In the name of God, Amen. I JOSEPH ADAIR of the State of South Carolina and county
of Laurens Cooper: being through the abundant mercy of God, though weak in body yet
of a sound and perfect understanding and memory; Do constitute this my last will and
Testament and desire it may be received as such. First I most humbly bequeath my soul to
God, my maker, beseeching his most gracious exceptance of it. Through the all
sufficient merits and meditations of my most compassionate redeemer Jesus Christ who
gave himself to be and attonement for my sins and is able to save to the uttermost all that
come to God by him seeing he ever liveth to make the intersession for them and who I
trust will not reject me a returning penetant sinner when I come to him for mercy. In this
hope and confidance I render up my soul with comfort, humbly beseeching the most
Glorious and blessed Trinity, one God most Holy most mercifull and gratious to prepare
me for my desolution and then to take me to himself into that plan of rest a incomparable
felicity which he hath prepared for all that love his holy name Amen.
Blessed be God I give my body to the earth from whence it was taken in full assurance of
its resurrection from thence at the last day. As for my burial I desire it to be decent
without Pomp or state at the discretion of my dear wife who I doubt not will
manage it with all pre???????.
As to my worldly estate I will and possitively order that all my debts be paid, and next I
give and bequeath to SUSANNA my dearly beloved wife all my stock of black cattle and
hogs with all the pewter of my dresser; and one hundred and Sixty(cannot be read)
dollars which is in the hands of my son JOSEPH ADAIR and all the store of my grain
that may be mine at the time of my death for her support also all the farming tools that
belong to me at my death. Also my beads and bed furniture to(illegeable) the same
during her life, and at her decease to go to my son JAMES ADAIR;
also to my son JOSEPH ADAIR I give and bequeath the remainder of the continental
money that remains in the estate. Also one long posted bedstead and my armed chair,
also I give and bequeath unto my son JAMES ADAIR the one half of my Coopers Tools;
and other utensils belonging to my trade with the whole of my wearing apparel, as also
my chest at the decease of my wife;
Also to my son BENJAMIN ADAIR, I give and bequeath the other half of my Coopers
Tools, and utensils belonging to my trade; as also the half of that twenty pounds old
currency which he had of me for which he was to have pailled a grave hard, which he
never performed;
also to my daughter JEAN RAMMAGE, I give and bequeath my bracs scales;
Also to my daughter SARAH ADAIR, I give and bequeath that other half of that twenty
pound old currency which is in the hands of my son, BENJAMIN ADAIR;
Also I give her at the death of my wife that Iron Pot that was her mothers with my iron
crook;
also I give and bequeath to my daughter MARY OWINS my biggest iron pot, and my
coarse flax hackle at the decease of her mother and to her husband JOHN OWINS the
one half of the sawed plank of my loft and floor; and if it shall please God to call me
home by this present disease, it is my will that the money he owes me should go to defray
my funeral charges.
Also to ROBERT LONG my son-in-law I give and bequeath the other half of the plank of
my loft and floor.
And I do by these presents nominate constitute and appointand ordain as the Executors of
this my last will and testament; my truly and well beloved sons JOSEPH and JAMES
ADAIR;
and I do hereby Revoke and disallow and make null and void every former will by me
made, ratifying and confirming this and no other to be my last will and testament.
In witness thereof I have hereunto set my hand and affixed my seal this Ninth day of
January in the year of our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Eighty Eight. Signed
and sealed in the presence of
James Montgomery Joseph Adair (Seal)
Wm Bourlande
his
James (I) GREEK
mark
Recorded in Book A. page 19. Proven date not available.
Original Will not in files of Probate Judge Office.
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During the Revolution and afterwards, South Carolina kept its' own records, muster rolls,
and so forth, and paid its' own soldiers for military service, and its' citizens for
supplies for the military and distressed civil poulation. These records were never
in the hands of the general government at Washington DC, but were retained in Columbia, SC.
All requests for information on war records for any soldier of the American Revolution
in South Carolina should be sent to the South Carolina Archives Department in Columbia.
During the hottest part of the Revolutionary War about 1780, the Tories burned the
courthouse in Laurens, SC; also the private residences of many of the Adairs and Hollands;
and thus destroyed the priceless records up to that date.
The following served in the Revolutionary War and their names are inscribed on a
marble tablet placed by the DARs on the front inside wall of Duncan's Creek Presbyterian Church:
Joseph Adair, Sr.
Joseph Adair, Jr.
James Adair, Sr.
John Copeland
Thomas Holland
Thomas McCrary
Joseph Ramage
At age 70, JOSEPH ADAIR, SR., was a soldier in the Revolutionary Army;
Comissary of Col. D. Casey's Regiment. Comissary's Pay Bill of Joseph Adair, Sr.,
commencing the 20th of August, 1781 and ending March 1782 is on record and was certified
on January 6, 1786.
JOSEPH ADAIR, JR. served with Lacy at Hauk's defeat. Joseph's son, John Adair, also served
in the war effort.
JOHN ADAIR (1757-1840) of South Carolina was a soldier during the American Revolution,
after which he migrated to Kentucky.
From: The Encyclopedia of American Family Names by H. Amanda Robb & Andrew Chesler,
1995 June 18, 1998
