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and Ann Selbie
The Gordons O' Girnoc
It is not known for sure if John Gordon was born at his mother's homestead - Inchgowrie, Clova; or his father's homestead - Bovaglie, Crathie. John Gordon died at Denmuir, Dunbog, Fife on the 13th of September 1899, he was 83. He is buried in Dunbog Cemetery.
On the 27th of November 1836 when John was 20, he married Ann P. SELBIE, daughter of Peter SELBIE & Margaret (Martha) LINN (LIND), in Forfar. His wife Ann Selbie died at Glentarkie Farm on the 18th of November 1902, she was 84.
2. John (1840-1878) - Emigrated to New Zealand.
3. James (1843-) - Emigrated to New Zealand.
4. Charlotte McPherson (1845-1914)
5. George (1848-) - emigrated to America.
6. Donald (1850-) - emigrated to America.
7. William Batchelor (1852-1915)
8. Robert Walker (1858-1931)
'Oor Fairmer fae the far side o' the hill'
Now tattered and long since stripped of its cover, the gold-leafed pages of the Gordon Family photographic album preserve an amazing image: the carte-de-visit� portrait of 'auld John' seated side-by-side with his 'guid-wife Annie.'
Solidly built and thoroughly bearded 'auld John' looks uncomfortable in his pose, and yet despite his advanced years, his limbs look strong and powerful. This is a man that has worked a long and hard life. As this writer gazes at the portrait of his 3G-Grandfather his eyes are drawn to 'auld John's' hands: rugged, calloused, powerful and (no-doubt) arthritic spans that have seen the fullest of toil.
Yes truly, John Gordon lived a long hard life. He almost made it into the twentieth century, dying just months short - in September of 1899; he was by then in his 84th year. John Gordon's marriage to Ann Selbie (Selby) spanned almost 65 years, and together they raised a family of seven boys and one girl.
This picture of 'auld John' takes us straight back to the Girnoc, for it was here that John spent a good-part of his childhood in one of Bovaglie's bothies, protected and 'happed' by its sheltering 'wuid.' Without too much imagination one can recreate the scene; of the young lad John, rugged and spirited, weaving in and out of the kailyards and dykes, yet innocently imagining what lay beyond the high and majestic peaks of Lochnagar. Deep stirrings were afoot in the Girnoc, and John would more than sense this: the 'farm-toun' of Bovaglie was rapidly emptying, with drovers abandoning their bothies and hill farms and trekking for fortunes elsewhere. Yes John was growing-up amidst the Clearance, and the once heavily populated Girnoc Glen of his father and grandfather was rapidly oozing life. This change for young John must have been sorely dramatic.
Many secrets were left behind as ghosts in the abandoned Girnoc, though the hardships of the dwellers past life were willingly and quickly forgotten. Indeed there was much to hide: for the struggle to sustain oneself (or indeed one's family) within the glen brought about a resourcefulness that at best was improper, but in truth was unlawful. This was not to be talked of. My great-grandfather used to scold his bairns if they enquired of their Deeside roots, and would bellow fearfully "Get on with your studies and keep out of the poor-house!"
You see the 'sma-stills smoked' in the secluded and remote Girnoc for here the manufacture of illicit whisky was truly at its height. For sure, the young John, later to be pictured as an old man, would have been well aware of this, for it is likely that both his father and grandfather were involved. With the droving-years coming to an end, how else could they support their large families, especially in such unforgiving terrain as the mountainous and windswept Girnoc?
Yet deep shame persisted in the Gordon descendents - a shame that proud Victorians could not face - so the secrets were buried forever and new beginnings sought. James Gordon - a brother of John (though this still needs to be confirmed) left with his wife and young family for a new life overseas, enticed by the rich promise that at that time was so publicly foretold. This new life was far away on New Zealand's south island and this added new potency to any reminiscences. Here is what was recorded of James Gordon, the brother of John:
"The Gordons lived in the Highlands of Scotland. Family fortunes were suffering in the unsettled times. They had been trying to help themselves by working a "whisky still." Excisemen came to seize stock. Somebody, unnoticed put James, the nine year old son of the family, on the back of a valuable stallion. They directed the child to ride to a friend's place. He did so, and the friend hid the horse. The value of the horse thus saved, was helpful to the family, who moved to the town of Perth, and there ran a butcher's shop for many years."
