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27th - 31st of July 1936.
THE GORDONS IN BOVAGLIE.
By John Malcolm Bulloch, 1936.
Bovaglie is a holding of about 1500 acres of hill pasture owned by the Gordons of Abergeldie in the parish of Crathie., Aberdeenshire., and has been tenanted by a family,, or families of Gordon for more than a century, down to the present moment, 1936, when it is rented -to Miss Elizabeth Gordon., now living at Banchory, for whom It is managed by her sister Victoria's son, Victor Cook.
It Is not easy, however, to trace the origin of the Bovaglie Gordons., who had other holdings in Crathie long before they occupied Bovaglie. Indeed, there seem to have been originally five tenants In Bovaglie, and it Is not easy to disentangle their relationship, if any, to each other. Branches of the family have moved from Bovaglie. Some have had other habitats In Crathie and GlerimuIck: some moved into Banffshire as farmers: another group took to commerce In Forfar and Fife. Some have gone to Australia and others to America, notably to Utah, where one or them emigrated as a Mormon. A certain group migrated into Fifeshire and entered commercial life.
I tried my hand at piecing the Bovaglie group together in the "Aberdeen Weekly Journal" of September 22nd and 29th and December 1st 1909, and again on September 5th 1913. Emendations were made by correspondents in the issues of December 12th 1910 and January 10th 1913. The following account is a combination of all these contributions to the subject. But much yet remains to be done to get the history of the family more complete than it is at present.
For at least eighty-three years there has been a tradition in the family that the Gordons of Bovaglie are descended from the Gordons of Hallhead. The "Aberdeen Journal" in recording his death on March 13th 1854, stated that Donald Gordon was the "seventh of the race on the land of Abergeldie since they left Hawhead of Lochlee." Donald's son John, who was born In 1805, and who migrated first to Fouizie, in King Edward, and then to Crovie, Macduff, where he died, tried his hand at a pedigree of the family. His manuscript which was copied by Mr. D. S. R. Gordon, the most eident genealogist of all the Deeside Gordons, stated:
"The writer has been enabled to compile the present table of the Gordons of Bovaglie - commonly called the Hallhead Gordons - from the rentbooks of hi s f ather's grandf ather and great-grandf ather, who were all f armers on the estate. He regrets that it is not in his power to give a fully accurate account, as his books do not give the names of the first generations. But, considerble confidence may be placed in the list, as down to the seventh generation there has been but one heir male in each family. The founder was a gentleman named Gordon, a son of the laird of Hallhead, Leochel Cushnie, who went to the estate of Abergeldie about the 16th century, and there rented some land. His descendants have never'been removed from the estate."
JAMES GORDON IN CLACHENTURN.
The founder of the Bovaglie family, so far as documentary proof goes, was James Gordon in Clachenturn, which Is In Crathie. The name comes from a Gaelic phrase meaning "stone of the kiln." There Is a limekiln marked on the map at this place, very likely representing the site of the kiln. A James Gardon., shoemaker, Clachenturn, was a witness on August 2nd 1723, and a James Gordon, Clachenturn, probably the same, had a son Charles., baptised February 2nd 1725.
DONALD GORDON, TORNOURAN.
Donald Gordon is given in the manuscript as the son of James Gordon, Clachenturn, and is stated to have married a "daughter of Abergeldie and Janet Abercrombie." He is clearly the Donald Gordon, Tornouran, whom the Crathie register mentions as having married Janet Abercrombie. McLeay says (Highlanders of Scotland.18: notice 16) that he died at Tornouran, Balnacroft. The Crathie register gives him only three children, but the manuscript adds others:
1. Charles Gordon, baptised October 12th 1746 (Crathie Register)
2. Peter Gordon, born April 1750, upon a Friday about the middle of April (ibid.)
3. James Gordon, Kintore, Crathie (Bovaglie MS).
4. Mary Gordon, baptised January 3rd 1742 (Crathie Register)
5. Margaret Gordon (MS), married Donald McGregor.
6. Ann Gordon (MS), Married - Duncan.
JAMES GORDON, KINTORE, CRATHIE.
