Name Archibald 8th | ||
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Died January 15, 2015, Altamonte Springs, Florida, United States Parents Archibald Kennedy, 7th Marquess of Ailsa | ||
Archibald Angus Charles Kennedy, 8th Marquess of Ailsa, 19th Earl of Cassilis, 21st Lord Kennedy, 8th Baron Ailsa, (13 September 1956 – 15 January 2015), was a Scottish peer, the son of Archibald Kennedy, 7th Marquess of Ailsa.
Lord Ailsa married Dawn Leslie Anne Keen in 1979; they have two children:
Archibald Angus Charles Kennedy, 8th Marquess of Ailsa succeeded to the titles of 19th Earl of Cassilis, 21st Lord Kennedy, 8th Marquess of Ailsa & 8th Baron Ailsa on 7 April 1994 after the death of his father.
The Marquess of Ailsa is the hereditary Clan Chief of Clan Kennedy. All of the Marquesses are descendant from Anne Watts, mother of Archibald Kennedy, 1st Marquess of Ailsa and descendant of the Schuyler family, the Van Cortlandt family (including Stephanus Van Cortlandt), and the Delancey family of British North America.
The 8th Marquess died on 15 January 2015 while visiting a Kennedy clan function in Florida. He is succeeded by his brother, David Kennedy, 9th Marquess of Ailsa (b. 1958). The 9th Marquess' heir apparent is his son Archibald David Kennedy (born 1995).
It is unclear who is the heir presumptive to the family's other titles, which, depending on the terms of the original letters patent which granted the peerages, can be inherited by a female, therefore making the Marquess' daughter Lady Rosemary Margaret Kennedy potentially the heir to those titles. However, a dispute on the inheritance of the Earldom and the Lordship arose on the death of The 8th Earl of Cassillis in 1759 between an heir male and an heir general (through the female line) was resolved by the Court of Session and the House of Lords in 1762 in favour of the heir male. This would indicate, based on precedent, that the Earldom of Cassillis and the Kennedy Lordship will pass to the brother of the current Marquess as heir presumptive.
The title is derived from the island of Ailsa Craig in the Firth of Clyde, which is owned by the family. In 2011, the Marquess put up the island for sale. As of March 2013, the asking price is offers over £1,500,000.