THE property of Colonel David Blair Lockhart, of Wicketshaw and Milton-Lockhart, is situated in the barony parish of Glasgow and county of Lanark, and is about two miles from the cross of Glasgow.
In ancient times the lands of Germiston were part of the rich endowments of the Archbishopric of Glasgow, on the dissolution of which, they came into the hands of the Hamiltons of Silvertonhill, early cadets of the noble house of Hamilton.
Sir Robert Hamilton of Silvertonhill, who was a steady adherent of King Charles I., and who was created a Baronet of Nova Scotia about 1646, having much impaired his fortune, was obliged to dispose of part of his estates. In 1652 he sold the barony of Provan to the City of Glasgow, and the lands of Germiston to John Kirkland, in whose hands they remained only nine years, when he sold them to John Donaldson, who in his turn sold them, in 1690, to Robert Dinwiddie.
Robert Dinwiddie, who was a merchant in Glasgow, was a native of Dumfriesshire, and said to be of the family of Dinwiddie of that Ilk.
His descendants, for more than a century, held a high place among the citizens of Glasgow, and their names are to be found among the magistrates and provosts of the city, and among the benefactors of the Merchants' House. Robert Dinwiddie of this family was, in the middle of last century, governor of Virginia, and is mentioned by Thackeray in "The Virginians."
The last of the Dinwiddies of Germiston was Robert, son of Lawrence Dinwiddie (1) and his wife Katherine, daughter of Sir James Campbell, Bart., of Aberuchill and Kilbride Castle. He died at Rome in 1819 during his minority.
He was succeeded by his cousin-german, the late William Lockhart of Milton-Lockhart. Mr. Lockhart was born at Germiston in 1789, and from 1841 till his death, in 1856, was Member of Parliament for Lanarkshire. He was respected by all parties, and was always returned unopposed. On his death, Germiston passed, with his other estates, to his half-brother, the Rev. Lawrence Lockhart, D.D., the father of the present proprietor.
The house of Germiston was originally built about 1690, and in 1810 considerable additions were made to it from designs supplied by the late David Hamilton, architect.
(1) Lawrence Dinwiddie's sister Elizabeth married the Rev. Dr. Lockhart of Glasgow, and their son William afterwards succeeded to Germiston.
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