James Blair (abt. 1560)

Born about 1560 in Middle Auchindraine, Maybole, Ayrshire, Scotland

Ancestors

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Biography

James Blair was born in Scotland.

James' date of birth is unknown; it is only a guess that was born perhaps circa 1560. James was a Burgess and Provost of Ayr, as appears from the following muniments quoted by James Paterson in his history of Ayrshire:

First, James Blair, Burgess of Ayr, is named in the 19 June 1627 will of his nephew James Blair, 5th of Middle Auchindraine (1st of Blairstoun), who "nominattis James Blair, burges of Air, his fader brother, and William M'Kellar [M'Kerrell] of Hilhous, oursearis to yet said Jonet, his spous . . .."

James Blair, Burgess of Ayr, is named as "James Blair, lait provest of the burgh of Air" in an assignation of contract and tack of teinds of Blairstoun, dated 17 Nov. 1630, from James' niece Jean Blair and her husband George Crawfurd of Tempilland. James Blair, Burgess of Ayr, is named several other times in that muniment, but in those instances he is called merely "James Blair" or "the said James Blair."

Paterson thought this assignation of 17 Nov. 1630 referred to Jean Blair's brother James, but she never addresses James as "my brother" in it. Given the fact that in 1627, only three years earlier, Jean's great-uncle James had been nominated to be an overseer of her late father's estate for her mother Jonet Kennedy, it is much more likely that "James Blair, lait provest of the burgh of Air" is the same person as "James Blair, burges of Air, his fader brother" in Jean's father's will, rather than Jean's brother James who in 1630 was probably still under his mother Jonet's tutelage.

As "fader brother" (paternal uncle) of James Blair, 5th of Middle Auchindraine (1st of Blairstoun), James Blair, Burgess of Ayr, was a son of John Blair, 3rd of Middle Auchindraine. It should be noted that John Blair had two sons named James. For John to have given two of his sons the same name would indicate that they were born of different mothers. That would mean either that John was married at least twice, or else that James, Burgess of Ayr, was of illegitimate birth.

Sources

• Paterson, James. History of the County of Ayr, With a Genealogical Account of the Families of Ayrshire (1852), Vol. 2, pp.359-360 -- https://www.google.com/books/edition/History_of_the_County_of_Ayr/OvEHAAAAQAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1