DAVIDSON, Alexander of Newton, Advocate ^{2 3 4}

   Other names for Alexander were DAVIDSON, Alexr.,³ DAVIDSON, Allexander, DAVIDSONE, Alexander ³ and DAVIDSONE, Alexr..³

   User ID: W577.

  General Notes:

"Alexander Davidson of the Cairnbrogie Davidson family purchased Newton House near Culsalmond from the Gordon family sometime in the 17th century."

from Clan Davidson Association website

"Davidson, Alexander. 1661.
Son of Alexander Davidson, advocate (1616). App. to his father. Succeeded to Cairnbrogie, and purchased estate of Newton, Culsalmond. Also proprietor of Berryhill, Old Machar, and fishings in the Don of the valued rent of £400. Married, first,
Jean Burnett (died August, 1671), with issue:
1. Alexander, succeeded to Newton, and was progenitor of the Davidson -Gordons of Gight.
2. James, admitted guild burgess of Aberdeen, 2nd March, 1685.
Married, second,
Marie **, second dau. of George Leslie, Provost of Aberdeen, with issue :'97
3. George, admitted guild burgess of Aberdeen, 2nd March, 1685."

from History of the Society of Advocates

**Note: Please see Research Notes to this file for a correction to this statement. Alexander's second wife was Magdalen Boyes. ^{1 6}

  Research Notes:

There is a great deal of confusion and misinformation over the various Alexander Davidsons and their wives and progeny.

DEATH DATE

A date of 26 April 1666 is offered by some authorities as the date of this Alexander Davidson's death, that is the Alexander Davidson who married Jean Burnet.

However the same two names, Alexander Davidson and Jean Burnet, are listed in baptismal records as parents of three children after 1666, in the same parish, St Nicholas Aberdeen, where their first six children were baptised. The last child listed was born in 1670, and this does fit the death date, 17 August 1671, offered for Jean Burnet. It is likely she was his first wife and that he married again.

The History of the Society of Advocates published a List of Members 1549-1911. In the Explanation of Abbreviations that preceded the list it is made clear that the "Date of admission to the Society is given on the same line as the member's name." The list of Alexander Davidsons in the 16th and 17th centuries have year dates of admission to the Society as follows:
Davidson, Alexander 1570
Davidson (or Davidsone), Alexander 1616
Davidson, Alexander 1661
Note that these are not birth dates but admission dates to the Society.

The first name noted has no other details of biography or career.
The second name noted, Alexander Davidson admitted 1616, is recorded as the son of Thomas Davidson, burgess of Aberdeen. This Alexander married Euphemia Anderon and died in 1666, and was the father of the Alexander admitted in 1661.
The third name noted, Alexander Davidson admitted in 1661, is recorded there as having succeeded to Cairnbrogie and having purchased Newton. He it was who married first Jean Burnett (died 1671), and then Marie Leslie, daughter of Provost Leslie.

SECOND MARRIAGE

Both this authority and the Historical Record of the Family of Leslie report Marie Leslie as Alexander's second wife. Apart from these statements no other evidence backs this proposition. There appears to be a confusion with the name of Issobell Leslie who was this Alexander's daughter in law, wife of his son named Alexander. She, like Marie Leslie, was the daughter of George Leslie, Provost and Cristen Walker. This may have been complicated by this Alexander's grandson, also Alexander, who married a Marie, Marie Gordon.

The same authorities report a son, George, of this second marriage, who is supposed to have become a Guild Burgess along with his (half-?) brother James in 1685. The George who became a Guild Burgess is more likely, if only from the point of view of age, to have been George Davidson, son of the first wife, Jean Burnet, who was born just one year after James Davidson who became a Guild Burgess in 1685.

Moreover, the baptism record of the daughter of Alexander Davidson and Magdalen Boyes, called Magdalen, in 1677, names Alexander as 'of newtoune'. The naming pattern of the children of this marriage has all the hallmarks of a second marriage where the wife's family names are most in evidence even for the first born children.

Later in 1682, at his marriage to Issobell Lesli [sic], Alexander's son, 'Mr Alexr. Davidson' was also recorded as 'of newtoun'. Here may be the source of the confusion of an Alexander Davidson of Newton marrying a Leslie daughter of George Leslie, provost, and his wife Cristen Walker.

NEWTON

Newton belonged first to the Lesmoir Gordons and was bought from them during the period of religious wars by Alexander Davidson. Through descendants of the latter it once again became a Gordon estate. ^{1 3 6 7 8 9}

Alexander married Jean BURNETT.¹ (Jean BURNETT was born about 1630 and died on 17 August 1671.)

  Marriage Notes:

"(Alexander Davidson of Newton) Married, first, Jean Burnett (died August, 1671), with issue:
1. Alexander, succeeded to Newton, and was progenitor of the Davidson -Gordons of Gight.
2. James, admitted guild burgess of Aberdeen, 2nd March, 1685.
Married, second,
Marie, second dau. of George Leslie, Provost of Aberdeen, with issue :'97
3. George, admitted guild burgess of Aberdeen, 2nd March, 1685."

from History of the Society of Advocates ¹

Alexander next married Magdalen BOYES, daughter of Thomas BOYES and Elspeit BIRNIE, in January 1672 in Saint Nicholas parish, Aberdeen, Scotland.² (Magdalen BOYES was baptised on 7 August 1649 in Saint Nicholas parish, Aberdeen, Scotland ¹⁰.)

  Marriage Notes:

"BOYES
MAGDALEN
ALEXR. DAUIDSON/FR4091 (FR4091)
00/01/1672
168/A 120 541
Aberdeen"

from Index of Marriages

"Patrick Sandilands m^d secondly Magdalen Boyes, widow of Alexander Davidson of Newton, Aberdeenshire, and had an only daughter.
4. Margaret, m^d Thomas Paull, of Aberdeen, merchant, and had issue."

from Families of Moir and Byres ^{2 4}