Robert Hunter (18th Laird)

Robert Hunter (born 1564) <ref name=":2">Bernard, Burke (1879). A genealogical and heraldic history of the landed gentry of Great Britain & Ireland. p. 835.</ref><ref name=":0">"FamilySearch".</ref> was the 18th chief of Clan Hunter.<ref name=":1">Scottish Clan Family Encyclopedia. Collins. pp. 172–173.</ref> Born in at Hunterston Castle in Ayrshire.

He married Margaret Peibles but they did not have any children. Margaret's mother was a Montgomerie and ha daughter of John Montgomerie of Hellishead a cadet of the Eglinton Family which forms Eglinton Estate in Kilwinning.

He died on 20 June 1616 at Ardneil, which was neighbouring land part of Hunterston Estate.

A minor at the death of his father, in 1580, he was tutored by his father's brother, John (who was also known as John Hunter 1st of Abbotshill<ref>"FamilySearch".</ref>), and obtained Royal Charters for the lands on 5 April 1609. Robert settled the estate on Patrick Hunter, husband of his niece, Jean. This is the first time that the inheritance of the estate was diverted through the female line, and explains the remarkable way the Hunter family have continued their unbroken history in Scotland for so long. One of the old marriage contracts that survive in the Hunter family papers, dated 1704, states that in the absence of a male heir, a female may succeed under certain conditions, one being that she marries "A GENTLEMAN WHO WILL ASSUME THE NAME OF HUNTER".

Jean Cunninghame above mentioned, as appears from an instrument of resignation by him, dated 27 Sept. 1611.<ref name=":2" />