SIR GEORGE HAY, 1ST EARL OF KINNOULL, HIGH CHANCELLOR OF SCOTLAND, THE IRONFOUNDER OF LOCH MAREE, FROM A PORTRAIT IN DUPPLIN CASTLE, ATTRIBUTED TO GEORGE JAMESONE, THE SCOTTISH VANDYCK.] These statements about the Hay tombstone are from the mouth of James Mackenzie, who says that William Fraser and his own grandfather were first cousins, and that the facts about the gravestone were told him on their authority when he was young. He is corroborated by other old Gairloch men. Although this John Hay, whose father appears from the tombstone to have been Mr Hay of Kirkland, was probably a relation of Sir George Hay, it is impossible to fix the degree of relationship. Sir George Hay's father had three sons, Patrick, George, and Peter. This Peter was designated as of Kirkland of Megginch. He had a son called Francis, whose great-grandson Thomas succeeded to the earldom of Kinnoull, on the direct line of Sir George Hay, the first earl, becoming extinct in the person of William, the fifth earl, in 1709. Possibly Peter Hay had a son known as James Hay of Kirkland, or else some collateral relation of the family bore that designation, for we gather from a short account of the parish of St Martins, Perthshire, contained in a footnote to the account of that parish in the Old Statistical Account, that a James Hay acquired Kirkland by an exchange with Mr John Strachan, minister of St Martins. The son, Thomas, of this minister, "after his return from his travels, when he had waited on the earl of Kinnowel his son as his governour for the space of three years, became conjunct with his father, and died minister there in the year 1671." Kirkland was a "good manor house;" it was built of old by the abbot of Halyrood-house, and was afterwards the minister's manse. It is possible that this Kirkland may not have been the same as Kirkland of Megginch. In all probability, however, John Hay, the last manager of the Loch Maree ironworks, was a son of James Hay, and the latter was a relative of the great Sir George. It was indeed natural that Sir George should prefer to entrust his ironworks to a relative rather than to a stranger.