James Gordon does not appear in the Crathie Register, figuring only in the Bovaglie MS which says he was the son of Donald in Tornouran, and places him at Kintore. But the births of his children show him to have lived also at Tombreck, Tamindoes, presumably before he went to Kintore. The Bovaglie MS says that he married Janet Gow or Smith (Fergus). The register, on the other hand, shows that James Gordon, farmer Kintore., married Mary Brown, Lausie, Crathie. She died July 23rd 1793. Combining the two accounts we get the following Issue:
1. Charles Gordon and Ann Gordon twins, barn July 1st 1791, the children of James Gordon in Tamindoes and Mary Brown, Lausie (Crathie Register). Both died in infancy.
2. Peter Gordon (MS): married Margaret Riach, August 27th 1796, and had:
(1) James Gordon, born at Tombreck, December 12th 1798 (Register) He became a gamekeeper at Abergeldie., but an old resident tells me he was "notable not as a gamekeeper but the reverse", but then such men were quite heroes, as you can see from the Rev. J.G. Michie's "Deeside Tales", and McCombie Smith's "Romance of Poaching."
(i) Charles Gordon, born about 1828. He was educated at Ballater village school under the Rev. James Smith. He attended the bajan and magistrand classes at Marischal College in 1846-48 and took hi s M.D. at King's College in 1850. He took the practice of his uncle, Dr. Arthur McHardy, at Pernambuco, Brazil, for about fourteen years, and then migrated to Pietermaritzburg, Natal, where a brother of his resided. He died there 0ctober 31st 1904. He was married four times. His first wife was Bertha Gordon, daughter of Michael Francis Gordon, XV of Abergeldie. He married her at Gettisham, Devon, October 4th 1855. She died at Pernambuco, December 4th 1857. I do not know the names of his other wives. He had at least three sons and two daughters:
(1) Charles Austin Gordon, by his second wife. He was educated at Oxford and became a mining engineer. When the South African war broke out he joined the Imperial Light Horse and was present at the battle of Elandslaagte, being afterwards shot at Ladysmith. On December 17th 1900, he was accidentally wounded at Johannesburg, and lost his left leg.
(2) Son.
(3) Son. These two were noted, unnamed, in the Aberdeen Free Press In 1904.
(4) Margaret Alice Gordon,, by the first wife: died at Algiers March 23rd 1883.
(5) Bertha Gordon, by the first wife, died at Bath, January, 1872.
(ii) William Skene Gordon: drowned in the Dee.
(iii) James Gordon: emigrated to Canada and became port officer at Hamilton, Ontario. He fought and was disabled in the Riel Rebellion.
(iv) Arthur Gordon became a soldier. In 1920 he was alive in Toronto.
(v) Peter Gordon was a banker at the Cape and became manager of the Standard Bank of South Africa. He retired on pension and died in Edinburgh.
(vi) Mary Gordon.
(vii) Betsy Gordon: married R. Mennie, Belhelvie.
(viii) Margaret Gordon: kept house for her brother Peter at Grahamston, where she married, and where she was living in 1911.
(2) John Gordon, born at Tombreck, 21st July 1797 (Register). The Bovaglie MS says he married Margaret Bowman and had:
(i) James Gordon.
(ii) Margaret Gordon.
(3) Francis Gordon, born Tombreck 11th February 1801 (Register). He was killed and was buried at Kirkliston.
(4) Donald Gordon, born 2nd July 1802 (Register). The Bovaglie MS calls him in Spout, Forfar. He married Jean Symon.
(5) Peter Gordon: cattle dealer, B anchory (MS)
(6) Charles Gordon: crofter, Kintore (MS).
(7) Helen Gordon (MS).
(8) Rachel Gordon: married: and had issue (MS).
3. Donald Gordon, Bovaglie, (1770? - 1854): treated separately.
4. Nicolas Gordon, born 3rd January 1779 (Register). She appears in the Crathle Register as the daughter of James Gordon, Kintore, and Mary Brown, Lausie. She married Joseph Gordon, Mill of Cosh, son of John Gordon, Camlet , by his first wife, Euphemia McAndrew. They had:
(1) John Gordon, born 3rd October 1807. He went to Salt Lake City and became a Mormon. He died in Utah 1876. He married twice, his second wife being Jessie Bisset, who was living in West Jordan, Utah in 1909, from which she corresponded with me. He had sixteen children, and Mr. David M. Gordon, Glenmorgan, Queensland, tells me (May 1936) that they are represented by "an incredible number of descendants In America" with some of whom he is in correspondence. His children include:
(i) Joseph Gordon, born at Arbroath; emigrated, at the age of twenty to Victoria before his father went to America. He was twice married; first to Mary Morrice, and second to -- . Their eldest son was:
(1) James Morrice Gordon, who died at Roma, Queensland in 1913. He had:
" David M. Gordon, lives at Myall Park, Glenmorgan, Queensland, from which he wrote to J. M. Bulloch in 1936.
