Campbell family, Earls of Breadalbane

Duncan Campbell, grandfather of the 1st Earl of Argyll, gave Glenorchy (Argyllshire) to his younger son Sir Colin Campbell in 1432. Sir Colin was granted Lawers (Perthshire) by James III in 1473, while his son Sir Duncan Campbell (d. 1513) acquired lands near Loch Tay (Perthshire) including the baronies of Glenlyon and Finlarig, and was in 1498 appointed bailiary of Disher and Toyer, the territory situated around Loch Tay. The Perthshire and Argyllshire estates grew through purchase and royal grant during the 16th and 17th centuries. In 1617 James VI and I granted the hereditary forestership of Mamlorne (Perthshire) to Sir Duncan Campbell, 1st bt. (d. 1625).

John Campbell (d. 1716), created 1st Earl of Breadalbane in 1681, obtained the Caithness estates of the 6th Earl of Caithness, but they were all sold by c.1730. In 1693 he also acquired the estates of Lord Neil Campbell of Armaddy (Argyllshire), younger son of the Marquess of Argyll, in settlement of extensive debts. John Campbell of Carwhin (Perthshire) succeeded his cousin as 4th Earl in 1782 and was created Marquess of Breadalbane in 1831. By his marriage to the daughter and co-heir of David Gavin in 1793 he acquired Langton (Berwickshire), which passed to his sister Elizabeth, wife of Sir John Pringle, bt. of Stichill (Berwickshire). When the 2nd Marquess died in 1862 the marquessate became extinct, but the earldom and estates devolved on his cousin John Campbell (1824-71), who had inherited Glenfalloch (Perthshire) in 1850.

Preston (Kirkcudbrightshire), acquired through the marriage in 1761 of Lord Glenorchy, son of the 3rd Earl, to Willielma, co-heir of William Maxwell, does not appear to have remained in the family's possession after Glenorchy's death in 1771. Sugnall (Staffordshire) entered the family through the 3rd Earl's marriage in 1730 to Arabella, daughter and co-heir of John Pershall, but was sold in 1772.

Estates in 1883: 234,166 acres in Perthshire and 204,192 acres in Argyllshire, worth a total of £55,700 a year.