GORDON, Alexander in Haddoch, Cabrach parish ^{1 2 3 4}

   Other names for Alexander were GORDON, Alexr. ^{1 4} and GORDON, Allexr..^{1 4}

  Research Notes:

TWO ALEXANDER GORDONS AND TWO MARGARET GORDONS

In Cadets of Lesmoir: Birkenburn, Captain Wimberley, early in his essay, delivers the bad news, genealogically-speaking, about the eldest son of Peter Gordon in Haddoch:

" (1) Alexander, in Haddoch, whose male issue seems to be extinct"

The information he goes on to provide later in the essay is tempered here by entries from the Old Parish Registers of the Cabrach.

Captain Wimberley names seven children of Alexander Gordon in Haddoch:

"(1) Patrick, July 22, 1739 : witnesses, Patrick Gordon, student in Rhynie, and James Gordon, in Bank (Cabrach Parish Register.) The mother's name is not mentioned.
(2) Alexander, April 12, 1749. The mother was Margaret Gordon: witnesses, George Gordon and Alexander Horn, both in Ballhillock (ibid.).
(3) John, August 4, 1752. The mother's name is given as Margaret Gordon (ibid.).
(4) James. Lieutenant Taylor, son of Margaret Gordon, the undoubted daughter of Alexander Gordon in Haddoch speaks of William Gordon, son of James, stonemason, Aberdeen, as his "cousin," by Ann Steward. This James, however, is not in the Cabrach Register.
(5) Helen, given as the daughter of Alexander in Haddoch : baptised March 8, 1741 (Cabrach Parish Register).
(6) Isobel : married William Yeats, in Reidford, Cabrach (Ronald's Notes). An Isobel Gordon in Reidford witnessed a baptism April 26, 1782.
(7) Margaret : baptised May 20, 1750. Ronald says she married — Taylor, schoolmaster, Cabrach"

Baptism entries in the Cabrach baptism registers, with Alexander Gordon as father, between 1700 and 1770, number eleven. They are
1 GORDON PATRICK ALEXR. GORDON 26/07/1739
2 GORDON PATRICK ALEXR. GORDON 26/07/1739
3 GORDON HELLEN ALLEXR. GORDON 00/03/1741
4 GORDON ALEXANDER ALEXANDER GORDON/MARGARET GORDON 12/04/1749
5 GORDON MARGARET ALEXANDER GORDON/MARGARET GORDON 20/05/1750
6 GORDON JOHN ALEXANDER GORDON/MARGT. GORDON 04/08/1752
7 GORDON ELIZABETH ALEXANDER GORDON/MARGARET GORDON 29/06/1755
8 GORDON ELIZABETH ALEXANDER GORDON/MARGARET GORDON 26/12/1755
9 GORDON JAMES ALEXANDER GORDON/MARGT. GORDON 27/11/1757
10 GORDON MARGARET ALEXANDER GORDON/MARGARET GORDON 30/01/1760
11 GORDON PATRICK ALEXANDER GORDON/MARGARET GORDON 27/02/1762

Numbers 1 to 7 state in the text that the father is Alexander Gordon in Haddoch.
Numbers 8 to 11 state in the text that the father is Alexander Gordon in Bowhilloch,
Numbers 4 to 7 state in the text Margaret Gordon is the wife of Alexander Gordon in Haddoch.

In the marriage register for Cabrach parish there is a marriage recorded as taking place on 27 February 1855 between an Alexander Gordon and a Margaret Gordon.
This cannot be the marriage of Alexander Gordon in Haddoch as the baptismal entry text names a Margaret Gordon as the "wife" of Alexander Gordon in Haddoch from 1749 to June 1755.

Moreover there are two children named Elizabeth baptised in 1755: one in June 1755 to Alexander Gordon in Haddoch and his wife and one in December 1855 to Alexander Gordon in Bowhilloch and his wife.
The second of these births is compatible with the marriage that took place in the February of 1755.
The Elizabeth Gordon baptised in June 1755 was the last child of Alexander Gordon and Margaret Gordon in Haddoch.
The Elizabeth Gordon baptised in December 1755 was the first child of Alexander Gordon and Margaret Gordon in Bowhilloch.

To the suggestion that Alexander Gordon in Haddoch's wife could have died and that he remarried, in February 1755, another woman named Margaret Gordon, we would have to point to the two Elizabeths baptised in 1755. If these were the children of the same parents, then one Elizabeth would have to have been baptised considerably later than usual, to then have died, and the parents to have named their next child, born very soon after the death, by the same name of Elizabeth. It's not impossible. Yet the likelihood of there being several Gordons of the same name and in the same place stretches the imagination less. There were many Gordons around in that area at that time with the same traditional Christian names. Moreover many were direct relatives of one another.

Comparing the baptism registers with Captain Wimberley's list of children of Alexander Gordon in Haddoch we see the main disparities are "Isobel" and "James".
Isobel may be the daughter Elizabeth baptised in June 1755; James may have been confused with the son James of Alexander Gordon of Bawhilloch baptised in 1757, whose son William could well still have been a 'cousin' of Margaret Gordon, daughter of Alexander Gordon in Haddoch, as described by Wimberley.

Descendants of these children are listed by Wimberley but are not included on this site. ^{1 3}

Alexander married Margaret GORDON. (Margaret GORDON was born about 1715.)