(ii) David Gordon: lived in Dundee. After his father went to Utah he remained behind with his grandfather at Mill of Cosh. He was living at Stepps, near Glasgow, in 1913, and had a son and daughter.
(iii) John Bisset Gordon, county attorney at Tooele City, Utah.
(iv) Jessie Gordon: married - Kein: alive in 1909 in Salt Lake City.
(v) Kate Gordon: married - Steiner: alive in 1909 at West Gordan about 75 miles from Tooele City.
(vi) Ellen Gordon: married - Conway: alive in 1909 at Stockton, Utah.
(vii) Mary Jane Gordon: married - Kein: dead by 1909.
(viii) Jane Gordon: married - Buckley and lived In Cache County, Utah: dead by 1909.
(ix) Margaret Gordon: marked - Ricks: alive in 1909 in Logan, Cache County, Utah.
(2) Joseph Gordon, born 20th March 1817. ? Married Margaret Stewart (d. 1852)
(3) Jean Gordon, born 7th May 1809.
(4) Margaret Gordon, born 9th April 1811: married Donald EMcKenzie, Ardoch, and had issue.
(5) Elspet Gordon, born 16th February 1813: the Bovaglie MS says she went to Australia where she married.
(6) Helen Gordon, born 4th February 1815: went to Australia, where she married.
(7) Jean Gordon, born 12th March 1820. The Bovaglie MS say she married Charles Leys and went to Australia.
5. Helen Gordon, born 28th October 1776. The Bovaglie MS says she married James Stewart, Glenmuick, and had issue.
6. Margaret Gordon, born at Rint ar Suine, 11th August 1784. I stated in the Aberdeen Journal of September 1909 that she married, as his second wife, John Gordon, Camlet. Mr. C. Brown wrote a correction to the effect that Margaret, the daughter of James Gordon, Kintore, married 3rd December 1809, John Brown, farmer Leavel, and died, as a gravestone in Crathie churchyard notes, on 26th January 1826, aged 60 years. He then states that Margaret (Mrs. John Gordon) had a sister Nicholas Gordon who married Jcseph Gordon. But this Nicholas was, like Margaret Gordon (Mrs. John Gordon). undoubtedly the daughter of James Gordon, Kintore. The explanation may be that Margaret Gordon married first John Gordon, and secondly John Brown. (Pers comment: this is incorrect)
7. Janet Gordon: birth unrecorded: was stated by "A.B.C." in the Aberdeen Weekly Journal, (22nd December 1909) to have married - Thomson, Tomidoes.
8. Mary Gordon, born in Tomidoes, 2nd March 1793. She was stated by "A.B.C" (Aberdeen Weekly Journal 22nd December 1909) to have married - Morgan, tailor, Kylachriedi (Glemuick Register) and had issue. She Is well remembered as having periodically left Coilachreich in the morning with a birn of stockings on her back such as few woman nowadays mould think of carrying, from the bleach green to the laundry, wading the river below Coilachriech, passing through the Foot o' Gairn and Glemuick, out the west side of Mount Keen, over the Grampians, up one hillside and down the other and on to Forfar that night with her pack for disposal next (Aberdeen Journal Notes and Queries - 29th January 1929. She died after 1854.
9. Jane Gordon: marrled.John Thow (Bovaglie MS).
DONALD G0RDON, BOVAGLIE DIED 1854.
Donald Gordon in Bovaglie was a younger son of James Gordon in Kintore, though he does not figure in the Crathie Register. When he died in 1854 he is said by the Aberdeen Journal to have been born bout 1771. He was known as "Red Donald".
There were other Gordons there when he was born:
" Thus on 17th February 1788. Jean Gordon, Bovaglie, married Charles Gall, and had two sons and three daughters (Crathie Register).
