George Hay, 3rd Earl of Kinnoull

The Right Honourable The Earl of Kinnoull
Coat of arms of the Earls of Kinnoull
Personal details
Died	c. 1650 Kirkland, Orkney
Nationality	Scottish
Parents	George Hay, 2nd Earl of Kinnoull, Ann Douglas

George Hay, 3rd Earl of Kinnoull (d. 1650) was a Scottish peer and military officer. He was an active supporter of King Charles I during the English Civil War.

He was the eldest son of George Hay, 2nd Earl of Kinnoull and Ann Douglas, daughter of William Douglas, 7th Earl of Morton. His date of birth is not recorded, but his parents married in 1622 and his youngest brother, Peter, was baptized 11 June 1632. He succeeded to the earldom in 1644.

He followed the brilliant strategist James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose to the north, and was with him at Crathes Castle in his Aberdeen expedition after the Battle of Tippermuir in 1644. Kinnoull apparently then went to France, on his mother's petition, to be "bred and brocht up as his ain son," by his cousin the Earl of Carlisle. At some point he traveled further north, as a letter from Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia, sent from Rhenen dated 14 August [O.S. 4 August] 1649 to Montrose at The Hague, mentions him, "We have nothing to do but to walk and shoot. I am grown a good archer, to shoot with my Lord Kinnoul."

Kinnoull likely return to Scotland soon after, as he arrived in Orkney in September with a force of about 100 Danish soldiers and 80 officers, who were going to train the islanders for Montrose. In September 1649, Kinnoull sent an enthusiastic letter to Montrose telling him that he "is gapt after with that expectation that the Jeus look after their Messia."

Kinnoull stayed with his uncle, Robert Douglas, 8th Earl of Morton, who had considerable property in Orkney. On the day after his landing, a Captain Hall arrived with a ship full of arms and ammunition, sent by Archibald Campbell, 9th Earl of Argyll to his own clansmen in the Highlands.