Capt. William Robert Adair was born 1690 in Ballymena, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom to Robert Adair (1659-1745) and Penelope Coleville (1654-1695) and died 19 April 1762 Ballymena, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom of unspecified causes. He married Catherine Smallman (1701-1752) 18 October 1719 in Ludlow, Shropshire, England, United Kingdom.
He gained the rank of Captain of Horse.1 He lived at Ballymena, County Antrim, IrelandG.1
Capt. William Robert Adair (d. 1762) of Ballymena. Elder son of Col. Sir Robert Adair (1659-1745) and his first wife, Penelope, daughter of Sir Robert Colville of Newtown (Antrim). A Captain in Lord Mark Kerr’s Regiment of Horse at the Battle of Culloden, and later in General Honeywood's Dragoons. He married 1719 at Ludlow (Shropshire), Catherine Smallman (d. 1752) of Ludlow (Shropshire) and had issue:
- Katherine Adair
- Robert Adair (1721-98) (q.v.);
- Rev. William Adair (b. c.1724); ed. at Worcester College, Oxford (BA 1748; MA 1750); buried in Garrison church, Southsea, 5 May 1770.
He inherited the Ballymena estate from his father in 1745 but was probably not resident. He died 19 April 1762. His wife died 1 April 1752.
Sheriffs of Galloway
Source: Sir Andrew Agnew, The Agnews of Lochnaw: A History of the Hereditary Sheriffs of Galloway (Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, 1864), p. 617, digital images, GoogleBooks 10. William Adair, succeeded 1655, married, first, Jean, daughter of Sir William Cunningham of Cunninghamhead; married, second, Anne, daughter of Colonel Walter Scott; by her he had 11. Sir Robert Adair of Kilhilt and Ballymena, a knight banneret, sold the baronies of Kilhilt and Drumore to the Earl of Stair; married, 1st, Penelope, daughter of Sir Robert Colvile; married, 2d, Martha—died August 1705; married, 3d, October 1705, Ann M'Aulay; married, 4th, Arabella Rickets; left by his third wife: 12. Robert Adair, a major of Dragoons (" nme living," Adair MSS. 1760); married Catherine Smallman, an English lady of fortune. The family is represented by Sir Robert Stafto Adair of Flixton Hall.
Jacobite Rebellions
Scottish Rebellions 1745: The Battle of Culloden was the final confrontation of the Jacobite rising of 1745. On 16 April 1746, the Jacobite army of Charles Edward Stuart was decisively defeated by a British government force under Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, on Drummossie Moor near Inverness in the Scottish Highlands. It was the last pitched battle fought on British soil.
Charles was the eldest son of James Stuart, the exiled Stuart claimant to the British throne. Believing there was support for a Stuart restoration in both Scotland and England, he landed in Scotland in July 1745: raising an army of Scots Jacobite supporters, he took Edinburgh by September, and defeated a British government force at Prestonpans. The government recalled 12,000 troops from the Continent to deal with the rising: a Jacobite invasion of England reached as far as Derby before turning back, having attracted relatively few English recruits.
The Jacobites, with limited French military support, attempted to consolidate their control of Scotland, where, by early 1746, they were opposed by a substantial government army. A hollow Jacobite victory at Falkirk failed to change the strategic situation: with supplies and pay running short and with the government troops resupplied and reorganised under the Duke of Cumberland, son of British monarch George II, the Jacobite leadership had few options left other than to stand and fight. The two armies eventually met at Culloden, on terrain that gave Cumberland's larger, well-rested force the advantage. The battle lasted only an hour, with the Jacobites suffering a bloody defeat; between 1,500 and 2,000 Jacobites were killed or wounded, while about 300 government soldiers were killed or wounded. While perhaps 5,000 – 6,000 Jacobites remained in arms in Scotland, the leadership took the decision to disperse, effectively ending the rising.
Culloden and its aftermath continue to arouse strong feelings. The University of Glasgow awarded the Duke of Cumberland an honorary doctorate, but many modern commentators allege that the aftermath of the battle and subsequent crackdown on Jacobite sympathisers were brutal, earning Cumberland the sobriquet "Butcher". Efforts were subsequently made to further integrate the Scottish Highlands into the Kingdom of Great Britain; civil penalties were introduced to undermine the Scottish clan system, which had provided the Jacobites with the means to rapidly mobilize an army.
Ballymena Castle
From a postcard of the early 20th Century.
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.
Children
| Name | Birth | Death | Joined with |
| Katherine Adair (1725-1725) | |||
| William Robert Adair (1728-1798) | 1728 Ballymena Castle, Ballymena, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom | January 1798 Ballymena Castle, Ballymena, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom | Anne McAuley (1735-1798) |
| William Adair (c1730-) | |||
Siblings
| Name | Birth | Death | Joined with |
| William Robert Adair (1690-1762) | 1690 Ballymena, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom | 19 April 1762 Ballymena, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom | Catherine Smallman (1701-1752) |
| Robert Adair (1690-1762) | |||
| Name | Birth | Death | Joined with |
| Anna Helena Adair (1700-1701) | |||
| Name | Birth | Death | Joined with |
| Alexander Adair (1720-1797) | |||
Residences
See Also
- William Adair
- Adair Family
- Adair Family Ancestry
- Adair in Shropshire
- Adair in County Antrim
- William Robert Adair at thePeerage
- Capt William Robert Adair - Geni.com
- Townend, Peter. Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 105th edition. London, U.K.: Burke's Peerage Ltd, 1970.
- Adair of Ballymena Castle and Flixton Hall, Baronets - Landed Families of England Blog.