in raw materials which led to his downfall around 1777. Grougar would have been sold to William Blane around this time. In 1770 the lands of Grougar were owned by Sir George Colebrooke and were valued at £1497.16.0 according to Loretta R. Timberley's ‘A Directory of Landownership in Scotland c1770’ [Scottish Record Society, Edinburgh, 1976] Both Sir George Colebrooke and William Blane leased the various farmlands within the barony to tenant farmers. An insight into this practice can be had through an examination of the financial records, especially tacks (leases), of William Blane of Grougar which survive for the period 1796 to 1797 [NRS.GD237.21.19]. Grougar remained the property of members of the Blane family for nearly a century. A later William Blane extended his landholdings in the 1820s and 1830s through Crown Charters. He was granted a Crown Charter of the lands of Kirkdomine in 1825 [RGS.175.6]; another of the lands of Lammochie in 1830/1834 [NAS.195.9/205.23]. By the time of the New Statistical Account of 1845 one of the chief landowners in the parish of Kilmarnock was William Blane of Grougar. On 27 July 1857, a Crown Charter was granted in favour of William Blane of the lands and barony of Grougar to the trustees of William Blane [NAS. Ref. C2/258/130]. Eventually on 1 December 1881 the Trustees of William Blane sold the lands and barony of Grougar. Grougar was sold to John White of Ardarroch, who as John White of Grougar and Ardarroch had arms bearing "an eagle displayed between three quatrefoils azure, on a chief of the second a besant between two garbs of the first". [James Balfour Paul's ‘An Ordinary of Arms’] Grougar remained in the hands of John White until 22 November 1904, when his trustees disposed of Grougar to William Cavendish-Bentinck, 6th Duke of Portland. On 13 September 1918, the Duke of Portland subscribed to a disposition and trust deed of the Barony of Grougar. From the Welbeck Estates Company Limited, the trustees acting under disposition and deed of trust by the Duke of Portland, the barony was acquired by Professor David Ian McLean. In 2015 the Barony was assigned to his daughter Dr. Lianne Jennifer McLean on the occasion of her wedding to Mr. Jon Loewen. References Grougar Grougar