GORDON, Robert of Cluny (of the 2nd House), Advocate ^{1 3 4 5}

   User ID: E391.

  General Notes:

"Robert Gordon married three times, and the last three Lairds of his house were descended from his first and last wives...The end of the second house of Gordon seems to have taken place in a confusion of financial difficulties and Jacobite sentiments."

from Cluny Castle




"He [John Gordon of Cluny, of the Third House] got hold of Cluny somewhere between 1729 and 1753. On Nov. 18, 1729, Kenneth Gordon, advocate, was served heir to his nephew, Robert Gordon of Cluny (who died in April, 1729) [probably a descendant of this man], in the lands and mains of Cluny and others. But in 1753 -John Gordon got a grant of the Gordon of Cluny arms from the Lyon Office."

from The Gordons of Cluny ^{1 6}

  Research Notes:

YOUNGER SONS

"...the European connection was fading in the later seventeenth century and there is evidence that the decline of career opportunities there was beginning to stoke up anxieties among the laird classes. This was apparent in the plans for the Scottish colony in East New Jersey in the 1680s. The project was dominated by landowners from the eastern counties of Scotland, especially the north-east region, formerly a major supplier of Scots army officers and merchants to Scandinavia. The promoters envisaged a colony of landed estates and among those who eventually emigrated to the New World were a very high proportion of younger sons of the north-east gentry. Thus three members of the Gordons of Straloch purchased proprietary shares but only the two younger brothers actually travelled to the colony. Several other emigrants can be identified as as sons of minor, cadet branches of landed families. Robert Gordon of Cluny probably spoke for many of his fellow proprietors when he stated that his own reason for being attracted to the project of colonization was to provide land for his younger son 'since I had not estate whereby to make him a Scotch laird'."

from Independence Or Union

See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_colonization_of_the_Americas and http://history.wdgordon.com/gordon20.htm ⁷

Robert married Eleanor MORRISON.¹ (Eleanor MORRISON was born about 1638.)

  Marriage Notes:

"Robert Gordon married three times, and the last three Lairds of his house were descended from his first and last wives. His eldest son, also Robert, whose mother was Eleanor Morrison of Prestongrange, was born in 1658 and married Catherine, daughter of the 2nd Viscount of Arbuthnott"

from Cluny Castle ¹

Robert next married Katherine DAMSEL.¹ (Katherine DAMSEL was born about 1640 and died before 26 October 1676 ².)

  Marriage Notes:

"Robert Gordon 1st had married, as his second wife an English woman, Katherine Damsel of Henley. The two children of this marriage - which seems to have been spent in England - died young and were not long survived by their mother."

from Cluny Castle ¹

Robert next married Margaret MACKENZIE, daughter of Sir Kenneth MACKENZIE of Coul, Baronet and Jean CHISHOLM, on 26 October 1676 in Drainie parish, Moray, Scotland.^{2 3} (Margaret MACKENZIE was born about 1661.)

  Marriage Notes:

"GORDON
ROBERT
MARGARAT MAKENZIE/
26/10/1676
130 10 / 143
DRAINIE"

from Index of Marriages




Old Parish Registers
Drainie parish Moray
Marriages

"26 October 1676
Gordon and McKenzie
Mr Robert Gordon Brthr German to Sr Lodovick Gordon of Gordonstone was contracted in Contron parochine in Ross wt mistres margaret makenzie daughter to the Laird of Coull yr marriage bonds were published in his parochine"




"For his third wife Robert was to look inside Aberdeenshire again - perhaps he felt that his veins contained as much Gordon blood as was good for any family. His choice fell on a Highland woman, Margaret MacKenzie, daughter of Sir Kenneth MacKenzie of Coull. Their son Kenneth, who married the widow of Robert Arbuthnott, grandson of the 1st Viscount of Arbuthnott, was the last Gordon Laird of Cluny of the second house. Before his death in the early 1750s the estate was already in other hands. His son Robert, who died in 1757 was a plain farmer in Kirkcaldy. The end of the second house of Gordon seems to have taken place in a confusion of financial difficulties and Jacobite sentiments. The story is to be found in the Gordon of Cluny papers in the Scottish Record Office, and a sorry story it is."

from Cluny Castle ^{1 2 3}