John Christie (landowner)

He was born in Old Monkland on 4 July 1824, the son of Isabella Robertson and Alexander Christie (1789-1859), a colliery-owner and ironfounder.

[1] On his father's death in 1859 he inherited vast lands in Ayrshire, Midlothian and Clackmannanshire, largely focussed upon coal-mining and iron-foundries.

This estate provided a more rural environment than his other landholdings and focussed on farming, forestry and raising deer and pheasant.

John Christie's eccentricity increased, dyeing his moustache and proposing to a woman 50 years his junior.

Alice Christie married Robert King Stewart, KBE, of Murdostoun at the age of seventeen in 1881.