Douglas-Home family, Earls of Home

By the 17th century the Home family had added considerable estates in Berwickshire, East Lothian (Dunglass), Roxburghshire and elsewhere to their ancestral Home (Berwickshire) lands through marriage, purchase and royal grant. Alexander Home (d. 1619) was granted Coldingham (Berwickshire) in 1592 and was created Earl of Home in 1605. By the mid 18th century, however, these lands had been much reduced by sale to a core of Berwickshire estates, of which the most important was that at The Hirsel, near Coldstream. Dunglass (East Lothian), gained by marriage in the 15th century, passed out of the family in the 17th century, whilst Home was sold to the 1st Earl of Marchmont in the early 18th century. Clippesby (Norfolk), acquired through the 9th Earl's marriage in 1768 to Abigail, co-heir of John Ramey of Yarmouth, was sold by the 10th Earl c.1830.

George Douglas, 21st Earl of Angus, acquired much of the forfeited property of his kinsman, James, Earl of Douglas, who was attainted in 1455 (see also Douglas-Hamilton, Dukes of Hamilton & Brandon). His descendant was created Marquess of Douglas in 1633. The 3rd Marquess, created Duke of Douglas in 1703, inherited large estates in Lanarkshire, including Bothwell and Douglas, and in Roxburghshire (Jedburgh Forest), with Bunkle and Preston (Berwickshire) and lands in Ayrshire, Forfarshire and Renfrewshire. (Tantallon (East Lothian), however, had been sold by the 2nd Marquess). On the Duke's death in 1761 his estates devolved on his nephew Archibald Stewart (1748-1827), who took the name of Douglas and was created Baron Douglas of Douglas in 1790. When the 4th Baron died without issue in 1857 the title became extinct, but the family estates were inherited by the 1st Baron's granddaughter, Lucy, daughter of the 2nd Baron Montagu of Boughton and wife of the 11th Earl of Home.

Estates in 1883: 61,943 acres in Lanarkshire; 25,380 acres in Roxburghshire; 10,422 acres in Berwickshire; 5,209 acres in Forfarshire; 2,271 acres in Ayrshire; 1,325 acres in Renfrewshire; worth a total of £56,632 a year, excluding minerals valued at £5,916.