G2G: Are there two James Adairs or just one?

Question

Although this issue was discussed at length last year (see Are you bored in quarantine? Want to help debunk and deconstruct the James Adair myths? - WikiTree G2G and Who can help James Adair? - WikiTree G2G)  the question has come up again.  There is extensive documentation for both men which places them in different locations at the same times, one in Virginia and North Carolina, the other in South Carolina, the Chickasaw Nation, and Pennsylvania.  If anyone has additional documentation please share it here.  

James #1 (North Carolina https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Adair-232) apparently came from Ireland (his will listed bequests to people there) married in Virginia in 1740, then moved with his family to Johnston County, N.C. In April, 1751 he appeared before the North Carolina legislature.[Documenting the American South: Colonial and State Records of North Carolina (unc.edu)]  He appears on land, census, and numerous other records there (including in 1769) before moving to Bladen County where he died in 1778 kindly leaving a will.  

James #2 (author and Indian trader https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Adair-2902) appears in South Carolina records trading with the Chickasaw as early as in 1735. He is believed to be from Ireland.  He was in the 1740 War of Jenkins Ear, testimony before the South Carolina House of Commons places him in the Cherokee Nation in April and May of 1751 [#627 - Journal of the Commons House of Assembly of South ... 1750 Apr. 23/1751 Aug. 31. - Full View | HathiTrust Digital Library], and from 1768 to 1773 was travelling from Pennsylvania to New York, Ireland, and then England looking for a publisher for his book.  He disappears from records shortly after his return to South Carolina in 1774.  

Comments

Kathryn Holland Braund, editor of the scholarly edition of Adair's "History of the American Indians," discusses the claims made by William Curry Harllee in his 1934 book called Kinfolks : a genealogical and biographical record of Thomas and Elizabeth (Stuart) Harllee, Andrew and Agnes (Cade) Fulmore, the source of many myths about James Adair and the suggestion that he is the James Robert Adair who lived in North Carolina.  

Quoting Holland Braund, "The most incredible family claim, made by William Curry Harllee, is that James Adair was the alter-ego of Dr. Robert Adair of North Carolina. Despite his claims of "a perfect chain of evidence" ... his work fails to convince.... Harlee's work did manage to convince the North Carolina Society of the Colonial Dames of America, however, and that organization dedicated a marker to "James Robert Adair, M.D." in 1934 near the location of Robert Adair's home in Robeson County, North Carolina.  Other than common given names, to date no positive link has been established between James Adair and other Adairs in South and North Carolina, Ireland, or anywhere else.  Adair was silent on his family history, and the connections made by family historians are offered without documentary evidence or support of any kind, other than family legend and hopeful speculation based on common names."    Adair, James. History of the American Indians. Holland Braund, Kathryn E., ed. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa, 2005. p. 447 (notes to her prefatory essay)