" Again, a John Gordon, Bovaglie, married Margaret Fleming, 18th January 1793, and had a son John (ibid). A Joseph Gordon, Bovaglie, married Rachel Tastard, 27th July 1722 and had four sons (ibid.) Joseph Gordon, Bovaglie, married (secondly?) Margaret Stewart, Tolchil, and had a son born May 1801.
" Peter Gordon, Bovaglie, had a son John Born 1786. Peter Gordon, Bovaglie, married Margaret Macpherson and had a daughter Mary, born 21st July 1818.
Donald Gordon, Bovaglie married Elspet Gordon, eldest daughter of John Gordon Camlet., whose son Joseph, Mill of Cosh., married, as I have shown, Donald's sister Nicholas Gordon.
Donald died 13th March 1854, in his eighty-third year (Aberdeen Journal). He had ten children:
1. John Gordon, born 3rd April 1805. It was he who made a pedigree of the family. He migrated to Foulzie, King Edward, and then to Crovie, Macduff, retiring to the town of Macduff, where he died on 18th April 1896 (M.I. Macduff). He married on 19th August 1845, Elisabeth Pyper (born 18th September 1822), second daughter of Alexander Pyper, Bridge End, King Edward: she died at Macduff, 9th April 1907. They had eight sons and two daughters.
(1) John Gordon, born at Foulzie, 10th June 1845. He emigrated in 1878, settling at Woodlands, Auckland, where he died in 1935.
(2) Peter Gordon: born at Foulzie, 13th April 1848. After farming Cairnandrew, Gamrie, he emigrated to Dunedin, New Zealand. He married Isobel Murdoch McGillivrey, and had a son.
(3) Alexander Gordon, born at Foulzie, 11thJune 1850. He emigrated to Auckland city, New Zealand.
(4) William Gordon, born at Crovie, Gamrie, 12th November 1858
(5) William Wernham Gordon, born at Crovie, 20th November 1859. He emigrated to New Zealand, and died in the hospital at Napier, 20th April 1891.
(6) Donald Gordon, born at Crovie, 2nd August 1862. He emigrated to Gisborne, New Zealand, where he had a butcher's business.
(7) Charles Collie Gordon, born at Crovie., 20th October 1865.
(8) Francis Gordon, emigrated to Johannesburg; died in 1934 or 1935.
(9) James Gordon, farmed Netherbrae: he is dead.
(10) Elizabeth Gordon, born at Crovie, 13th February 1854. Married William Massie, Nethermill, by Pennan, and emigrated to New Zealand with him. They had a son.
(11) Margaret Gordon, born at Crovie, 16th February 1857. She died at Macduff 19th September 1884, aged 27.
2. Donald Gordon, carried on the farm of Bovaglie.
3. Peter Gordon, born October 1815, at Baddoch, Braemar. He married Euphemia Meston, 5th October 1845 and according to the Bovaglie MS. had:
(1) Donald Gordon, born 24th June 1847, in Baddoch: died in Australi a.
(2) Peter Gordon, born 16th October 1848: a drysalter, married in Glasgow 15th June 1877, Elizabeth Drummond, and had a daughter Euphemi a.
(3) John Gordon, died aged 11.
(4) James Gordon, died aged 9.
(5) Meston Gortbn: was a policeman In Liverpool. On retiring he took a place at Kintore and I saw him herding the King's sheep In 1921. He was married and had Issue.
(6) Helen Gordon, born 9th February 1843.
(7) Margaret Gordon, born 8thJanuary 1844.
(8) Euphemia Gordon, died aged 5.
4. James Gordon, born 1st January 1826. He had the farm of Finnylost, Invernettie for nineteen years, and died there 25th July 1891, aged sixty-five. He is buried in Strathdon. He married Ann Grassick, Parkville, 29th June 1855, and had:
(1) James Gordon, died in London, 4th November 1884, aged 28.
(2) John Gordon: a gamekeeper.
(3) Donald Gordon gamekeeper, Auchernach.
(4) William Gordon, went to America to farm in 1898.
(5) Alexander Gordon, died 10th February 1880, aged seven.
(6) Mary Ann Gordon: married Francis Coutts, Ardquhonnie, Strathdon.
