Sir David Hunter Blair

3rd Oct 1778 - 26th Dec 1857

Claimant or beneficiary

Biography

Sir David Hunter Blair and Sir James Fergusson (q.v.) are identified as 'owners-in-fee' of the Rozelle estate in St Thomas-in-the-East in the compensation records, and the estate appears against the names of Sir A. Fergusson and Sir D. H. Blair in the Jamaica Almanacs in 1811 and then as Fergusson and Blair thereafter. The Rozelle estate was one of three belonging to Robert Hamilton of Bourtreehill (died c. 1777) who named his Ayrshire estate after the Jamaica property on the building of Rozelle House by Robert Adam in 1760. In 1763, Robert Hamilton sold the Rozelle estate to an Ayrshire neighbour, Charles Montgomery of Broomlands, for £6000. Montgomery in turn sold a half share to Robert Hamilton's step-son William Hunter of Mainholm and Brownhill (the uncle of Sir David Hunter Blair), and left his own half share to the banker Charles Fergusson, the younger brother of Sir Adam Fergusson 3rd bart.

  1. Son of the Edinburgh banker and Provost James Hunter, later Sir James Hunter Blair. Married (1) Dorothea, dau. of Edward Hay-Mckenzie and (2) Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Hay. Succeeded his father in the 'Old Corruption' post of King's Printer: his costs on a record commission were scrutinised in a House of Commons debate on supply in 1821. Blair's Blairquhan Castle, which he built in 1821, was recently for sale through Savill's, presumably after the death of James Hunter Blair in 2005.

Sources

T71/867 St Thomas-in-the-East No. 510; Jamaica Almanacs 1811 et seq., at www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com [accessed 15/05/2011] [Sir A. Fergusson was Sir Adam Fergusson, Sir James Fergusson's uncle, from whom Sir James inherited in 1813]; http://guide.visitscotland.com/vs/guide/5,en,SCH1/objectId,SIG49211Svs,curr,GBP,season,at1,selectedEntry,home/home.html [accessed 15/05/2011]; Eric Graham, Burns and the Sugar Plantocracy of Ayrshire (2014) pp. 28-29.

  1. Times 14/07/1821 p. 2 and 29/06/1821 p. 2; letter from 'Radical' Times 30/03/1831 p. 7; http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1480342/James-Hunter-Blair.html [accessed 15/05/2011]; http://ruralsearch.savills.co.uk/PropertyDetails.aspx?SiteRef=261856&mode=Rural; Burke's Landed Gentry of Scotland (2001) shows James (b. 1926) as heir presumptive to his brother Edward Thomas, the 8th bart. The James Hunter of the Ayr sugar refinery was the cousin of Sir James Hunter Blair, while Sir James Hunter Blair's brother William Hunter of Mainholm and Brownhill was a partner in the Hunter Bank of Ayr in the 1770s, http://southayrshirehistory.wordpress.com/2013/08/05/enterprise-and-refinement-james-hunter-and-the-ayr-sugar-house/.

Further Information

Absentee?
British/Irish
Spouse
1. Dorothea Hay Mackenzie 2. Elizabeth Hay
Children
Sir Edward Hunter Blair, 4th bart.

Associated Claims (1)

£3,591 8s 8d
Awardee (Owner-in-fee)

Associated Estates (1)

The dates listed below have different categories as denoted by the letters in the brackets following each date. Here is a key to explain those letter codes:

  • SD - Association Start Date
  • SY - Association Start Year
  • EA - Earliest Known Association
  • ED - Association End Date
  • EY - Association End Year
  • LA - Latest Known Association
1801 [EA] - 1839 [LA] → Joint owner

Legacies Summary

Commercial (4)

Railway Investment
 
 
Railway Investment
Glasgow and Belfast Union [1846193]  
£5000 
Railway Investment
 
 
Railway Investment
British and Irish Union [184654]  
£2500 

Physical (1)

Estate
Blairquhan Castle [Built] 

Relationships (2)

Son → Father
Nephew → Uncle
Notes →
Also...

Addresses (1)

Blairquhan Castle, Maybole, Ayrshire, Southern Scotland, Scotland