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

106 APPENDIX.
He acquired the estates of Knoydart, in the county of Inverness, and Carubusdoon,
Muirkirk, and others, in Ayrshire, and on the death of his brother Robert, became
also proprietor of the estate of Auchmedden, which he now possesses.
" 5. Robert Baird, b. 1806. He purchased Auchmedden, in 1854, from the
testamentary trustees of the late Sir Charles Forbes of Newe and Edinglassie,
Baronet, and died in 1856 without issue.
" 6. Douglas Baird, b. 1808. He acquired the estate of Closeburn, in
Dumfriesshire, and died in 1854, leaving two children, twin daughters, one of
whom married in the present year Viscount Cole, eldest son of the Earl of
Enniskillen ; and the other, F. E. Villiers, Esq., second son of the late Bishop of
Carlisle.
" 7. George Baird, b. 1810. He purchased the estate of Strichen, in
Aberdeenshire, and on the death of his younger brother, David, became also
proprietor of the estate of Stitchell, in the county of Roxburgh.
" 8. David Baird, b. 1816. He purchased the estate of Stitchell, and died
in 1860 without issue.
" Of the two daughters of Mr. Baird of Lockwood, the eldest, Janet, m. 1st,
Mr. "VVhitelaw, and 2nd, Mr. Weir, by both of which marriages there are families.
The second, Jean, married Mr. Jackson, by whom she has a family.
" The arras borne by the family, granted by the Lord Lyon, are the same as
those borne by the old Bairds of Auchmedden, with a difference. They all bear
the boar passant, with a griffin's head as a crest, and the motto Dominus fecit. The
' difference ' is that the shield, instead of being gules, is parted per pale gules and
or, the boar being, of course, counterchanged. The family of the eldest son,
William, has the division of the shield plain; Mr. John Baird bears the pale
engrailed; Mr. James Baird, invecked ; Mr. Douglas Baird's family, wavy; and
Mr. George Baird, indented.
"In the notes to the preface to Mr. Fraser's edition of the 'Account,'
mention is made of the eagles in the rocks of Pennan. According to the prophecy
of Thomas the Rhymer, there would be always an eagle in the crags while there
was a Baird in Auchmedden, and there always was down to the time when
the Earl of Aberdeen purchased the estate from the Bairds. Then the eagles
disappeared, but when his eldest son, Lord Haddo, married Miss Christian Baird
of Newbyth, the eagles returned to the rocks, and continued there until the estate
passed into the hands of the Honourable William Gordon, when they again took
their departure. In the presence of these curious facts (mentioned in the Statistical
Account, and attested by many witnesses), the people in the neighbourhood, when
the estate was acquired in 1854 by Mr. Robert Baird, became curious to see