William Gordon the Younger

c 1685 to c 1730

GOR00024

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The first of our family who came to Buchan was William Gordon son of William Gordon of Birkenburn, a small property, valued at £80 per annum in the LeeseBooks(?) (see a Survey of the Province of Moray by Alex Leslie p 298 Ed. 1798). This, however, is an uncertain indication of value or extent I think, it had contained between two and three hundred acres. It is situated on the banks of a streamlet called the ? Soun/Loan/Loun ?, running into the Isla about two miles from Keith in the county of Banff.

William Gordon the younger (my great-Grandfather) was sent to the University of Aberdeen. He used to boast of having been College-bred, and in the days of his fallen fortune his acquaintances sometimes taunted him with it as my father often told me. When at College he had somehow quarrelled with his father who cast him off. I think it had been from his having turned Presbyterian, in earnest; which his father like the most of his Clan at that time had only been nominally, as will presently appear. The College was then a likely place to contract such contamination and I have some of those prosaic performances, called “Godly Books”, well thumbed and well smoked belonging to my great-grandfather: which show him to be a staunch adherent to the Kirk. From whatever cause it arose, they seem never to have been reconciled, and, insofar as I know, did not meet afterwards. The young man thus thrown on his own resources, turned his attention to some means of earning a livelihood, and resolved to become Mill-Wright or what would now be called Civil Engineer, as his mathematical studies would help him in that way; and he entertained a view of going out to the West Indies, where fortunes were rapidly made in the line. After a short apprenticeship of some four years or so, during which he had the misfortune to get a leg broken in a bold effort to extinguish a fire at some house, Gordon of Pitlurg sent him down to superintend the finishing of the mansion house of Upper Kinmundy which was designed from a Jointure residence to his lady. I am quite certain that my Great-Grandfather did superintend the finishing of that place and it is mentioned in Hepburn’s account of Buchan AD1721, as the Jointure House of the Dowager of Pitlurg (see Spalding Club’s “Antiquities of Aberdeen and Banffshire” Vol. 3 p 398). He had come down in 1709 or 10, and this mansion seems to have led my father, uncles and perhaps their fathers, that we were sprung from the Pitlurg branch of the Gordons – so also I thought till very lately. But the kindness had arisen from old acquaintanceship between the families – the original Pitlurg is only a couple of miles distant from Birkenburn; William, shortly after his arrival had seen a Margaret Buchan of Mains Inverugie one of “The Seven Maidens of Mearns” as they were termed, celebrities in their corner, and had married her. Though aware of her name I was not aware of her parentage till an accidental circumstance revealed it to me. On one of my returns from abroad many years ago, I was requested to visit a poor old man in Crimond. To my surprise my patient claimed relationship with me. I answered with a smile that it must be very distant, as I was not aware of having a single relation, on my father’s side, in this part of the world. He then told me that he was descended from the same Buchans as “The Seven Maidens of Mearns”, one of whom my great-grandfather had married. I mentioned the circumstance to my father who at once admitted the truth of the story, though he did not know the old man; but, I learned, that one of his daughters was in the habit of calling at the house, on the strength of that remote connection. This early and inconsiderate marriage, though goo enough for William’s prospects, had sealed his doo with his father, and also his West Indian views – the latter, I understand, he never ceased to regret. He remained where he was and soon afterwards settled in Peterhead in the timber line generally.

JOINTURE: property joined to or settled on a woman at marriage to be enjoyed after her husband’s death.

He left three sons, William, James, John, and a daughter Margaret who died young. He himself had died comparatively young, as his father out-lived him a few years.

(“The Gordon Victorian Narrative, c 1850”)

1685

William Gordon the Younger might have been born in about 1685, perhaps at Birkenburn, near Keith which may have extended to 200 to 300 acres.

1695

He attended the University of Aberdeen. He used to boast of having been College-bred, and in the days of his fallen fortune his acquaintances sometimes taunted him with it as my father often told me. When at College he had somehow quarrelled with his father who cast him off. I think it had been from his having turned Presbyterian, in earnest; which his father like the most of his Clan at that time had only been nominally, as will presently appear. The College was then a likely place to contract such contamination and I have some of those prosaic performances, called “Godly Books”, well thumbed and well smoked belonging to my great-grandfather: which show him to be a staunch adherent to the Kirk. From whatever cause it arose, they seem never to have been reconciled, and, insofar as I know, did not meet afterwards. The young man thus thrown on his own resources, turned his attention to some means of earning a livelihood, and resolved to become Mill-Wright or what would now be called Civil Engineer, as his mathematical studies would help him in that way; and he entertained a view of going out to the West Indies, where fortunes were rapidly made in the line.

1700

After a short apprenticeship of some four years or so, during which he had the misfortune to get a leg broken in a bold effort to extinguish a fire at some house, Gordon of Pitlurg sent him down to superintend the finishing of the mansion house of Upper Kinmundy which was designed from a Jointure residence to his lady. I am quite certain that my Great-Grandfather did superintend the finishing of that place and it is mentioned in Hepburn’s account of Buchan AD1721, as the Jointure House of the Dowager of Pitlurg (see Spalding Club’s “Antiquities of Aberdeen and Banffshire” Vol. 3 p 398). He had come down in 1709 or 10, and this mansion seems to have led my father, uncles and perhaps their fathers, that we were sprung from the Pitlurg branch of the Gordons – so also I thought till very lately. But the kindness had arisen from old acquaintanceship between the families – the original Pitlurg is only a couple of miles distant from Birkenburn; William, shortly after his arrival had seen a Margaret Buchan of Mains Inverugie one of “The Seven Maidens of Mearns” as they were termed, celebrities in their corner, and had married her. Though aware of her name I was not aware of her parentage till an accidental circumstance revealed it to me. On one of my returns from abroad many years ago, I was requested to visit a poor old man in Crimond. To my surprise my patient claimed relationship with me. I answered with a smile that it must be very distant, as I was not aware of having a single relation, on my father’s side, in this part of the world. He then told me that he was descended from the same Buchans as “The Seven Maidens of Mearns”, one of whom my great-grandfather had married. I mentioned the circumstance to my father who at once admitted the truth of the story, though he did not know the old man; but, I learned, that one of his daughters was in the habit of calling at the house, on the strength of that remote connection. This early and inconsiderate marriage, though goo enough for William’s prospects, had sealed his doo with his father, and also his West Indian views – the latter, I understand, he never ceased to regret. He remained where he was and soon afterwards settled in Peterhead in the timber line generally.

Pitlurg was associated with the Gordon family and is about 3 km south of Birkenburn.

He may have married an unknown person in about 1700, and his children may have been born between 1705 to 1711. There is a suggestion that he married Mary Melville.

He left three sons, William, James, John, and a daughter Margaret who died young.

1721

William was involved in the finishing of the mansion house of Upper Kinmundy.

1730

We know from the Victorian script that he died before his father, so perhaps he died in about 1730. He himself had died comparatively young, as his father out-lived him a few years.

All these dates are guesses, to try to make sense of the Victorian script.