James Adair (serjeant-at-law)

James Adair, KS (c.1743 – 21 July 1798) was an Irish-born judge, serjeant-at-law, and Member of Parliament, who spent his career based in London.

In the early part of the reign of George III he was ranked among the advocates of the popular side; in 1771, he was employed as counsel in the famous case of the House of Commons against the printers of Letters of Junius, and in this and other instances gave so much satisfaction to the citizens, that, on the death of John Glynn, he was elected Recorder of London,[2] a post he held until 1789.

[3] In 1774, he took the degree of serjeant-at-law and afterwards confined his practice chiefly to the Court of Common Pleas.

[2] In April 1788 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society[4] In 1796, he led against the crown, with Thomas Erskine as his junior, in defence of William Stone, who was accused of treason but acquitted.

Adair died suddenly at his house in Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, on 21 July 1798.