and Margaret McPherson
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Sometime c1815 Peter Gordon married Margaret McPHERSON, daughter of Donald McPHERSON & Jane GORDON. Margaret MCPherson was born at South Inchdowrie, Clova in 1792 and died at Braeside of Balnacraig, on the 25th March 1868, she was 76.
Peter Gordon and Margaret McPherson had the following children:
1. James (c1815-1890) emigrated to New Zealand
2. John (1816-1899)
3. Mary (1818-1899)
4. Jane (1820-1897)
5. Margaret (1823-1909)
This writer had coined Peter Gordon (b1793) "The Oonkent Fairmer" for four decades of research had proved fruitless in tracing his route from Bovaglie. By 1841, Peter and his wife Margaret had certainly moved away from the Girnoc as they did not appear on any census returns. Innumerable researchers, paid and unpaid (Baxendine and Iggo amongst others) had all tried to trace this couple - all with little success! An initial assumption was that Peter Gordon and his wife Margaret McPherson left the parish and travelled south through the hills to Kirriemuir and Angus beyond. This seemed likely as Peter's son John, married in Forfar in 1836. The writer had thought that he had confirmed this theory by the finding of a tombstone within the confines of the ancient churchyard of Glenmuick.
On the tombstone immediately next to that of Euphemia McAndrew of Camlet reads...
"PETER GORDON, LATE MERCHANT, KIRRYMUIR, DIED 5.6.1821, age 22 years, BY BROTHERS JOHN & JOSEPH GORDON"
This seemed an exciting breakthrough and a simple and straightforward answer: this writer's 4G Grandfather had died young and this was his grave right next to his mother Euphemia's. However a little calculation reveals that this Peter Gordon must have been born in 1799 (not 1793 as was the date for 'Our Oonkent Peter'- as we know for sure from both the Parish Records and the Bovaglie Manuscript)
Donald Whyte in his opus on the Deeside Gordons had the likely explanation, that this grave was of another Peter, a relative infact (and almost certainly) 'Our Oonkent Peter's' first cousin, born at Bovaglie in 1798, and the son of Joseph Gordon and Rachel Tastard. Joseph is assumed as a younger brother of 'Camlet John'. Please follow to section on "Joseph's Incredible Bairns"
Still this writer clung to the fact that perhaps there was a transcription error on the tombstone or perhaps that a faded '2' read as '7' If Peter was aged '27' rather than '22,' the date of birth would fit our 'Oonkent Peter' exactly!
So to summarise this writer (like others before him) had assumed that Peter Gordon and his wife Margaret McPherson had either died very young or travelled south or even emigrated. All these assumptions turned out to be utterly erroneous!
It was not until May 2003 that the mystery was solved. The clue was through the two daughters, Mary and Jane Gordon. For an long trail through death records finally revealed their death certificates. Both girls lived long lives, but the real clue was that they had married Birse men (downstream to a riverside spot just beyond Aboyne). Balnacraig was the farm. This was the crofting farm of their parents - Peter Gordon the previously coined "Oonkent Fairmer" and Margaret McPherson.
Peter Gordon appears on the 1841 census of Braeside of Balnacraig. He is described simply as a "Farmer" By 1851 he was dead but his wife Margaret and grandson Peter Hunter continued the tenancy. Margaret McPherson lived on at Braeside of Balnacraig until her death aged 76 years in March 1868.
The old parish records for Crathie revealed that, "John Gordon in Camlet and his spouse Euphemia MacAndrew, had a son baptised March 16th 1793 named Peter." However how sure could we be that this was "our Peter?"
Conclusive evidence came in the form of the "Bovaglie Manuscript." This was a family-tree drawn up in Sept 1872 by John Gordon of Crovie (1805-1896) one of the Bovaglie Gordons. Fortunately for us, his mother Elspet Gordon was of Camlet descent, and she was the older sister of "our Peter." In it John Gordon talks of his mother's siblings and "Uncle Peter, married to Margaret McPherson" So there can be absolutely no doubt: this family stems "fae the Camlet!"
Living at Braeside of Balnacraig
District 5 page 2
Peter Gordon, age 45yrs, Farmer, Yes
Margaret Gordon, age 45yrs, No
Mary Gordon, age 20yrs, Yes
Janet Milne, 10yrs, Family Servant, Yes
Peter Hunter, 7mth, Grandson Yes
Reveals that Peter has died ... but still living at Braeside of Balnacraig
Margaret Gordon, Head, Widow, age 60yrs, Farmer of 6acres, born: Clova
Peter Hunter, age 10yrs, Agricultural Servant, born Aboyne
Also living with this family are 4 other boarders.
There is some connection between Camlet and Lewis Farquharson. Here we have Peter Gordon and his wife Margaret McPherson as his estate farmer; yet further, we have Peter Gordon's sister, Jane Gordon (who married Donald McDonald) & settled in Birse (Sluie), naming her last son Lewis Farquharson!
Robin Callander - History in Birse Vol I
��� The history of Ballogie estate has also involved Farquharsons. In 1789 it was bought by Charles Innes, the second son of James Innes and Catherine Gordon of Balnacraig. He appears to have been a problem child as he was twice sent off to the Scots College at Douai in France. The first time he ran away and then the second time he was sent home. However, while he may not have been suited for priesthood, he was a successful businessman. He went to St Petersburg, Russia, and amassed a considerable fortune. In 1797 he returned and secured Balnacraig by paying off the family's debts and in 1789 he purchased the adjacent estate of Ballogie, after the sudden death of its owner Mr Forbes.
Charles Innes died in 1803 and was succeeded by his elder brother Lewis, who died in 1815. Ballogie and Balnacraig then passed to their nearest of kin, a cousin Lewis Farquharson, a brother of James Farquharson, laird of Balmoral and Inverey. He had been a merchant in Canada, but he returned home to settle at Ballogie and assume the name and arms of the Innes of Balnacraig. His wife was the daughter of an Irishman, Mackveagh, who had a large scale linen manufacturing business at Huntly. Lewis (Farquharson) Innes died in 1830, aged 67. He was succeeded by his only son, Lewis, who died suddenly in 1844 at the age of 34. The estate then fell to his sisters, three Miss Farquharsons living at Ballogie and a Mrs Lynch in London. In 1852 they sold Ballogie and Balnacraig to James Dyce Nicol.