Genealogical collections concerning the sir-name of Baird, and the families of Auchmedden, Newbyth, and Sauchton Hall in particular

96 APPENDIX.
" 1st July, 1697. James Baird, eldest lawful son to John Baird, Baillie in
Cullen, and Margaret Anderson, eldest lawful daughter to John Anderson, Depute
Clerk to the Justice Court."
He held the office of Clerk of the Wardrobe in Scotland, which office had a
salary of £30 attached to it, but must have been a sinecure. He was also secretary
to the Lord Chancellor, the Earl of Seafield, and being an able man he took
a considerable share in the management of the affairs of the country, at the time of
the hated Union, which Lord Seafield carried through, but afterwards did his best
to repeal. By his first wife, Margaret Anderson, he left an only daughter,
Catherine, born 1700. The witnesses to the baptism are the Earl of Findlater,
James Viscount of Seafield, the Master of Seafield, and others {Edinburgh Register).
She married John Grant, Esq., W. S., of Elgin and Edinburgh, who was celebrated
as the manager of the well-known Pitcalny or Balnagowan lawsuit, and who died
in 1759, by whom she left an only daughter, Helen, wife of Robert Donald-
son, W. S. Robert Donaldson left two daughters, the youngest of whom, Helen,
married Captain Alexander Donaldson (of the 36th Regt.) of Auchendinny, and
was mother of the late Major Robert Donaldson, of the 41st Regt., who died at
Ottawa, Canada West, December, 1864, leaving, by his wife, Louisa, daughter of
Captain Evelyn Morley, 1 R.N., three sons.
Margaret Anderson did not long survive her daughter's birth, and on 15th
August, 1706, at the church of Old Malton, Yorkshire, James Baird was married
to his second wife, Jane Watson, of the family of Bilton Park and Old Malton
Priory {Old Malton Register). An account of this family will be found in a forth-
coming work, the History of Harrogate and of the Forest of Knaresborough, by
William Grainge of Harrogate. By her he left six children, two sons, James and
George, and four daughters, Jane, Elizabeth, Catherine, and Janet, of whom some
account is given below.
Jane Watson died about 1722, and shortly after James of Chesterhall
married his third wife, Margaret Oswald, daughter of the Rev. James Oswald of
Watten, in Caithnesshire, and of Mary, daughter of Richard Murray of Penny-
land, in the same county, who married Jane, daughter of Patrick Smyth of Braco,
in Perthshire. Her brother, the Rev. Dr. James Oswald, purchased Auchencruive
about 1760, and was the founder of that family. There was no issue of the third
marriage. In 1736 James was one of the "Assize" on the trial of the notorious
Captain Porteous {State Trials, vol. 17, p. 963). He died before 1742, his
1 Respecting this family, see a letter on Deptford Dockyard in the Standard newspaper of
19th Fehruary, 1869.