The notes of Adair are indicated by * and other reference marks; those of the editor by numerals. In cases where the editor has extended notes of the author the latter’s work is followed by (A) and the editor’s by (W). The author’s punctuation, spelling and capitalization have been followed, but the old form of “s” has been changed to the modern. For the convenience of students in running references to pages of the original edition its page-numbers are carried into the body of the text between brackets. SAMUEL COLE WILLIAMS. “Aquone” Johnson City Tennessee INTRODUCTION JAMES ADAIR, THE MAN James Adair has been called by various writers an Englishman, a Scotchman and an Irishman—and with some basis of fact in each case. He derived from the historic Irish house of Fitzgerald. Indeed, Fitzgerald was his true name. That family descends from Walter, son of Other, who at the time of the Domesday Survey (1086) was castellan of Windsor and tenant-in-chief of five of the counties of England. His descendants took active parts in the conquest of Ireland, where one of them in 1346 came into the Earldom of Kildare. Another line of the Fitzgeralds was that of the Earls of Desmond, which also descended from Maurice, the founder of the family in Ireland. The Desmond branch, under the third earl, who was viceroy of Ireland in 1367-69, became embroiled in difficulties and suffered defeat, and was captured by a native king of Thomond. Robert Fitzgerald, whose patrimonial estate was that of Adare, inclusive of the manor and abbey of that name, is said to have been the eldest son of Thomas Fitzgerald, sixth Earl of Desmond. In a dispute over the succession to the estate of his grandfather, Robert Fitzgerald killed his kinsman Gerald, the “White Knight,” a man of great distinction. A powerful combination being formed against him, he fled (1675) from Ireland to Galloway in Scotland. There he was hospitably received as guest at various baronial houses. He decided to change his name and took that of Robert Adare from his Irish estate in county Antrim.[i1]