PREFACE. XIX in the Roman Catholic faith) he could claim kindred with the noble house of Deskford and Findlater

Passages from the diary of General Patrick Gordon of Auchleuchries : A.D. 1635-A.D. 1699"

PREFACE.



XIX



in the Roman Catholic faith) he could claim kindred with the noble
house of Deskford and Findlater/*^ His father, ' the younger brother
of a younger house,* was a grandson of the family of Haddo, raised
in Gordon's own day, to the Earldom of Aberdeen.^^ Auchleuchries
was the inheritance of his mother.^' Its five or six petty farms
appear to have yielded in those <]ays about three hundred and sixty
pounds Scots, or thirty pounds sterling, a-year.^^ But it was so
overwhelmed by mortgages or ' wadsets,' that probably half the
scanty rental went in payment of interest. It is as witness to a
deed by which his father added to the still growing burden of the



*-' Janet Ogilvy, daughter of James
Ogilvy of Cullen (the second son, it is
believed, of James Ogilvy, the eldest son of
Sir James Ogilvy of Deskford and Findlater,
who died in 1510), married, firstly, John
Gordon of Pitlurg, who was slain ;it Pinkie
in 1547 ; secondly, James Ogilvy of Blarak,
her cousin. By her first marriage she had
Sir John Gordon of Pitlurg, father of Robert
Gordon of Straloch, the scholar and anti-
quary. By her second marriage she had
James Ogilvy of Blarak and Auchleuchries,
who, in 1604, married Marjory Gordon,
daughter of George Gordon of Coclarachy.
The issue of this marriage was a daughter,
Mary Ogilvy, wno, in 1633, married John
Gordon, third son of Patrick Gordon of
Nethermuir, by whom she had six children :

( 1) George Gordon, younger of Auchleuchries,
born in 1634, died before his father in 1665 ;

(2) General Patrick Gordon, born in 1635,
became ' goodman' of Auchleuchries on the
death of his father about 1675, died in 1699 ;

(3) John Gordon, in Westcrtoun of Auch-
leuchries, who, in 1674, married Margaret
Forbes, by whom he had issue, and was
alive in 1692 ; (4) James Gon'on, in Westcr-
toun of Auchleuchries, who died in 1691,
leaving issue ; (5) Alexander Gordon, who
died before 1682; (6) a daughter, who was
alive in 1686.

^ James Gordon of ]\Iethlic and Haddo
(great-great-great- grandfather of the first



Earl of Aberdeen), who died in 1582,
married a daughter of Menzits of Pitfoddels,
by whom he had six sons, of whom the fourth,
David, was the father of Patrick Gordon of
Nethermuir, who had issue, four sons and
two daugiittrs: (1) George Gordon of
Nethermuir ; (2) Mr. Thomas Gordon ; (3)
John Gordon of Auchleuchries, father of
General Patrick Gordon ; (4) James Gordon
of Westertoun of Auchleuchries; {5) Annas
Gordon, wife of James Gordon of Green-
myre ; (6) Janet Gordon.

John Gordon of Auchleuchries, his
brother Mr. Thomas, and one or two of his
tenants, appear among the followers of Sir
John Gordon of Haddo in a raid against the
Covenanters of Buchan, in April, 1644,
when they spoiled the lands and houses of
Auchnagat and Kinnaldy, belonging to
Alexander Strachan of Glenkindy and his
brother, and carried the latter captive to
Kelly. — (Spalding's Mcmorialls of the
Trubles, vol. ii. p. 342; Acts of the Parlia-
ments of Scotland (I6th March, 1649), MS.
General Register House, Edinburgh ; Illus-
trations of the Topography and Antiquities
of the Shires of Aberdeen and Banff, vol. iv.
pp. 470-472.)

*» Appendix, nn. 22-35, pp. 204-208.
^^List of PoUable Persons within the
Shire of Aberdeen, 1696, vol. ii. pp. 102,
129 132.