Hairstanes was a page and groom of the bedchamber to Anne of Denmark, queen consort of James VI and I.
[6][7] It has been suggested that Alexander Gledstanes sold the property to Hairstanes in the hope that the groom could gain the queen's influence to appoint him Archdeacon of St Andrews.
[8] The historian Maureen Meikle suggests that Hairstanes may have been a Roman Catholic servant of Anne of Denmark, among other Catholic bedchamber servants including Jane Drummond, Anne Hay, Anna Livingstone, and Piero Hugon.
[9] Other members of the family, two brothers John and Robert Hairstanes, attended the Scots College at Douai, a Catholic seminary, in this period.
His three daughters died in his lifetime, or shortly after, Craigs and his other properties passed to his older brother John Hairstanes.