GORDON, John Merchant, Provost of Banff ¹

   Another name for John was GORDON, John elder, Burgess and Bailie in Banff.¹

  General Notes:

"1654, June 17. Sir William Gordon of Lesmoir and Sir William Gordon of Lesmoir, younger, granted a charter of Balmade and other lands to John Gordon, elder, Burgess of Banff, to which Alexander Gordon, Sir William's son, was witness (Banff Sasines)."
In another part of the same book the same, or a similar, transfer occurs:
' "Alexander Gordone, son to Sir William Gordone of Lesmoir," witnessed the charter by his father and brother to John Gordone, elder, burgess of Banff, of Balmad and other lands, at Lesmoir, June 17, 1654 (Banff Sasines).'

"1673, July 22. John Gordon, late provost of Banff, his heirs and assigns were infefted in the town and lands of Balmade and others on the resignation of James Gordon of Buthley and Sir William Gordon of Lesmoir with the novodamus and a change of the holding from simple ward to taxt ward (Domestic State Papers)."

"1687, June 23. Renunciation by Robert Sanders, sometime in Cullen and now in Banff, in favour of John and Alexander Gordon of Achynachie, of the lands of Milton of Achynachie (ibid.). This Robert Sanders was a baillie of Banff in 1683 (Annals of Banff, ii., 53) and apparently Provost 1700-1 (ibid., ii., 268). The Provost died in 1720 (ibid., ii., 292). He may have been related to the Auchindachy Gordons, for there is a carved stone in the Old Market Place, taken from what was once Saunders' Heritage. It bears the letters I[ohn] G[ordon] [bailiff] I[anet] S[anders], and it is dated 1675 (ibid., i., 374). John Gordon and Janet Sanders had John, baptised 1681; Helen, 1676; and 1679; Elizabeth, 1677 (ibid., ii., 287)."

Note: the years of baptisms for John Gordon's daghters here do not quite match the OPR. ¹

John married Janet SANDERS, daughter of Walter SANDERS Burgess and Bailie of Cullen, Burgess of Banff and Unknown. (Janet SANDERS was born about 1650.)

  Marriage Notes:

The website at
http://www.mit.edu/~dfm/genealogy/saunders.html
mentions two other children of John Gordon and Janet Sanders: William Fyfe Gordon and Marjory Gordon, who are said to have died before 1668.
²