In 1808, George Lindsay Crawfurd, twenty-second Earl of Crawfurd and sixth Earl of Lindsay, died without issue, and his vast estates descended to his sister, Lady Mary Crawfurd.  After the death of the earl various claims were advanced to the peerage, one of them being preferred by a person of the name of John Crawfurd, who came from Dungannon, in the north of Ireland.  When this claimant arrived at Ayr, in January 1809, he gave himself out as a descendant of the Hon. James Lindsay Crawfurd, a younger son of the family, who had taken refuge in Ireland from the persecutions of 1666-1680.  At first he took up his abode at the inn of James Anderson, and from his host and a weaver named Wood he received a considerable amount of information respecting the family history.  From Ayr he proceeded to visit Kilbirnie Castle, once the residence of the great knightly family of Crawfurd.  The house had been destroyed by fire during the lifetime of Lady Mary’s grandfather, and had not been rebuilt—­the family taking up their residence on their Fifeshire estates.  At the time of the fire, however, many family papers and letters had been saved, and had been stored away in an old cabinet, which was placed in an out-house.  To these Mr. Crawfurd obtained access, and found among them many letters written by James Lindsay Crawfurd, whose descendant he pretended to be.  He appropriated them and produced them when the fitting time came.  At Kilbirnie he also introduced himself to John Montgomerie of Ladeside, a man well acquainted with the family story and all the vicissitudes of the Crawfurds, and one who was disposed to believe any plausible tale.  The farmer, crediting the pretender’s story, spread it abroad among the villagers, and they in turn fell into ecstacies over the idea of a poor man like themselves arriving at an earldom, rebuilding the ancient house of Kilbirnie, and restoring the old glories of the place.  Their enthusiasm was turned to good account.  The claimant was very poor, and stood in need of money to prosecute his claim, and he made no secret of his poverty or his necessities, and promised large returns to those who would help him in his time of need.  “Farms,” we are told, “were to be given on long leases at moderate rents; one was to be factor, another chamberlain, and many were to be converted from being hewers of wood and drawers of water to what they esteemed the less laborious, and therefore more honourable, posts of butlers and bakers, and body servants of all descriptions.”  These cheering prospects, of course, depended upon the immediate faith which was displayed, and the amount of assistance which was at once forthcoming.  Therefore, each hopeful believer exerted himself to the utmost, and “poor peasants and farmers, cottagers and their masters, threw their stakes into the claimant’s lucky-bag, from which they were afterwards to draw ‘all prizes and no blanks.’” Men of loftier position, also, were not averse to speculate upon the chances of this newly-discovered heir.  Poor John Montgomerie gave him every penny he had saved, and every penny he could borrow, and after mortgaging his little property, was obliged to flee to America from his duns, where, it is said, he died.  His son Peter, who succeeded to Ladeside, also listened to the seductive voice of the claimant, until ruin came upon him, and he was compelled to compound with his creditors.