One other, 'whisper on the braes' has drifted through the branches of 'auld John's descendents: that 'this family' was "born of the wrang side of the Abergeldie blanket." In other words that the family originated from a clandestine relationship of the old Abergeldie Laird.
It was this rumoured pedigree of the Abergeldie blood-line that spurred this writer's aunt, uncle and father into the morass of family research. Had they known that the Girnoc was notorious for its unfathomable Gordon relationships, they might have thought again! In fact long, long ago, the Deeside folk coined a phrase for any undeterminable problem "You'd as soon unravel the inextricable sibness o' the Gordons o' Girnock!"
John Gordon died on the 30th of September 1899 at Denmuir, Dunbog, Fife. On his death entry he was described as
"a retired farmer aged 83, married to Annie Selbie, and the son of PETER GORDON, farmer, and MARGARET McPHERSON, both deceased." No Old Parish Birth entry can be found for John, but the births of his two sisters are recorded: Mary at Bovaglie in 1818, and Jane at Bovaglie in 1820. It has also emerged that John had at least one brother James (see above) who later emigrated to New Zealand.
Although John does not appear within the Crathie parish register, from his age at death, one can calculate that he was born circa 1816. Unfortunately we shall never know for sure if he was, like his sisters Mary and Jane, born at Bovaglie. Indeed John himself was to give conflicting accounts regarding his birthplace, as has been most starkly revealed in his census returns for which he gave two different loci for his birth. In the 1851 and 1861 census, "Crathie, Aberdeenshire," was given; whilst in 1881 and 1891, he states he was born in "Cortachy parish, Angus."
So we have a balance of confusion: the two earliest census entries confirming "Crathie," and the later two confirming "Cortachy.". Sadly the intervening census return, that of 1871, was only to embed this uncertainty, for in it, the birth parish of John Gordon was given as "Forfarshire (Cortachy/Crathie)"
This writer has an inclination here that originally John Gordon believed he was born in Crathie (presumably Bovaglie Farm, like his sisters) but in later years learnt from his mother Margaret McPherson (who died as late as 1868) the truth that he was born in Cortachy parish (at her family farm of Inchdowrie at Clova.)
Whatever, the details fit: John's father (Peter Gordon) was a cattle-drover for Bovaglie farm and Clova and Cortachy was one of the very first stopovers on the trek over the hills to the Crieff Cattle Fair - and even by foot, took less than half-a-day from Bovaglie. It seems likely he stopped at Inchdowrie and there met the young Margaret McPherson: Peter and Margaret were then both just 22 years of age.
Perhaps, more implausibly, but more romantically, John Gordon was born in the hills, en-route between Bovaglie and Inchdowrie. Now then that would make him the truest of Highlanders!
Until recently this writer was inclined to assume that John was born prior to wedlock, and that this was the reason for the confusion over birth place. After all, illegitimacy can truly shut the closet door tight! However it has now emerged that John had a brother James, and that this James also had no parish birth entry. So given the multiple omissions in the record, it seems far more likely that there was just another 'gap' in the surviving parish record. Additionally we have to consider that the father, Peter Gordon, was a drover of Cattle, and his family no doubt were often 'on the move.'
However it is the story of the family fleeing the Glen to escape the excisemen that really strikes a likely truth. If young James Gordon was six when the excisemen spotted the 'reeking-lums' of the Girnoc 'sma'-stills' then we can date that time to the early 1820's. This must have been a tumultuous period for the Gordon family and another boulder of shame for young John to bear. No wonder this writer's great-grandfather (John's grandson) maintained such a tightly guarded moratorium on his family's past!
John, or 'auld John' as seen in the old card portrait, was son of Peter Gordon (1793 - mid-1840's.) Peter Gordon was born at Camlet in the middle of March 1793. There is no doubt about this. His birth is recorded in the Old Parish Register and in the Bovagli' Manuscript written by Peter's nephew. The Bovagli' Manuscript describes"Uncle Peter - married to Margaret McPherson" and later lists this Peter as one of the sons of 'Camlet John' and Euphemia MacAndrew.
Peter Gordon, father of John, was one of many Gordons who tenanted Bovaglie Farm the "Jewel of the Mountains" but at some time after 1820, and before 1840, he moved downstream with his family to Balnacraig on the river Dee by Aboyne.
