Career
He succeeded to the titles of 10th Earl of Cassilis, 12th Lord Kennedy and 5th Baronet Kennedy on 30 November 1775, and held the office of representative peer of Scotland from 1776 to 1790. Lord Cassilis never married, and the baronetcy became extinct on his death. The other titles passed to a distant cousin.
lieutenant was the 10th Earl who ordered the rebuilding of Culzean Castle on the Ayrshire coast.