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John Adair, 8th Gov. of KY
- John Adair, 8th Gov. of KY1757 - 1840
Facts and Events
| Name |
John Adair, 8th Gov. of KY |
| Gender |
Male |
| Birth[1][2] |
9 Jan 1757 |
Craven, South Carolina, United States |
| Marriage |
|
to Catherine Palmer |
| Other? |
1785 |
South Carolina, United StatesChester County is formed within Camden District. |
| Death[1][2] |
19 May 1840 |
Harrodsburg, Mercer, Kentucky, United Statesage 83 - |
| Burial[1][2] |
1872 |
Frankfort Cemetery, Frankfort, Franklin, Kentucky, United Statesreinterred ; originally buried on the grounds of his estate, White Hall |
Research Notes
- In addition to Adair County in Kentucky, Adair County, Missouri, Adair County, Iowa, and the towns of Adairville, Kentucky, and Adair, Iowa, were named in his honor.1
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 John Adair, in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia.
John Adair was born January 9, 1757, in Chester County, South Carolina, a son of Scottish immigrants Baron William and Mary [Moore] Adair.[1][2] He was educated at schools in Charlotte, North Carolina, and enlisted in the South Carolina colonial militia at the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War.[3] He was assigned to the regiment of his friend, Edward Lacey, under the command of Colonel Thomas Sumter and participated in the failed Colonial assault on a Loyalist outpost at the Battle of Rocky Mount and the subsequent Colonial victory at the Battle of Hanging Rock.[4][5] During the British victory over the Colonists at the August 16, 1780, Battle of Camden, Adair was taken as a prisoner of war.[6] He contracted smallpox and was treated harshly by his captors during his months-long imprisonment.[6] Although he escaped at one point, Adair was unable to reach safety because of difficulties related to his smallpox infection and was recaptured by British Colonel Banastre Tarleton after just three days.[4] Subsequently, he was released via a prisoner exchange.[4] In 1781, he was commissioned as a lieutenant in the South Carolina militia, and fought in the drawn Battle of Eutaw Springs, the war's last major battle in the Carolinas.[4] Edward Lacey was elected sheriff of Chester County after the war, and Adair replaced him in his former capacity as the county's justice of the peace.[5] He was chosen as a delegate to the South Carolina convention to ratify the U.S. Constitution.[3]
In 1784, Adair married Katherine Palmer.[7] They had twelve children, ten of them daughters.[7] One married Thomas Bell Monroe, who later served as Adair's Secretary of State and was appointed to a federal judgeship.[8] In 1786, the Adairs migrated westward to Kentucky, settling in Mercer County.[9]
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Kentucky Historical Society (Frankfort, Kentucky). The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society. (Frankfort: Kentucky Historical Society)
7:32, Jan 1909.
- Biographies, in Govinfo.gov.
ADAIR, John, a Senator and a Representative from Kentucky; born in Chester District, Chester County, S.C., January 9, 1757; attended the public schools in Charlotte, N.C.; served in the Revolutionary War; member of the South Carolina convention that ratified the Constitution of the United States; moved to Kentucky in 1788; major of volunteers in an expedition against the Indians under General Wilkinson in 1791 and 1792; was a lieutenant colonel under General Scott in 1793; member of the Kentucky constitutional convention in 1792; member of the State house of representatives 1793-1795, 1798, and 1800-1803, serving as speaker in 1802 and 1803; register of the United States land office in 1805; elected as a Democratic Republican to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of John Breckinridge and served from November 8, 1805, to November 18, 1806, when he resigned, having been an unsuccessful candidate for reelection; aide to Governor Isaac Shelby in the Battle of the Thames in 1813; commander of the Kentucky rifle brigade which served under General Andrew Jackson in 1814 and 1815; again a member of the State house of representatives in 1817; appointed adjutant general with the brevet rank of brigadier general; Governor of Kentucky 1820-1824; elected as a Jacksonian to the Twenty-second Congress (March 4, 1831-March 3, 1833); was not a candidate for reelection in 1832; died in Harrodsburg, Ky., May 19, 1840; interment in State Cemetery, Frankfort, Ky., where a monument to his memory was erected by the State.
Bibliography:
Dictionary of American Biography;
Gillig, John S. ‘‘In the Pursuit of Truth and Honor: The Controversy Between Andrew Jackson and John Adair in 1817.’’ Filson Club History Quarterly 58 (April 1984):
177-201;
Leger, William G. ‘‘The Public Life Of John Adair.’’ Ph.D. dissertation, University of Kentucky, 1960.
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