But let us now return to John Gordon, who was, like his father and grandfather, a shepherd. Generations of John's family had worked the land and reared the beast, and for at least the previous 100 years his family had been loyal yeoman tenants for their Abergeldie Laird. John, like so many of his time, broke the 'shackles' and left his native Deeside as a young man. His glittering Jewel lay the other side of Lochnagar; in Forfar, Angus where he found his sweetheart. Annie Selbie (Selby) his young maiden is recalled in our family's annals. She is remembered rather differently, not in her glorious youth, but in her advanced years, stern and plump sitting by the fireside with her heid-bunnet and puffing awa' at her clay-pipe. One wonders if it was this 'hearthy' image of Annie that has sooted the family recollections of 'Granny Gordon' - for it has been told that she was of 'Gypsy Blood.'
There is a story passed down at least two branches of the family that "a grandfather Gordon ran off with a Spanish Gypsy" and this it was said accounted for the physical characteristics of the Gordon men and especially for their swarthy complexion and truly heavy beard growth!
John Gordon married Annie at Forfar on the last Sunday of November 1836. One doubts that they could have ever imagined, that as they exchanged vows, aged twenty and eighteen respectively, that their matrimonial embrace would see them through 65 years of steadfast togetherness. There are few couples (even now) that can boast that!
John Gordon, age 25yrs, Agricultural Labourer, NOT born in this parish
Ann Gordon, age 20yrs, NOT born in this parish
Peter Gordon, age 3yrs, NOT born in this parish
John Gordon, age 1yr, YES born in this parish
Note in neighbouring farm of Berryhill, the same age as John Gordon is William Batchelor, age 25yrs, Agricultural Labourer. Is this who gave name to John's second last child? Presumably they were close friends and both shepherds!
This latest baby boy was Christened William Batchelor Gordon. As this was not a family name it was first assumed that this child was named after John's employer - this was often the case at the time, when the 'lower order' children gathered names from the 'respected families' of the district. However this was not the reason for William, as close perusal of the 1841 and 1851 census would illuminate. For next to John Gordon's 1841 entry at North Binn, was found the schedule for the neighbouring farm of Berryhill. The shepherd there was William Batchelor, aged the same generation as John. So it was that John Gordon named his second last child after his friend, and fellow shepherd, Mr William Batchelor.
Yet perhaps there is a little more to this story, as by 1851 the families of both, William Batchelor, and John Gordon, were sharing an 'L' shaped, divided and cramped bothy at Muirloch farm. Had William Batchelor then 'helped' introduce John to a new Shepherding post? One speculates here, but possibly without the assistance of William Batchelor, John and his family might have been in difficulty? Indeed one wonders what brought about the end of John's ten year service at North Binn?
Whatever the Gordons were at Muirloch but for a relatively short time and certainly before 1856 had flitted once more (adding weight to the above speculation that William Batchelor helped out a family 'in need.') So it was that circa 1855 the Gordon family arrived in Fife.
In one generation John Gordon (1816-1899) the 'Bovaglie -boy' had left his native Deeside travelled through Clova and the Grampians into Angus. At Forfar John Gordon met his wife. Together with Annie he raised nearly all his family in Fowlis Easter, before that last final cast across the water to Fife.
None of this paints an easy picture of family life for the Gordons, for them life was an existence as far removed from the comforts of wealth as is possible to imagine. John, the shepherd, periodically had to chase work, and as a result, he and his family were forced to flit. Even within North Fife this pattern was retained, and by the end of his career, one can count back at least eight separate decampments.
John Gordon, head, aged 33, shepherd, born in Crathie, Aberdeenshire
Ann Gordon, wife, born in Forfar
Peter, son, aged 12, born Glammis, Forfarshire
James, son, aged 8, born Fowlis Easter
Charlotte, daughter, aged 8, born Fowlis Easter
George, son, aged 8, born Fowlis Easter
Donald, son, aged 8, born Fowlis Easter
Robert Gordon's birth marked the fourth move for the family: to Collairniehill, Dunbog. Here in an utterly remote hill bothy, and near to the ruins of Collairnie Castle, the family forged out a new life.
