The canal was first proposed by Hugh Montgomerie, 12th Earl of Eglinton in 1791.

Hugh Montgomerie, 12th Earl of Eglinton, had already spent £ 100, 000 on a separate project to build a dead sea harbour at Ardrossan, at the proposed terminus of the canal.

Immediately after the Norman Conquest, King William of England installed three of his most trusted confidants, Hugh d ' Avranches, Roger de Montgomerie, and William FitzOsbern, as Earls of Chester, Shrewsbury and Hereford respectively, with responsibilities for containing and subduing the Welsh.

Eglinton was born in Palermo, Sicily, the son of Major-General Archibald Montgomerie, Lord Montgomerie ( 30 July 1773 – 4 January 1814 ), the eldest son of Hugh Montgomerie, 12th Earl of Eglinton.

* Hugh Montgomerie, 2nd Lord Montgomerie ( c. 1460 – 1545 ) ( created Earl of Eglinton in 1508 )

* Hugh Montgomerie, 1st Earl of Eglinton ( c. 1460 – 1545 )

* Hugh Montgomerie, 2nd Earl of Eglinton ( d. 1546 )

* Hugh Montgomerie, 3rd Earl of Eglinton ( d. 1585 )

* Hugh Montgomerie, 4th Earl of Eglinton ( 1563 – 1586 )

* Hugh Montgomerie, 5th Earl of Eglinton ( d. 1612 )

** Hugh Montgomerie, Master of Montgomerie ( 1680 – 1696 )

* Hugh Montgomerie, 12th Earl of Eglinton ( 1739 – 1819 )

The heir apparent is the present holder's son Hugh Archibald William Montgomerie, Lord Montgomerie ( b. 1966 )

* November 5 – Hugh Montgomerie, 12th Earl of Eglinton, politician and composer ( died 1819 )

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Montgomerie was a younger son of the Ayrshire laird Hugh Montgomerie of Hessilheid ( d. 1558 ) and so was related to the Earl of Eglinton and a distant relation of James VI.

Led by Montgomerie ’ s friend and fellow-poet Hugh Barclay of Ladyland, this enterprise soon collapsed, Barclay being killed in the process, and on 14 July 1597 Montgomerie was declared an outlaw.

It was used by St. Augustine ( 4th and 5th centuries ), in his De Ordine, applying the terms rhythmic ( percussion and strings ), organic ( winds ), and adding harmonic ( the human voice ); Isodore of Seville ( 6th to 7th centuries AD ); Hugh of St. Victor ( 12th century ), also adding the voice ; Magister Lambertus ( 13th century ), adding the human voice as well ; and Michael Pretorius ( 17th century )( Kartomi, 1990, pp. 119 – 21, 147 ).

They had three children: Lady Constance Sibell Grosvenor ( 22 August 1875 – 8 July 1957 ), married 9th Earl of Shaftesbury in 1899 and had issue ; Lady Lettice Mary Elizabeth Grosvenor ( 25 December 1876 – 28 July 1936 ), married 7th Earl Beauchamp in 1902 and had issue ; Hugh Richard Arthur Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster ( 1879 – 1953 ).

Hugh O ' Donel, O. F. M., is Don Hugo O ' Donnell, 7th Duke of Tetuan.

* John James Hugh Henry Stewart-Murray, 6th Baron Percy, 7th Duke of Atholl ( 1840 – 1917 )

The barony was claimed by Hugh Hastings ( 1377 – 1396 ) ( later deemed the de jure 7th Baron Hastings ; see below ).

His successor should have been his great-nephew, the aforementioned Hugh Hastings, de jure 7th Baron Hastings.

* Hugh Hastings, de jure 7th Baron Hastings ( 1377 – 1396 )

* Hugh Charles Clifford, 7th Baron Clifford of Chudleigh ( 1790 – 1858 )

* John James Hugh Henry Stewart-Murray, 7th Duke of Atholl, 12th Baron Strange ( 1840 – 1917 )

* Hugh Fraser, 7th Lord Lovat ( d. 1646 )

* James Hugh William Lowther, 7th Earl of Lonsdale ( 1922 – 2006 )

She first married David Renwick Grant, and second the late Sir Hugh Arbuthnot, 7th Bt.

* Hugh St Leger, 7th Viscount Doneraile ( 1869 – 1956 )

* Marcus Hugh Tristram de la Poer Beresford, 7th Baron Decies ( b. 1948 )

* Hugh Somerset John Massy, 7th Baron Massy ( 1864 – 1926 )

* Hugh Richard Scarlett, 7th Baron Abinger ( 1878 – 1943 )

The first Duke was born Hugh Smithson, and married Lady Elizabeth Seymour ( daughter and heiress of Algernon Seymour, 7th Duke of Somerset ( d. 1750 ), a direct descendant of Protector Somerset ), whose grandmother Lady Elizabeth Percy ( d. 1722 ) was the heiress of the 15th and last Percy Earl of Northumberland, from whom Syon House thus devolved onto the first Duke of Northumberland.

Article includes a portrait of the 7th Earl circa 1920 with five of his seven children ( his eldest and youngest son are apparently missing ; all four daughters and his favourite son Hugh are in the portrait ).

Ormond Castle was the caput of the Barony of Ormonde, and was created into an Earldom in 1445 for Hugh Douglas, Earl of Ormonde, third son of James Douglas, 7th Earl of Douglas.

Clifford was the third son of Hugh Charles Clifford, 7th Baron Clifford, who died in 1858, by his marriage with Mary Lucy, only daughter of Thomas ( afterwards Cardinal ) Weld of Lulworth Castle, Dorsetshire.

Hugh Charles Clifford, 7th Baron Clifford of Chudleigh ( 29 May 1790 – 1858 ) was a British peer.

Recurring names in the Percy genealogy include Henry ( first borne by the 7th Baron and his 10 immediate successors, including the 1st Earl and Harry Hotspur ), Hugh ( first borne by the 1st Duke ), Joscelin ( first borne by Joscelin of Louvain ), and Algernon ( first borne by the 1st Baron as a nickname: Aux Gernons or " with moustaches ").

* Elizabeth Percy, Duchess of Northumberland, 2nd Baroness Percy ( 1716 – 1776 ), daughter and heiress of the 7th Duke of Somerset, married Sir Hugh Smithson ( who adopted the name Percy )

He married, secondly, his first cousin Katherine Fraser ( daughter of Hugh Fraser, 7th Lord Lovat, on 30 June 1653 and had further children.