GORDON, Janet 1 3
User ID: W729. Janet married John LEITH 3rd of Harthill, son of John LEITH 2nd of Harthill and Helen AUCHINLECK. (John LEITH 3rd of Harthill was born about 1575.) Marriage Notes: "Janet. (daughter of William Gordon, 5th of Gight) The Balbithan MS. says that one of the fifth laird's daughters married a Leith of Harthill. Dr. Davidson in his Earldom of the Garioch notes that John Leith, second of Harthill, married as his second wife a Janet Gordon, whom I take to be Gight's daughter. Dr. Davidson further adds that Leith had by his first wife (Beatrice Fraser) a son John, third of Harthill, the notorious rebel who broke out of the Tolbooth of Aberdeen, July, 1640; and that it was his son Patrick who was executed as a rebel in Edinburgh, Oct. 26, 1647 ( at the age of twenty-five). Now Spalding (Troubles, ii., 392) speaks of this Patrick as the "cousing" of Nathaniel Gordon. Hence I am inclined to believe that Gordon of Gight married John the third, not the second, laird of Harthill, as Dr. Davidson says. In any case, the Spalding reference makes it clear that Patrick Leith was descended from a Gight Gordon (whereas Dr. Davidson's statements make no relationship at all). She was either the mother or the grandmother of 'young Harthill,' who was hand-in-glove with Nathaniel Gordon, notably in the raid on the Aberdeen merchants at St. James' Fair, Elgin, July 24, 1644, and at the capture of Forbes of Craigievar's troopers at Inverurie on Sunday, Feb. 23, 1645." Janet next married Adam ABERCROMBY of Auld Rayne, son of Alexander ABERCROMBY of Pitmedden and Margaret LESLIE.1 2 (Adam ABERCROMBY of Auld Rayne was born about 1575.) Marriage Notes: "1643 Feby. 25 Abstracted Multures. Janet Gordoun, widow of John Leithe of Harthill, Liferentrix of the lands of Auld Raine, Adam Abercrombie, her husband, and Sir Alexr. Abercrombie of Galcorss, knight, and Hector Abercrombie of Fetternear, as lessees under the principal Pursuers v. Mr. Wm. Straquhan, Persone of Dawiot, Mr. Wm. Straquhan, his son, there, James Gordoun in Louesk (also spelled in the entry Lowesk and Luesk), Patrick Honnie there, John Meany there, and James Diak there. |
1 e-books, The Leiths of Harthill : the story of some turbulent lairds and a royalist martyr by F.L. Bickley (1937).
2 e-books, Records of the Sheriff Court of Aberdeenshire vol. 3 1642-1660 ed. David Littlejohn (1907).
3 e-books, The House of Gordon vol. 1 ed. John Malcolm Bulloch (1903).
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