Though not of the royal line, Harold, the son of the great Earl Godwin, had been elected and served for forty weeks as King of England, until on the fated fourteenth of October 1066 he was overthrown by the victorious legions of William, Duke of Normandy. Thenceforward known as William I, King of England and popularly called The Conqueror. The polish and elegance of the world at that time was best exemplified by the Norman Knights and Nobles, many of whom accompanied Arlotta’s son, settled in and directed the destinies of England.
Among the proud cavaliers was d’Heanage. Hundreds of years later his more democratic descendants dismantled the orthography and pronunciation and called themselves Harnage; became roundheads, ironsides, nonconformists, Presbyterians and emigrated to America to swell the tide of hardy pioneers that was sweeping to and over the southern Appalachians, to make the world safer for civilization.
They came, to another race of people, they saw a pride and energy equal to their own and many of them married among the Cherokees. Ambrose Harnage, one of these Englishmen, married in about 1810 Nancy Harlan nee Sanders, born in 1782, the daughter of Mitchell Sanders, an English trader from Virginia and his wife Susie, a full blood Cherokee of the Long Hair clan.
Ambrose and Nancy Harnage’s children were: William, born June 5, 1811 and married Patsy Snow; George married Nancy Mayfield; John Griffith born January 16, 1817, married February 20, 1837 Ruth Starr born December 25, 1820, she died July 5, 1843. He married January 12, 1844 Emily Walker Mayfield born August 20, 1830. He died January 12, 1891.She died March 29, 1899; Andrew Jackson, born June 20, 1818 and died May 27, 1847. Elizabeth Harnage born August 20, 1820 and married John Adair Bell. She died May 27, 1847.
Emily Mayfield was the daughter of Jesse and Sallie (Starr) Mayfield.
John Griffith and Emily Walker Harnage were the parents of: William Thomas born July 27, 1847; Mary Victoria, born October 23, 1851, married William Lucullus Carr; Ida Eugenia, born October 18, 1853, married John Taylor Ewers and John M. Morse; Loretta Beldora, born October 10, 1855, married John Stringer Scott; Nannie Ethel, born September 19, 1858, married William Boone; John Custis Lee, born June 30, 1867, married Francis Catherine Hunt and Lena born November 1, 1869, Graduate from Alexander Institute, Kilgore, Texas, June 7, 1887, married January 1, 1893. Thomas James Adair, born January 4, 1856.
Thomas James Adair is the son of John Lynch Adair, born April 12, 1828 and Mary Jane Jeffries, born September 9, 1831 in Virginia.
Married February 22, 1855. John Lynch Adair served four years in the confederate army, was clerk of the Cherokee senate in 1869-70. Elected Editor of the Cherokee Advocate in 1873 and elected ay one of the committee to superintend the erection of the Cherokee national jail in the same year. Elected member of the Board of Education in 1875. Elected Town lot Commissioner in 1878. Elected delegate to Washington November 28, 1879. Appointed a member of the Board of Education June 6, 1881. He was for several years executive secretary to the Principal Chief and died at Tahlequah on October 21, 1896. Mrs. Mary J. Adair, died May 8, 1897.