George Hay, 1st Earl of Kinnoull

Sir George Hay, 1st Earl of Kinnoull, (1570 – 16 December 1634) was 6th Lord Kinfauns from 1621 to 1627, then 1st Viscount of Dupplin from 1627 before advancing to the earldom in 1633. He was a Scottish nobleman and political official.

Biography

He was the second son of Peter Hay 4th of Megginch and Margaret, daughter of Patrick Ogilvy of Inchmartin. No date is recorded for his birth, but he was baptised 4 December 1570.

Around 1588, Hay entered Scottish College at Douai, where he studied under his uncle Edmund Hay until 1596. He was initially introduced to court by his cousin the Earl of Carlisle. Hay served as a Gentleman of the Bedchamber from 1596. On 18 February 1598, he was granted the Carthusian priory of Perth and a seat in Parliament, but, finding the rents too low to live on, he returned the peerage.

On 15 November 1600, he was given land for his services to the King on the occasion of the Gowrie conspiracy. He was knighted sometime before 18 October 1607, when he first appeared in the records as Sir George Hay. He was appointed Lord Clerk Register and a member of the Privy Council on 26 March 1616. He was instrumental in the passage of the Five Articles of Perth in 1618.

In 1621 he was infeft of the lands and Lordship of Kinfauns, confirmed by crown charter in records of parliament.

On 25 May 1633, he was created the Earl of Kinnoull on the occasion of the King Charles' coronation in Scotland.

He resisted the king's regulations for lords of session (1626), and upheld precedency over archbishop of St Andrews.

In 1626, he began to suffer from old age. It was noted that he was absent from the Council in July 1626 as he was suffering from "the pain of the gute" very severely. Two years later his "known infirmitie and seekenesse" was noted.

He died of apoplexy in London and was buried in Kinnoull Parish Church, in which a monument was erected in his honour.

Marriage

He married Margaret, daughter of Sir James Halyburton of Pitcur manor, Kettins parish, on 15 November 1595. They had three children:

Sir Peter Hay (died decessit vita patris at Kinfauns, 1621), unmarried George Hay (d. 1644) Lady Margaret, married to Alexander Lindsay, 2nd Lord Spynie