George Kinnaird (1754-1805), 7th Lord of Kinnaird, was a banker and Scottish representative peer. He was partner in the firm Ransom, Morland and Hammersley in Pall Mall and also served as Chairman of the London Fire Office. In 1777, he married Elizabeth, the daughter of the banker Griffin Ransom. Kinnaird was a well-known art collector, acquiring several Flemish, Dutch and German paintings in an auction formed from the Duc d'Orleans collection. This provided the basis of the collection at Rossie Priory, commissioned by his son, Charles Kinnaird, in 1807. He became a fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1784 and was treasurer of the Society of the Friends of the People in the 1790s.

In 1790, Kinnaird commissioned the Adam office to make designs for a new house on his estate at Drimmie. These designs were not executed and a new house was built in the early-nineteenth century for his son, Charles, to the designs of William Atkinson, and named Rossie Priory.

Literature: A.T. Bolton, The Architecture of Robert and James Adam, Volume II, Index, 1922, pp. 9, 78; D. King, The Complete Works of Robert & James Adam and Unbuilt Adam, Volume 2, 2001, pp. 162; Historic Environment Scotland, ‘Rossie Priory’, online [accessed 27 October 2023]; R. Lamb, George Kinnaird, 7th Lord Kinnaird (1754-1805), Layers of London, online, [accessed 27 October 2023]

Louisa Catt, 2023