GORDON, Peter in Haddoch (Cabrach) ^{1 2}

   Another name for Peter was GORDON, Patrik in Haddoch.³

   User ID: J959.

  General Notes:

"4. Peter, (?) in Haddoch, Cabrach. His descent is doubtful."

from Birkenburn




Peter Gordon is written of variously as i) younger son and also as ii) nephew and iii) brother of William Gordon 6th Laird of Birkenburn. He does not appear to have had a right of inheritance to Birkenburn, so if he was a blood relative of the Birkenburn Gordons he may have been born of a relationship outside of marriage.

"A numerous and vigorous group of Gordons, including those of The Knoll (Elgin), Manar, Culdrain and Coynachie trace themselves clearly to a Peter Gordon in Haddoch, in the Cabrach ; but, despite many tempting inducements, including succession to the baronetcy of Lesmoir, all attempts to connect this Peter with the Birkenburn family have so far failed, even after sixty years of research." (page 150)

"The point to be proved was the tradition that Peter in Haddoch was the younger brother of William Gordon, the last male Gordon laird of Birkenburn; but all that has been proved by these investigations - undertaken a hundred years after Peter's death is that Peter had five sons : (1) Alexander, in Haddoch, whose male issue seems to be extinct; (2) James, in Old Merdrum, the ancestor of the Gordons of The Knoll, Elgin, and of the Gordons of Manar; (3) George, in Auchmair and Balnacraig, whose male issue is extinct ; (4) John, in Drumfergue, represented by the Gordons of Coynachie and Culdrain; (5) Peter, unmarried. But the origin of Peter, the father of these five sons, has not yet been established by documentary evidence. The tradition gains some validity from the fact that it has been handed down through several generations, and it was on foot before the Lesmoir baronetcy vanished. The difficulty of proof lies in the fact that the group had no landed estates (round which records usually centre), and the early Cabrach registers are missing." [....]

"Peter Gordon is claimed as the youngest son of Alexander Gordon, V. of Birkenburn (died 1709), and brother of the last male laird of Birkenburn, namely, William, who was succeeded by his daughter Magdalen, the wife of Rev. John Stuart. The lands of Birkenburn are in the parish of Keith, Banffshire. Haddoch is in the Cabrach, Aberdeenshire, almost twenty miles due south. How did a son of the laird of Birkenburn come to migrate to such a back-of-beyond ? A very specious reason was given to the Rev. George Gordon of Glenrinnes in 1845, when he interviewed James Malcolm, the nonagenarian blacksmith at Haughs of Glass, who had married a grand-daughter of Peter. Malcolm declared that the sixth and last male Gordon of Birkenburn had a younger brother who lived with him. They were 'nae weel doin','' and at last, as if anticipating complete disaster, the one said to the other : 'We maun sinner' (separate). So Peter packed up his traps and set out for the Cabrach, where he became a merchant, and founded the big family dealt with in this section. The Poll Book mentions a Peter Gordon, merchant in Kirkton of Cabrach, which is less that a mile from Haddoch." (page 152)

from The Gordons in Haddoch ^{1 4}

  Research Notes:

HADDOCH AND HADDO

These two groups of Gordons should not be confused.

1

HADDO:

John Gordon of Methlick, ancestor of the Gordons of the lairds of Haddo, was the son of Jock Gordon of Essie and Scudargue and Elizabeth Maitland. He lived in the early part of the fifteenth century. he had a long line of decendants, among which were Baronets of Haddo in the 17th century. Haddo House in Aberedeenshire is now a National Trust property; it was the home of the Gordons of Haddo from the fifteenth century.

2

HADDOCH:

A second and quite different group of Gordons are descended from Peter Gordon who lived in Haddoch in the parish of Cabrach in Banffshire in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century. Peter Gordon was not of Haddoch: he was not a baron or a laird, but probably a tenant farmer, who lived in Haddoch. A claim has been made by his descendants, which include the Culdrain, Coynachie and Manar Gordons, that Peter was a close relative of the Gordons of Birkenburn, cadets of the Lesmoir Gordons, who themselves are also descendants of Jock Gordon of Essie and Scudargue and Elizabeth Maitland, through another son. This claim has not been satisfactorily substantiated as yet.

Peter married Bessie GORDON.¹ (Bessie GORDON was born about 1678 ¹ and died on 18 December 1728 ^{1 2}.)

  Marriage Notes:

"On July 15, 1810, the Rev. John Gordon, Cabrach, sent a copy of the inscription on a flat tombstone in memory of a Peter Gordon and his wife Bessie to Hugh Gordon of Manar, the grandson of Peter ; but it was even then partly illegible. The minister declared that Hugh Gordon's father, James in Old Merdrum, was buried beneath the stone, 'though it does not bear his name '. Ronald tried his hand at deciphering the stone thirty-five years later, covering it with turf to get a clear reading. He made a certified copy of it on April 3, 1845 (now in the possession of Mr. Hugh Gordon) as follows : -

Here lyes Bessie Gordon, spous to Peter Gordon, who dep^r. this life the 18 of Dec^r., 1728, and of age 50 years. Also here lyes Patrik Gordon in Haddoch who dep. this life [ ] 38 and of his age 6l years.

Ronald says that the stone was a freestone slab 5 feet 4^1/2 inches by 2 feet, lying flat on the ground immediately south of the tombstones on John Gordon, sometime in Drumfergue, and his son, Lieut.-Col. John Gordon, late of the 92nd Regiment, which are placed the one over the other."

from The Gordons in Haddoch ¹