GORDON, William of 'New Mylne' or Gordonsmill ¹

   User ID: G377.

  General Notes:

" ... (8th September 1564) there is a gift to William Seytoun of Meldrum, his heirs and assignees, of the escheat of all goods, etc., which pertained to William Seytoun of Cottoun, and escheated 'through his being or when it shall happen him to be fugitive from the law, convict, or at the home for art and part of the slaughter of the late
William Gordon of Gordounsmylne, alias the New Milne, committed on 2nd Sept. instant.' (Privy Seal Register, vol. xxxiii. fol. 51.)"

from Family of Seton ¹

  Research Notes:

GORDOUNSMYLNE

or Gordon's Mills. "Destroyed Details

Site of mills, Gordon's Mills and later Donside Paper Mills. There have been a series of mills on and near this site since at least the 17th century and probably earlier. Gordon's Mills are presumably earlier than 1639, when William Gordon of Gordon's Mills was reportedly wounded at the battle at the Bridge of Dee. According to Milne, the mill or mills were first of all for meal. Later they became a woollen manufactory and subsequently a paper mill. G M Fraser asserts that Gordon's Mills was the site of the first paper mill in Aberdeen, opened by Patrick Sandilands in 1696 and that by 1703 it had become a textile mill referred to as 'Northmills at Gordon's Mills'.

The map of Scotland drawn by Robert Gordon of Straloch in 1654 depicts what appears to be a settlement called Gordonsmill, while the map of 1661, by his son James Gordon of Rothiemay, shows Gordon's Mill. Gordon's Mills appear on Taylor's map of 1773, where several buildings are shown, including some which seem to be in the northern part of the present site. In the mid 19th century part of the site at Gordon Mills was occupied by Alexander Hadden and Sons, one of the major textile manufacturers in Aberdeen. In 1850 the company was in the business of spinning wool and manufacturing hosiery and woollen cloth.

On the first Ordnance Survey map made of the area, in 1867-69, the woollen mill is shown in the northern portion of the area, situated partly within and partly outside the present site, while an additional corn mill is depicted approximately 250 metres to the south-east, next to the riverbank. By that date, if not before, the name Gordon's Mills seems to have come to refer to the area around and between the woollen mill and the corn mill.

From the end of the 19th century paper making became the dominant industry on the site, at first using some of the original buildings. In 1888 the mill was converted for the manufacture of brown paper wrappings under the name of Gordon's Mills Paper Co., the name changed to Donside Paper Company in 1893 after the business was taken over by John Laing and Co of Dundee. On the 1926 Ordnance Survey map, the woollen mill still occupies the northern portion of the area, while Donside Paper Mills is represented to the south-east by an extensive complex of buildings." (continues ... )

from Aberdeen City Council website




"The Provost seems at one time to have held the lands of Cotton, near Aberdeen, as there is a disposition of the shadow half of these lands with the mill 'upon the side of the Don callit Gordon's Miln' in his favour by John Gordon of Kinmundie, dated 20th January, 1578-9."

from Aldermen and Provosts ^{2 3}

William married.