Boyle family, Earls of Glasgow

The Boyle family was in possession of Kelburne (Ayrshire) by the 13th century, and acquired land in Buteshire (Cumbrae etc.) during the 16th century. The 1st Earl of Glasgow (1666-1733) acquired further Ayrshire property by marriage from the Mure family of Rowallan, but this later passed to the Campbell family, Earls of Loudon. Hawkhead (Renfrewshire) was acquired through the marriage of the 3rd Earl to Elizabeth, sister and eventual heir of the 13th Lord Ross, in 1755. A Northumberland estate, Etal, came from the Carr family through the first wife of the 4th Earl. The Crawford Priory (Fife) and Kilbirnie (Ayrshire) estates were inherited from a distant kinswoman, Lady Mary Lindsay-Crawford (d. 1832).

On the death of the 5th Earl in 1869 he was succeeded by his brother in the Scottish estates but by his sister, Lady Augusta FitzClarence, in the Etal estate. Hawkhead was sold c.1884, and the manuscripts rreported on by the Royal Commission were transferred to Crawford Priory. On the death of the 6th Earl in 1890 the earldom and the Ayrshire estates passed to a cousin, David Boyle of Shewalton, grandson of David Boyle, Lord Justice General, but Crawford Priory passed to the 6th Earl's daughter, Gertrude. She was the wife of the Hon. Thomas Cochrane, later Baron Cochrane of Cults, third son of the 11th Earl of Dundonald.

Some of the Lindsay muniments at Crawford Priory were transferred to the collection of the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres.

Estates in 1883: Earl of Glasgow: 25,613 acres in Ayrshire; 5,625 acres in Fife; 4,579 acres in Renfrewshire; 1,833 acres in Buteshire and 175 acres in Dunbartonshire, worth a total of £34,588 a year. Boyle of Shewalton: 2,358 acres in Ayrshire, worth £2,708 a year.