page_title: The Lands of Ashgrove
section_title: The Lairds of Ashgrove
hierarchical_section_title: The Lands of Ashgrove / History / The Lairds of Ashgrove
caption_attribution_description: English: Coat of Arms of the Bowmans of Ashinyards (Ashgrove), Kilwinning, North Ayrshire, Scotland.
context_page_description: The Lands of Ashgrove, previously known as Ashenyards formed a small estate in the Parish of Kilwinning, North Ayrshire, lying between Kilwinning and Stevenston. The Georgian mansion house was demolished in 1960, the substantial walled garden survives.
context_section_description: The various sources differ in some details. Robertson gives John Russel as the first recorded owner, selling the lands in 1567 to James Cunninghame of Eisenyards, the first of that designation. James married Margaret Fleming of Barrochan and was succeeded by Alexander, his eldest son. James, brother to Alexander, inherited Eissenyards in 1627. James Cunningham was the chamberlain of Kilwinning and a story is told of him in which he asked Bessie Dunlop's, the witch of Dalry, to help with a case of theft of some barley that was stolen from the barn of Craigends and she was able to tell him where it was. 
  William Cunninghame of Ashinyards and Whitehurst is next recorded in 1664 and inherited from his father James in 1671. He married Margaret Wilkie and in 1706 their only surviving heir married Andrew Martin of Lochridge near Beith. A son, Arthur Martin, married Isabel Aitchison and moved to the West Indies where he died and his daughters Margaret and Magdalene as co-heiresses, sold the estate to John Bowman in 1766.
  Pont records the owner as Alexander Cuninghame and the estate's name as 'Asshin-Zairds'; he comments that the name derives from 'Esch' an ash tree and 'yaird' a measure of an area of land. This branch of the Cuninghame family were derived from the Cuninghames of Craigends who were in turn a cadet branch of the Earls of Glencairn. Andrew Martin of Clochridge (Lochridge near Beith) in 1712 acquired the property from William Cuninghame, his father in law. John Bowman (see below) purchased Ashinyards when Andrew Martin's son was in his minority; he was himself related in the maternal line to the Cuninghames.
  Paterson states that the Cuninghame family continuously held Ashinyards from circa 1570 until an eldest daughter, Elizabeth Cuninghame, married John Bowman Esq in 1695; who did however, as stated, purchase the estate. John Bowman was a Glasgow merchant, and chief magistrate in 1715. Their son, John Bowman, became Lord Provost of Glasgow and married a Miss Houghton of Dublin in 1734, the couple had two sons and two daughters. When he died in 1796 he left the estate and other properties in the parish to Anne, his eldest daughter, because his eldest son John married and settled in North America, whilst his second son Houghton married a Miss Vere and moved to Dominica. John Bowman changed the name from Ashinyards to Ashgrove.
  Anne Bowman married Miller Hill Hunt, a captain in the 6th Regiment of Foot who had fought and been wounded at the Battle of Culloden. Captain Hunt died in 1783 and his wife died in 1811. They had three daughters, Maria, Margaret Anne and Elizabeth Ballantyne. Margaret inherited in 1811 as the only surviving heir and changed her name to Bowman, her maternal grandfathers surname, and took his coat of arms. Elizabeth had married Roger Rollo, brother of Lord Rollo, a Collector of Customs in Ayr and had four sons and two daughters. The coat of arms are a classic armorial rebus or pun on the 'Bowman' name with two strung bows and a quiver of arrows. Records show that family members joined the Ancient Society of Kilwinning Archers.
  Anne, or Lady Bowman as she was known locally, was succeeded by Andrew FitzJames Cuninghame Rollo-Bowman-Ballantyne of Ashgrove and Castlehill, born, 1835, who was the son of Elizabeth and Roger Rollo, her sister and brother in law. Andrew married Anne Harriet Curzon Chalmers in 1864 and the couple had offspring. The Ballantine family still held the property in the 1930s.
caption: The Coat of arms of the Bowman family of Ashinyards.
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