The Agnews, of Norman race, occupied the northern half, centring about
their island-fortress of Lochnaw, where they became celebrated for a
long line of hereditary sheriffs and baronets who have played no
inconsiderable part in public affairs. The southern half, from
Portpatrick to the Mull of Galloway, was held by the Adairs (or, as
formerly spelt, Edzears) who took their name from Edgar, son of
Dovenald, one of the two Galloway leaders at the Battle of the Standard.
Three hundred years later Robert Edzear--who does not know his
descendant and namesake, Robin Adair?--settled at Gainoch, near the head
of Luce Bay; and for another space of 300 years his children kept the
same estate, in spite of private feud, and civil war, and religious
persecution, of which they had more than their share.

At the beginning of the eighteenth century, John Adair, the laird of
Little Genoch, was married to Mary Agnew, a near kinswoman of the
celebrated Sir Andrew, colonel of the Scots Fusiliers at Dettingen. The
exact relationship of Mary Agnew to "the bravest man in the British
army" remains undecided, but letters still extant from the Lady Agnew of
the day address her as "Dear Molly," and end, "Your affectionate cousin"
or "kinswoman." Her son Thomas succeeded his father in 1721, and,
retiring with his captaincy, settled on the estate. He married Jean,
daughter of Andrew Ross of Balsarroch and Balkail, a lady noted for her
beauty, her wit, and her Latin scholarship, and a member of a family
which has given many distinguished men to the army and navy. Among them
Admiral Sir John Ross, the Arctic explorer, Sir Hew Dalrymple, and
Field-Marshal Sir Hew Dalrymple Ross, were all her great-nephews, and
her son, Dr. John Adair, was the man in whose arms Wolfe died at the
taking of Quebec; it is he who is shown in Benjamin West's picture
supporting the General.