(7) Anne Gordon, married James Begg, Blackhillock, Glenbucket.
(8) Jean Gordon, married John Forbes, Rhinstock, Strathdon.,
5. Margaret Gordon, born 2nd May 1848: married John McColl, gamekeeper, Abergeldie.
6. Jean Gordon, born 22nd August 1809, died 1816.
7. Elspet Gordon, born 18th October 1813: married Patrick Glennie., Eastfleld, Ballater.
8. Mary Gordon, born 11th May 1821.
9. Elizabeth Gordon: died young.
10. Helen Gordon, married 1) James Glass, Heughead, Coldstone, Tarland; 2) James Hay, Heughead, and had issue by both husbands.
DONALD GORDON, Bovaglie (1811-1897)
He was the second son of Donald Gordon, Bovaglie., and was born 4th September 1811. Besides Bovaglie, he tenanted the farm of Western Morven farm from the Marquis of Huntly.
He was very well known in the district and is represented in one of the fine coloured plates in Kenneth McLeay's "Highlanders of Scotland" (1868: no. 16) Which stated that he was known to Queen Victoria and "turned out" with the Balmoral Highlanders. For long he supplied mutton to the Royal family. During the winter he lived in Dee Street, Aberdeen. He died
5th February 1897. He married 26th January 1855, Margaret Smith daughter of James Smith, Kintore. She died January 24th 1935, at Wayside, Banchory. In her 98th year. They h ad:
1. John Gordon.
2. Donald Gordon, born 1859: at the Grammar School, Aberdeen, 1877-79: farmed Bovaglie and Morven: died at Livet House, King's Gate, Aberdeen: 28th May 1929: buried at Crathie.
3. James Gordon, born 1866: at Aberdeen Grammar School, 1878-81: formerly a merchant at Buenos Ayres, from which he returned in 1897, and then in Aberdeen: succeeding his brother-in-law, James Walker. He died unmarried in a nursing home in London, 22nd April 1937, and was buried from Richmondhill House in Springbank Cemetery.
4. David Gordon.
5. Mary Gordon.
6. Margaret Gordon: married James Walker. Lord Provost of Aberdeen from 1902 to 1905. She has a son and two daughters.
7. Elizabeth Gordon.
8. Victoria Gordon married 11th November 1896, Robert S. Cook (killed in a motor accident) son of Charles Cook, Canada Place House, Aberdeen., by his wife Elspet Nicoll. (whose mother Margaret Hunter's sister married Samuel Gordon, Crofts of Glemuick). Has issue Bobert Charles Victor Cook, and Norma Gordon Cook.
9. Janie Gordon, married at Richmondhill House, 14th February 1907, Allan Hair, .MRCS. LRCP. (London), Fairmead House., Holloway, London, second son of John Hair, Upper Park Road, Hampstead, and has issue.
10. Mary Gordon.
JOSEPH GORDON, Bovaglie (1755-1850).
There seem to have been, in the middle of the eighteenth century, five tenants in Bovaglie,
and a certain Joseph Gordon was one of them. I do not know his connection, if any, with the Donald Gordons in Bovaglie. His granddaughter, Mrs Forbes Laurel Bank, Milnathort, Kinross,
suggested to me in 1913 that Joseph was a brother of Donald Gordon, Bovaglie (1771-1854). But I cannot prove the statement.
Joseph Gordon is said to have been born in 1755. He moved from Bovaglie first to Braichlie, and then to Cambus o' May, and he died at Broughty Ferry in 1850. Several other members of the Bovaglie group found their wives in Fifeshire
Joseph Gordon was twice married. On 27thJuly 1788, he married Rachel Tastard, probably a daughter of Peter Tastard, who was stationed, between 1773 and 1781, in the S.P.C.K. School's successively at Easter Balmoral, Crathie, Bridge of Girnock and Wester Micros. In 1773 the population of Crathie was 2253, of whom 832 were Roman Catholics. Joseph Gordon married, secondly, in 1800, Margaret Stewart, Toldhu, who died In 1852. He had Issue by both wives:
1. James Gordon, by his first wife: birth not recorded. He became a gardener, and for some years acted as such at Crawford Priory, Fife. Emigrating to Cape Colony, he became a farmer in the first raid of the Boers into British territory, he and his wife were attacked and massacred, only one, a young boy, escaping by hiding himself. I do not know what became of this survivor.
