare-devil, or a commingling of both, he rode into mundane immortality. He has broken into every book of comprehensive biography, in whatever language, which has any sort of pretension of thoroughness.

Adair was a good diplomat in dealing with his inferiors. He was not diplomatic in his attitude towards those who were officially his superiors. An acridity of speech, an unsmooth temper and not a little vanity brought him to breach with such when he deemed himself mistreated. In an audience with Governor Glen his own words “seemed to lie pretty sharply upon him.” Adair was a good hater: of Glen, the French and the Romanists, in particular. But, as is not unusual in such cases, he was ardent in his friendships—for the Chickasaws in particular. As “an English Chickasaw,” he recognized in that tribe all that was best in the Amerind: love of their land, constancy in hatred and friendship, sagacity, alertness and consummate intrepidity.

The Book
Adair purposed a publication of his book several years before the date of its actual London publication in 1775. In the South Carolina Gazette of September 7, 1769, it was said: “An account of the origin of the primitive inhabitants and a history of those numerous warlike tribes of Indians, situated to the westward of Charles Town are subjects hitherto unattempted by any pen.... Such an attempt has been made by Mr. James Adair, a gentleman who has been conversant among the Cherokees, Chickesaws, Choctaws, etc., for thirty-odd years past; and who, by the assistance of a liberal education, a long experience among them and a genius naturally formed for curious enquiries, has written essays on their origin, language, religion, customary methods of making war and peace, etc.” It was also announced that the author was “going over to England soon to prepare for publication.” The Savannah Georgia Gazette of October 11, 1769, carried a similar item, of date New York, February 27th…

A Map of the American Indian Nations adjoining to the Missisippi, West & East Florida, Georgia, S. & N. Carolina, Virginia

Footnotes (numbered by the original editor)
[4] Speaking of the Indians of the Mississippi River region, John Lawson in his History of North Carolina (1710) says, p. 133: “They are the hardiest of all Indians, and run so fast that they are never taken; neither do any Indians outrun them if they are pursued.” See also, Williams, Memoirs of Lieut. Henry Timberlake, 79.
[5] Schoolcraft says the hair of Indians is invariably cylindrical in structure; that of Caucasians oval.
[8] Stroudwater, as Wm. Byrd II, called it at an earlier day; cloth manufactured in Stroud, Gloustershire, England, and widely sold to early Indian traders for blankets or garments; usually scarlet-dyed.
[9] Therefore, the Choctaws were called by the traders Flat-Heads (Fr. Têtes Plates) a term that came into general use as descriptive of the tribe. See on artificial head deformation, Catlin, North American Indians, and Hodge, Handbook of American Indians, I, pp. 97, 465. Dumont gives as reason: “So that when they grow up they may be in better condition to bear all kinds of loads.” Memoires Historique sur La Louisiane (1753) I, 140.
[14] Confirmed as of later date: Cushman, op. cit., 487.
[19] Mooney, Myths, 475; Swanton, Indian Tribes of the Lower Mississippi Valley, 351.
[21] The “Lower Path” from Charles Town west is referred to. The “Upper Path” is described in a later chapter.
[23] Pickett, in his History of Alabama, 106, says: “Many of the old Indian countrymen with whom we have conferred believe in their Jewish origin, while others are of a different opinion. Abram Mordecai, an intelligent Jew, who dwelt fifty years in the Creek nation, confidently believed that the Indians were originally of his people, and he asserted that in their Green Corn Dances he had heard them often utter in grateful tones the word Yavoyaha! Yavoyaha! He was always informed by the Indians that they meant Jehovah or the Great Spirit.” Cushman, who was reared in the Choctaw Country in Mississippi, gives like testimony. History of Choctaw, etc., Indians, 20.
[24] Eleazar Wiggan. See Sir Alexander Cuming’s Journal in Williams, Early Travels in the Tennessee Country, 123, 128.
[25] Swanton, Early History of Creeks, 417-18.
[26] Saponi, mentioned by Lawson and Byrd; later incorporated into the Catawbas and now extinct. Hodge, Handbook, II, 464. The best account of them is by Mooney, Siouan Tribes of The East, 35 et seq.

Source: Adair, J., & Williams, S. C. (1953). Adair's history of the American Indians: Edited under the auspices of the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America, in Tennessee. The Watauga Press, 1930.
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