Hunter Blair Baronets

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Hunter Blair Baronetcy, of Dunskey, is a title in the Baronetage of Great Britain. It was created on 27 June 1786 for James Hunter Blair, a Scottish banker, Member of Parliament for Edinburgh and Lord Provost of Edinburgh. Born James Hunter, he married Jean, sister and heiress of David Blair and only daughter of John Blair, of Dunskey, Wigtownshire, in 1770. In circa 1774 he assumed the additional surname of Blair.

The fifth Baronet, one of Oscar Wilde's best friends at Oxford, was converted to Catholicism in 1875 when in Rome, influenced by the ceremony in which Henry Edward Manning was created a cardinal. He became a monk, a Private Chamberlain to Pope Leo XIII and Abbot of Dunfermline. ^[1] After his death, a younger brother received the title.

The eighth Baronet was a historic preservationist and a member of the Kirkcudbrightshire County Council. As of 13 June 2007 the presumed ninth Baronet has not successfully proven his succession and is therefore not on the Official Roll of the Baronetage. ^[2]

The ancestral seat of the Hunter Blair family is Blairquhan Castle, near Maybole, South Ayrshire.

[edit] Hunter Blair Baronets, of Dunskey (1786)

Sir James Hunter Blair, 1st Baronet (1741-1787)
Sir John Hunter Blair, 2nd Baronet (c. 1772-1800)
Sir David Hunter Blair, 3rd Baronet (c. 1778-1857)
Sir Edward Hunter Blair, 4th Baronet (1818-1896)
Sir David Oswald Hunter Blair, 5th Baronet (1853-1939)
Sir Edward Hunter Blair, 6th Baronet (1858-1945)
Sir James Hunter Blair, 7th Baronet (1889-1985)
Sir James Hunter Blair, 8th Baronet (1926-2006)
Sir Patrick David Hunter Blair, 9th Baronet (b. 1958)

[edit] References

Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990.
Leigh Rayment's Baronetage Page.