Collairniehill is set in the beautiful rolling uplands of North Fife and the shepherd bothy occupied by John, Annie and their growing family has survived to this day. However it is now a roofless granite skeleton perched high upon the hill and as a result appears eerily exposed. When this writer first saw Collairniehill's bare silhouette his mental chords sang with the echoes of Camlet. Eerie, yes that was the right word; for the home of John the grandson was eerily reminiscent of that of his grandfather 'Camlet John'. Indeed the similarity was uncanny: from the parallel layout of the glen, the meandering burn-side climb, to the lofty, elevated positions of both houses hanging upon the 'elbow' of their respective hills.
The 1861 census depicts the Gordons of Collairniehill; John Gordon, age 43, the shepherd and head of household with his wife Annie, and their five youngest children (aged 3 to 15 years.) The three oldest boys are not there. By now, Peter, the first born son (and this writer's 2G-Grandfather) was aged 23, and his brothers' John and James, aged 21 and 18 years respectively. It has yet to be fully established where these three 'older brothers' were at this time - but there are strong indicators that it was the city of Perth.
John Gordon, head, aged 43, shepherd, born Crathie, Aberdeenshire
Ann Gordon, wife, aged 41, born Forfar
Charlotte, daughter, aged 15, born Foulis, Perthshire
George, son, aged 13, born Foulis, Perthshire
Donald, son, aged 11, born Foulis, Perthshire
William, son, aged 8, born Foulis, Perthshire
Robert W., son, aged 3, born Foulis, Perthshire
Well the first oddity that links in with Perth was the finding on the 1851 census, that John Gordon, born 1840, and the second son of 'auld John' was not listed alongside his family. John's omitted entry was thus assumed as an indicator of his childhood or infant death. No further thought was given to the matter - given that (as any family researcher will tell you) infant death was sadly very much the 'norm' during this period. It was whilst chasing the next brother, James Gordon (born in 1843) that a startling and ultimately tragic series of events emerged. John, the 'little boy lost' emerged as if out of the ether - but he was not in Perth (as you might have been expecting) but indeed much further from his homeland. Yes indeed much further!
New Zealand. That was where the answer lay. Well actually not quite. One has to travel directly south from the island several hundreds miles beyond to the unforgiving subantarctic Campbell Island. No man had braved enterprise here - that was until Captain Tucker. Perched on a roof rafter of a long deserted Makauri wool-shed, dilapidated from decades of inattention, three rusty old-tin boxes were found. These boxes had survived the best part of one hundred years - and their careful owner Captain Tucker had soldered them shut - and as such the contents inside were hermetically sealed. The finder of the box passed it into the care of Mr Norm Judd, who has long had a fascination with the islands, and who was researching for a book on such. Fascinated by the contents of the box, the indefatigable Norm set about finding some answers; answers that were to finally raise the lid on the adventures of two of the Gordon boys - James and John ('the little boy lost')
Here we have to hop back home again; and this (you will be glad to know) is where Perth comes in. For in all likelihood Peter, John and James (the three oldest sons of John Gordon and Annie Selbie) were briefly resident here. The dates cannot be exact, but it is most likely we are talking of the last few years of the 1850's. One assumes that the boys stayed with or domiciled near their uncle JAMES GORDON. This James was a butcher in Perth and was married with children - and until the finding of the box - he was 'unknown' and not linked into the family.
With the leaf-fall of 1861, James Gordon, aged 19 years and his brother John, aged 21, left their native Scotland and set sail for New Zealand. They arrived at Lyttelton, on the 7th of January 1862. The brothers had the benefits of traveling in the relative comforts of second class cabins with nineteen other paying passengers aboard the sailing ship 'Mystery.' The brothers had followed in the wake of their 'Uncle James' - the butcher from Perth who had emigrated with his wife less than 18 months before.
It is time then to let Norm deliver, in his own words, the tin-box-tale: a tale that rediscovers John 'the little boy lost' and James his brother.
"�..I was told by Ted Ellmers that the old woolshed on Tucker's Makauri estate had been bulldozed and burnt to make way for a new one. Before the bulldozer got to work, Ted had gone in and had a good look around to see if anything of value remained inside. He spotted three old, zinc-coated biscuit tins up in the rafters, covered in dust and cobwebs.
When he climbed up and brought the tins down Ted saw they had been soldered shut - hermetically sealed. He opened the tins with a can opener and found two contained small boxes of glass plate photo negatives. A third held old papers; diaries, letters and statements, all dated between 1897 and 1903. The papers were parchment-like, dry and brittle and all related to the running of the Campbell Island farm. I knew that the first lessee, James Gordon, of whom very little is known, lived on the island in 1897 as the principle lessee and as manager for the second lessee, Captain Tucker, from 1900 to 1903.
