Robin Adair

  General Notes:

Robin Adaire was born about 1714 and died in 1790: at the age of 22 he got into trouble in his native city of Dublin where he was a medical student, rose to be surgeon-colonel in the British army and, having declined a baronetcy, ended his life an honorary member of the College of Surgeons, Ireland.

Lady Caroline Keppel, whom he married, is said to have written the words of the ballad while heart-broken on account of the opposition of her family to the match. Their son, Sir Robert Adair (1763-1855), a notable member of the British diplomatic corps and friend of Charles James Fox.

On 13th Nov 1786 the "Sussex Weekly Advertiser" declared, "The plan of transporting convicts to Botany Bay (Sydney, Australia), is considered a lunatic scheme", surgeon John White and (Robin) ADAIR, surgeon-general of the Army, signed a list of articles for the expedition (Australia's First Fleet).

Robin Adair, surg.gen. in charge of the first fleet to Sydney, Australia 1788.

Capt. Arthur Phillip, RN was the 1st Governor.

There were 11 vessels from Portsmouth, England, 13 May 1787, the "Sirius" was the flagship of the First Fleet to Australia.

Horatio Nelson was a patient of his.

  Research Notes:

ROBERT, a surgeon, a good-natured pleasant man, a favourite of princes, of women, and of fortune, whose unassuming mediocrity of talent has not protected him from the industrious watchfulness of modern biography. Detection in an early amour drove him precipitately from Dublin, and, after filling the post of an army surgeon for several years, he fortunately attracted the notice of Lady Caroline Keppel, a daughter of the Earl of Albemarle, and sister to the gallant admiral, who fought, or would have fought, the French handsomely, off Ushant. Adair's marriage with a woman of quality introduced him to good business as well as good company; he was a few months after appointed inspector-general of military hospitals, an office in which his frugal expenditure of public money attracted the notice and received the marked approbation of his royal master; while his affability and mild manners were a striking contrast to the harsh severity and rugged peevishness of some of his professional contemporaries. Although publicly parsimonious, he was from his own stores privately generous; he became the best friend of the private soldier, and of a class of men who may often look with envy on the condition of a private soldier. I mean those unhappy subalterns, whose parents having been mad and cruel enough to sink the whole of their son's fortune in an ensigncy, or a lieutenant's commission, have doomed him to exist in splendid poverty on four shillings a day.

Lady Caroline, who died consumptive a few years after her marriage, ought not to be mentioned without a reflection on what are commonly called great matches: that in many instances they conduct a private individual to honour and wealth, and, as was the case with the subject of our present article, to nuptial happiness, is an undoubted fact; but it cannot be denied, that indifference, reproach, and family discord, are the natural and too frequent consequences of unequal alliance. Enchanting form, immense wealth and brilliant accomplishment, however they may be the general objects of pursuit, are by no means essential to happiness; a useful friend and unassuming companion, with more humble acquirements, and whose fortune, rank, and intellect, are nearly on an equality with her husband's, is more likely to bring the invaluable
marriage portion of internal comfort and domestic peace.

On the death of Mr. Ranby, the favourite surgeon of King George the Second, a man of strong passions, harsh voice, and inelegant manners, the subject of this article succeeded him in a lucrative post; and, on the strength of personal attachment, is said to have prevailed on a good-natured king to break his word, as the appointment had been promised to David Middleton, a veteran in the service of his royal master's family. Adair, however, secured a good thing, and honest David, as has been the fate of many a greater man, died with a king in his debt.

It was not long after that this fortunate Irishman was despatched on a business of life and death, to attend the Duke of Gloucester, on the continent, and he enjoyed the credit of snatching the king's brother from the grave: on this occasion he was introduced to and enjoyed frequent conversations with the excellent Ganganelli, Clement the Fourteenth, whom I have ever called the Protestant Pope. Having visited different parts of Europe in the suite of his recovered patient, Mr. Adair returned to England, to reap the rewards of augmented fame and regal gratitude, when an opportunity offered of exerting his benevolence and philanthropy with singular efficacy and success.

His friend Mr. Hesse, of the army pay-office, and I believe a commissary of musters, a man of pleasing manners, general acquaintance in polite circles, and at a certain time, of competent income, but not of a solid understanding, had unhappily been seduced, by the dissipating madness of the times, to form habits and indulge in expenses inconsistent with his rank and fortune. Although his affairs had for some time been desperate, his pride or his folly would not suffer him to retrench ; he regarded with dread the contemptuous sneer of the world, at least that despicable dissipated drove which passes for it; a vile unmanly fatal fear, which makes and keeps us fools and beggars half our lives. Wine, company, gaming, and a dependence on certain
promises, helped for a time, to shut out intruding care, and support a wounded spirit; unhappily, his expectations were disappointed, his creditors were urgent, and he retired with a smile on his countenance, but mortal chagrin at his heart, to one of those nocturnal associations for getting rid of time, money, and reflection, which have been called little earthly Pandemoniums, where, how deep soever our distress, hopeless our prospects, or miserable our fate, we may be certain of meeting companions equally unhappy with ourselves, alike smarting under the ill-treatment and reproaches of mankind or themselves; ready to receive us with open arms of sympathy, and in the distraction of play, the tumult of carousing, or the roar of merriment, setting at defiance God and man; cards and dice here level every distinction, and mix in familiar intimacy the prince and prize-fighter, the peer and horse-jockey, the gambler and the heir.

This unhappy man passed part of the night in one of these splendid receptacles of desperate adventure, which attract by their .bulky magnificence the wonder and sigh of the indignant public. With that timid caution which often accompanies bloody intent, he exhibited nothing peculiar in his deportment or appearance, but, at the usual time, and in the usual mode, quitting those he was to see no more, repaired to his own house, and, in the agonies of despair, snatched from God's right hand the instruments of death.

The situation of a wife, at once, and by a shocking catastrophe, deprived of husband, friend, and fortune, may be easily imagined; the struggle, too great for a delicate frame, terminated in temporary distraction. From the house of affliction she was conveyed, by Adair, to his hospitable roof at Chelsea, where she experienced every help, and, as reason gradually returned, every consolation the lenient hand of friendship could bestow; he was indeed the good Samaritan, the father, and the friend.

From the present page, young men who, early in life, have been grossly led astray by impetuous passions, may learn not to give way to supineness and despair, as by subsequent prudence and application, difficulties may be surmounted, character restored, and success ultimately attained. Persons of moderate capacity, without brilliant powers or attainments, may also be taught from the example before us, that pre-eminence and fortune, for which we all are struggling through life, are within the reach of humble diligence, minute attention, gentleness, civility, and dexterity in turning the little accidents of life to good account. From a consideration of Adair's life, an oft-repeated lesson may also be brought home to the bosom of every reader; though few, comparatively speaking, have opportunities of acting conspicuous parts on the great theatre of life, though we cannot all be heroes, statesmen, warriors, philosophers, and poets, yet we all have it in our power to fulfil the duties of private life, to abstain, as far as human infirmity will permit, from violence, folly, and crime, and to diffuse, in some degree, the blessings of ease and comfort to the unhappy, the sick, and the unfortunate. ⁴¹⁸

Robin married Lady Caroline Keppel, daughter of Sir William Anne Van Keppel 2nd Earl of Albemarle and Lady Anne Lennox Countess of Albemarle, in 1758. (Lady Caroline Keppel was born about 1734 and died in 1769 ⁵⁹.) The cause of her death was Consumption.