GORDON, John 1st of Cluny (of the 3rd House), Factor to the Duke of Gordon ¹

   Another name for John was GORDON, John "The Curator".²

   User ID: P491.

  General Notes:

"1738, Oct. 10. Sasine to John Gordon, factor to the Duke of Gordon, of Kinminity and Tarmore ('Banffshire Sasines.') 1740, May 22. Sasine to John Gordon, Merchant in Edinburgh, of Tarmore (Ibid.) He got hold of Cluny somewhere between 1729 and 1753."

"This John Gordon's origin is practically unknown. He is said (by General William Gordon, C.I.E., in his tabular pedigree of the Cairnfield family) to have been the son of ------- Gordon, who married ----------Gordon, sister of Alexander Gordon of Dykeside and Salterhill and of Barbara Gordon, who married Robert Gordon of Lunan, and became the mother of Alexander, VII. of Cairnfield.

As he was 74 when he died in 1769, he must have been born in or about 1695. Jervise ('Epitaphs,' ii., 131) and Bain ('Nairnshire,' p. 451) says that he came from Glenlivet or Strathavon. Certain it is he was factor to the 3rd Duke of Gordon (after whom he named his eldest son), and he also leased the fishings on the Spey. He was so important in fact that he was a tutor with Katherine, Duchess of Gordon, and Alexander Udny of Udny to the 4th Duke of Gordon, and with them leased Fort-William to the Government in 1754 (Record Office: S.P. Dom., Geo. II., Bundle 128, No. 82.)...

... on May 22, 1740, he is (first) spoken of as a merchant in Edinburgh... [he] appears in the Bellie Register, in connection with the baptising of his son James in 1749, as 'John Gordon, Esq., late curator to His Grace the Duke of Gordon,' ... [he is] referred to in an assignation, dated at Minmore, July 27, 1759, by which Robert Gordon in Castleton, eldest lawful son of the deceased Robert Gordon of Auchdregnie, assigns to William Gordon in Auchnarrow the sum of £1000 Scots, 'contained in a bond, dated 26 March, 1736, granted by the now deceast Cosmo George Duke of Gordon with consent of Henereta, Duchess of Gordon, and of George Gordon of Buckie, and John Gordon, merchant in Edinburgh, now of Clunie, all three his Grace's curators' (Elgin Commissary Record).

In any case, John Gordon accumulated a great deal of money."

from The Gordons of Cluny




John Gordon continued to buy land, including Northfield and Wester Inchkiel in the parish of Duffus, Nether Auchinreath, Tynet and Blair.

"Cluny Castle was acquired by John Gordon, I of Cluny, after the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion \endash it had previously belonged to another branch of the Gordon family which was not closely related to the new purchaser. John Gordon, who was secretary to Elizabeth, Duchess of Gordon, and curator to the 3rd and 4th Dukes, lived mostly at Fochabers, and his sons Cosmo and Charles, who in turn succeeded him, preferred to spend their time in their legal practices in Edinburgh. The first of the family to take an interest in Cluny Castle was John Gordon, IV of Cluny, the Colonel."

from Special Collections Aberdeen Univeersity ^{1 3}

John married Mary LINDSAY.¹ (Mary LINDSAY was born about 1708 and died on 14 April 1775 in Fochabers, Moray, Scotland ¹.)

  Marriage Notes:

"The Cairnfield pedigree says he was married to a 'south lady.' The 'Aberdeen Journal' calls her Mary Lindsay. The marriage must have taken place before June 10, 1749. on which date James, the lawful son of 'John Gordon, Esq.' (late Curator to his Grace the Duke of Gordon) and Mrs Mary Lindsay in Fochabers, was baptised (Bellie Register). The 'Aberdeen Journal' (x\\pril 24, 1775) says she died at Fochabers on April 14, 1775, in the 67th year of her age. 'The deceased was a lady of strict probity, unsullied virtue, universal benevolence , extreme charity , and exemplary piety loved and esteemed by all who had the pleasure of her acquaintance while living, and now very greatly lamented when she is to us no more.

Virtues like these should challenge candid praise,

And in the fair just exultation raise;

Such praise to Lindsay ane a tribute due,

Desir'd by many, tho' deserved by few."

from The Gordons of Cluny ¹