Cairns, William (1789N/A

William Cairns of Parkmount, County Antrim was the second and younger son of Nathan Cairns of Parkmount and merchant of Dublin and his second wife Margaret Keine. William, born 1789, was a Captain in the 47th Regiment of Foot and married, in 1806, Rosanna, daughter of Hugh Johnston of Belfast. Their second son rose to be Lord Chancellor of England, and was created Baron Cairns and then Earl Cairns. Rosanna died in 1822, and William Cairns married Matilda, daughter of Frances Begge of The Grange, Malahide. The present Earl’s crest is argent a martlet charged with a trefoil slipped, but in 1836 the 1st baron, as he then was, used a martlet proper.