This fascinating family history reaches back into the end of the 11th and start of the 12th century. After William the Conqueror had captured England in 1066 he marched north establishing his throne as he went. After a period of resistance the Scots gave in and King Malcolm III paid homage to William in 1072 at Abernethy, Perthshire. Many Norman warriors remained in Scotland at this time to protect the peace. It is the supposition that it is the grandson of one of these Norman warriors who first established the lands of Blair around the end of the 12th century under the reign on Richard I (Coeur de Lion). For it was upon a man named Jean François whom Richard I (1165-1214) conferred the Barony of Blare.

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Click to enlarge photograph

Jean's progeny adopted the surname Blair, as was tradition when one inherited a Barony, and it was Jean's eldest son William de Blare who married King John I's daughter. The knowledge of these facts are traceable due to various signatures appearing on royal charters around this time containing the surname de Blare. There then follows a unique succession of direct bloodline inheritance for 23 generations up until 1732, where the bloodline ended due to the birth of only one daughter. On her marriage her husband adopted the Blair name and there were a further 5 successive generations through to Cecily Blair, the last Blair of Blair, who died unmarried in 1978. The estate passed through the female line to Cecily Blair's cousin Colonel Michael Borwick of the Royal Scots Greys and now to his nephew Luke Borwick and his family.