William "Hugh" Adair was born 9 February 1754 to William Robert Adair (1728-1798) and Anne McAuley (1735-1798) and died 6 May 1844 Newton Abbott, Devon, England, United Kingdom of unspecified causes. He married Camilla Shafto (1756-1827) 23 September 1784 in Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, England, United Kingdom.
William lived at Colehouse, Devon, EnglandG.1 He lived at Ballymena, County Antrim, IrelandG.1 He lived at Flixton Hall, Suffolk, England.
(Hugh) William Adair (1754-1844) (see the post on the Adairs of Ballymena and Flixton) purchased the Heatherton Park estate in 1807 from the Gunston family. At his death it passed, with Colehayes Park (Devon) to his second surviving son, Alexander Adair (1791-1863).
(Hugh) William Adair (1754-1844) inherited the Ballymena Castle estate (Antrim) from his father in 1798 and purchased Heatherton Park in Somerset (c1802/1807) and Colehouse in Devon (1825). He inherited Benwell Tower (Northumberland) from his father-in-law, which he sold c.1831; and Flixton Park (Suffolk) from his kinsman, Alexander Adair (1743-1834) in 1834; this he made over to his eldest son. At his death, Ballymena also passed to his eldest son and Heatherton and Colehouse to his younger surviving son. He died at Colehouse, 7 May 1844, aged 90.
Alexander Adair (1743-1834), who followed him into business as an army agent, in preference to his natural son or his daughter Jane, the wife of Edward Brice. Alexander died without issue, and bequeathed Flixton his distant kinsman, (Hugh) William Adair of Ballymena (1754-1844), who had married the daughter and heir of Robert Shafto of Benwell Tower in Northumberland. Hugh had purchased Heatherton Park (Somerset) in 1807 and Colehayes Park (aka Colehouse) (Devon) – which he rebuilt – in 1825, and sold Benwell Tower after his wife’s death in 1827. Heatherton and Colehouse were bequeathed to his younger son, Alexander (see Adair of Heatherton Park), while the Flixton and Ballymena estates were settled on the elder, Sir Robert Shafto Adair, 1st baronet. In 1846, the Jacobean house of the Tasburghs at Flixton was severely damaged by fire, and Sir Robert employed Anthony Salvin to carry out a reconstruction. The house at Ballymena was let at this period, being occupied in 1837 by P. Cannon esq. Sir Robert also bought Wingfield Castle in Suffolk, then little more than a farm, which remained in the family until the 1980s but was let and restored in the 1940s.
Heatherton Park
Heatherton Park Estate, Somerset.
The estate was formed by Sir Thomas Gunston in 1765, and he built a modest five by four bay Palladian house c.1770 to the designs of an unknown architect, which was altered in the 1790s. A design by William Blogg for improving the front of 'Heatherton House' was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1797, but it is not clear whether it was for this house or for Heatherton in Sussex. The porch was added in the 1840s and the single-storey flat-roofed conservatory either side of it at some later point. The house became a school in the 1920s, and in 1928 a fine Baroque-style chapel was built adjacent to the south-west corner of the house disguised as a detached five bay single-storey classical pavilion, to the designs of Mr Stone of Taunton. The conservatory was then extended to provide covered access to it. The school closed in 1953 and the estate was sold to a property speculator who divided the house and outbuildings into flats.
Ballymena Castle
From a postcard of the early 20th Century.
In 1626 William Adair acquired newly-settled lands at Ballymena in exchange for part of his patrimony in Wigtownshire, and his son, Sir Robert, built the castle as a centre for the new estate. The original building burned down in 1740 and was at best patched up afterwards. A completely new Scots Baronial style house with a massive seven-storey tower at one end was built by Lanyon & Lynn of Belfast for Sir Robert Adair, later 1st Baron Waveney, in 1865-87.
Ballymena Castle was a large estate located in the village of Ballymena in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. The land was first given to the Adair family by King Charles I in 1626, with a right to hold two annual fairs and a free Saturday market in perpetuity. As of 2018, the Saturday market still runs.
The Adairs were active in helping Scotch settlers settle the "Ulster Plantation" in Northern Ireland. In the 1600s Sir Robert Adair (d. 1655) built Ballymena Castle as a centre for their Irish estates. But a great portion of the Adair Family continued at their main residence in Kilhilt Tower in Wigtownshire, Scotland. For time Ballymena was renamed "Kinhiltshire".
In 1865, one of the key descendants, Robert Alexander Shafto Adair (2nd Baronet Adair) made extensive modifications to the castle. But in the 20th century, the placed was little used, becoming victim to vandalism and arson before being sold and demolished in 1957. The Adairs sold much of the surrounding landholdings to their tenants.
Adair Baronets
His oldest son, Robert Shafto Adair (1786-1869), was created the Adair Baronetcy, of Flixton Hall in the County of Suffolk. It was created on 2 August 1838.
This was a title in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom given to a distinguished branch of the Adair Family.[1] He was succeeded by his eldest son, the second Baronet, Robert who sat as Member of Parliament for Cambridge. In 1873 he was created Baron Waveney, of South Elmham in the County of Suffolk, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom for services rendered as Lord-Lieutenant of County Antrim and Aide-de-Camp to Her Majesty Queen Victoria of England.[2] The barony became extinct on his death in 1886 while he was succeeded in the baronetcy by his younger brother, Hugh Adair, the third Baronet. The latter had earlier represented Ipswich in Parliament. Two of his sons, the fourth and fifth Baronets, both succeeded in the title. The fifth Baronet's son, the sixth Baronet, was a Major-General in the British Army during World War II. The title became extinct on the latter's death in 1988.
- See Also Adair Family Ancestry.
- See Also Ballymena Castle - primary family estate in County Antrim, Northern Ireland.
Marriage and Family
He married 17 December 1784 Camilla Shafto (1756-1827), daughter and heiress of Robert Shafto of Benwell Tower (Northumberland) and had issue:
Children
| Name | Birth | Death | Joined with |
| Robert Shafto Adair (1786-1869) | 26 June 1786 Ballymena, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom | 24 February 1869 | Elizabeth Maria Strode (1792-1853) Jane Anne Clarkson (1813-1873) |
| William Robert Adair (1788-1844) | |||
| Alexander Adair (1791-1863) | 8 September 1791 Durham, Durham, England, United Kingdom | 22 November 1863 Wells, Somerset, England, United Kingdom | Harriet Eliza Atkinson (1793-1878) |
| Camilla Anne Adair (1793-1822) | |||
Siblings
| Name | Birth | Death | Joined with |
| William Adair (1754-1844) | 9 February 1754 | 6 May 1844 Newton Abbott, Devon, England, United Kingdom | Camilla Shafto (1756-1827) |
| Robert Adair (1760-1837) | |||
Residences
References
- Townend, Peter. Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 105th edition. London, U.K.: Burke's Peerage Ltd, 1970.
- Edmund Lodge, compiler, The Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire, 80th edition (London, U.K., 1911), page 140.
See Also
- William Adair
- Adair Family
- Adair Family Ancestry
- Adair in Northumberland
- Adair in Devonshire
- William Adair at thePeerage
- William Adair - Geni.com
- Adair of Heatherton Park - Landed Families of England Blog
- Adair of Ballymena Castle and Flixton Hall, Baronets - Landed Families of England Blog.