| Content Description | The Scottish properties of the Dukes of Portland have diverse origins. The 4th Duke of Portland married Henrietta, the heiress of the family of Scott of Balcomie in 1795. The family estates in Fife and near Edinburgh were supplemented by purchases in Ayrshire by Henrietta's trustees (her father had died when she was an infant). After the marriage a process of consolidation was pursued. Estates outside Ayrshire were sold; further estates in Ayrshire were purchased (notably around Troon from the Fullartons). The development of Troon as a port and its linkage to the Kilmarnock area by rail followed. Most of the material here relates to the port and to the Kilmarnock and Troon Railway (almost entirely owned by the Portlands and sold to the Glasgow and South Western Railway Company, which had long leased it, in 1899).
The bulk of the Ayrshire property passed with the Portland title (the 6th Duke held 17250 acres, worth nearly £20000 a year in 1883); the rest (8250 acres worth £20000 a year) passed to the Howard de Waldens via Lady Harriet Bentinck, and Viscountess Ossington (actual descendants of the Scott family, unlike the later Dukes of Portland). In Scotland, when a female succession occurs, the practice is for primogeniture to obtain; in England daughters usually take as tenants in common. Thus, although the Howard de Waldens inherited both some Ayrshire estates and Marylebone, this was only because no other line of descent existed from the 4th Duke of Portland, and some completely different outcome could have been anticipated.
The estates in Caithness-shire were acquired piecemeal by the 5th Duke, ultimately encompassing 101000 acres. They descended with the title to the 7th Duke and then passed to his daughter, Lady Anne.
Pl E18/1 relates to Troon; Pl E18/2 to other Ayrshire property; Pl E18/3 to Caithness.
Further material relating to the Scotts of Balcomies and their estates will be found at Pl F6. |