Sir David Hunter-Blair, 3rd Baronet

He served as a midshipman of the Royal Navy on HMS Hyacinth, and then joined the 93rd Highlanders,[1] He inherited a share of the Rozelle estate in Jamaica from his uncle Col. William Hunter of Mainholm and Brownhill.

[2][3] Sir David Hunter Blair's Reel is a traditional dance tune, first published around 1800.

[5] It was purchased from Sir John Whitefoord, 3rd Baronet, and was on the market as a long-term result of the collapse of Douglas, Heron & Company.

[5] Plans then commissioned from the architects James Gillespie Graham and Robert Wallace (died 1874) for the castle were not carried out.

It was lucrative, and the campaign against it was based mainly on the idea that ordinary or household Bibles (in the Authorised Version), should be cheaper.

[12] This grant was political patronage given by Henry Dundas to James Hunter Blair, who became the 1st Baronet in 1786 and died in 1787.

Hunter-Blair and Bruce, successors (after the 2nd baronet died) to the Kerrs, produced 18 Bible editions over the years 1802 to 1817; and sold them also in England.

[15][16] In 1823 Hunter-Blair successfully brought a legal case to prevent the import of Bibles from England into Scotland.

[11] Hunter-Blair defended the cost structure under the Bible monopoly for Scotland to the committee in 1832, with the printer William Waddell.

[22][24] Adam Thomson of Coldstream gave evidence, and ran a wide-reaching campaign, against renewal of the patent.