2. John Gordon, by the first wife: baptised 2nd September 1792 (Crathie Register). He had an extensive business in Dundee as a linen weaver, and had a factory of linen weavers. He was admitted a burgess of Dundee on the 6th November 1822, paying a fee of �10.He married Mary Rhynd and had:
(1) James Gordon, cornfactor, Dundee, and for some time Prussian Consul there. He was admitted a burgess of Dundee on the 10th December 1852, in right of his father. He was served heir special in a house at Springfield, Dundee, to his uncle Joseph Gordon, on the 24th August 1881. He afterwards moved to Newport and died in 1906. He married Rachel Clark, and his family were living at Wormit, Fife, in 1913. He had:
" Robert Gordon.
" William Gordon.
" John Gordon.
" George G. Gordon.
" Mary Gordon.
" Catherine Gordon.
" Josephine Gordon.
(2) Joseph Gordon: dead by 1913.
(3) John Gordon, corn merchant: admitted burgess of Dundee 28th December 18 54, in right o f hi s father: dead by 1913.
(4) Eliza Gordon, married Willam Fyfe, principal Free Church College, Calcutta: died 1907.
(5) Catherine Gordon.
(6) Helen Gordon.
3. Joseph Gordon, by the first wife, baptised 4th February 1791. He entered the earl of Airlie's service and became butler at Cortachy Castle. Then he went to Montrose and started a drapery business, becoming a baillie of the town. In September, 1841, he emigrated to Australia, landing at Sydney, and settling at Bathurst as a general merchant. In the late sixties he returned to Scotland. As trustee on the estate of his brother John he and his co-trustees were found liable in the City of Glasgow Bank smash, and he had to find �30,000. He died at Dundee, apparently unmarried, 15th March 1888 (?) aged 83.
4. Peter Gordon, baptised 4th February 1795, by first wife. He was a prosperous general merchant at Kirriemuir, and is buried in Glenmuick Churchyard.
5. Alexander Steuart., by second wife: baptised 12th May 1801: lived in Aberdeen
6. Robert Gordon, by second wife, baptised 19th May 1802.
7. Francis Gordon, by second wife, baptised 2nd July 1803.
8. Donald Gordon, born 1812. He was a coal, grass and fodder merchant at Dundee, and, like his brother Joseph, suffered through the City of Glasgow Bank failure. He died 3rd October 1899. He married December,1846, at Meathie, near Forfar, Margaret Anderson, and had:
(1) William Gordon, born 10th May 1853. He was a marine engineer, sailing chiefly in the Chinese Seas, with headquarters at Shanghai. He was lost in the sinking of the Kowshing by the Japanese at the outbreak of the Chino-Japanese War, 25th July 1894. He married Mary Anne Forbes, sister of John Forbes, who married his sister Margaret Gordon, and had a daughter Gertrude Gordon.
(2) Mary Anne Gordon, born 4th March 1848. She married Robert Muir, insurance manager, and resided successively at Invermess, Glasgow and London (1913). She had four sons and four daughters.
(3) Margaret Gordon, born 22nd January 1850: married 23rd August 1880, John Forbes. Headmaster, Springfield, Fife. where they resided till June 1908, when they moved to Milnathort, Kinross, where they were living in 1913. They had one son and four daughters. Mrs. Forbes gave me a lot of information about the family in 1913 which I published in the Aberdeen Weekly Journal, 5th September 1913.
(4) Eliza Jane Gordon, born 29th September 1859: married Alexander Smith, Calendar manager, Dundee, July 1892, and had a daughter Margaret Gordon Smith.
9. William Gordon, by second wife, baptised 8th March 1815 (or 1816). died 1834
10. Jane Gordon, by second wife.
11. Isobel Gordon, by second wife.
12. Elizabeth Gordon (1 806-65) by second wife: married John Michie, Balnacroft, Glenmuick, and had a son:
" John Michie, chief engineer in the P.& 0. Service: drowned in the English Channel. He married Elizabeth Stewart, born at Bridgefoot, Brackley and was the father of:
" WillIam Stewart Gordon Michie, C.A., well known in connection with music hall management and the pictures.