Most of the 250 plates appeared to be of scenes around Poverty Bay about the early 1900s. These pictures were undoubtedly taken for or by, Captain Tucker and showed a life-style which, at the time, must have been quite affluent. At a point about half way through the collection I was elated when found myself sketching plates that featured Campbell Island's farm fence lines at about the Turn of the Century
When I had 'catalogued' about 150 of the 250 plates, I picked up a plate that made me pause. Apart from the oval paper frame glued to the face of the plate, which was the first of this type that I had seen in the collection, there was something different about the picture.
When I held the plate up before the light in Ted's kitchen, I saw that it was of a group of eight or nine people sitting or kneeling on a lawn before the front porch of a house. By their clothes I guessed that it had been taken about 1900. A woman kneeling in middle foreground was dressed in what appeared to be an elaborate light coloured gown and markedly, her head was bowed as if she didn't want to be photographed. In rear left sat a man who appeared to be in his 60s, dressed in light coloured sports jacket and white tie. This subject was different - different that is from the general run of well heeled individuals who appeared in the other plates. Even though the plates were negative the man had a strong presence. Without any supporting information or any real rationale, I wondered if this was James Gordon.
Though the group appeared not of the same social circle as those in most of the other pictures, there is evidence that Tucker had valued this picture. The paper oval cutout frame glued to its surface seemed to reinforce this supposition. At that stage it had been the only one in the collection seen to have this treatment. There is confidence now to say that this photograph is of James Gordon and his wife Christina (see below) and some of their family, and that it was taken sometime after the Turn of the Century.
These photographs are important because James Gordon was a leader in little known event that became a milestone in New Zealand's subantarctic history. James Gordon became Campbell Island's first lessee when all of New Zealand's subantarctic islands were auctioned for pastoral lease in 1894. In April 1895, Gordon left his family on their small Gisborne farm to take sheep, men and materials to Campbell Island and, in so doing, became the only lessee to successfully pioneer a farm on a New Zealand subantarctic island. The lessees who followed Gordon expanded on his work until the farm collapsed in ruin exacerbated by the Great Depression of the '30s. By the time Gordon quit the Island for the final time in 1903, he was 60 years old. Long absences and lack of profitable returns impacted on his family's welfare but they stuck by him and held together. Descendants of James Gordon live in the Poverty Bay district today. These photos that show him at the age of 65 are the only ones known to exist of a man who played a key part in one of New Zealand's least publicized histories.
In 1878, James, aged 35 years, married Christina Sutherland, 19, at the Manse, Christchurch. Her father Thomas Sutherland who witnessed the wedding had three years previously witnessed the wedding of James's brother John in the same church.
James and Christina's wedding day would have been shrouded by stress, sadness and gloom.
Five days earlier, after a stiff drinking spree at a Christchurch tavern after James had lent him �5, John Gordon had drowned in the City's Avon River. When James saw John later in the day he saw him the worse for drink and told him to go home. They walked together part of the way. John's partly clad body was found in the Avon River only two days before the wedding. As it was, Christina was then five months pregnant. Societal opinion about children born out of wedlock, and John's death, would have been stressful for James and Christina."
So there we have it, the unfolding adventures of two Gordon brothers in a land far from their old homeland. Indeed truly a world-away from that remote nook and hill of Collairniehill where their parents were, in their own way, battling an existence to support their younger weans. One cannot help wondering if John and James managed to keep in touch with their parents - for that, there would have had to have been a far-reaching postal service, the ability, the means, and no doubt a good deal of luck. Surely what joy a letter would have brought to John and Annie to hear of their two grown-up lads and their new life in New Zealand. But then the sorrow of John 'the little boy lost' his drunken escapade and its deadly consequences.
Peter Gordon had fallen for a lass a few years his senior - her name was Euphemia Ferguson. Sadly no details of their courtship have been retained. However when they married in November 1862, Euphemia was to describe that she was a "domestic servant at Inchyra, Kinnoull." This is on the very fringe of Perth - hence the speculation that it was in Perth that their love blossomed, and that Peter (like his brothers) had been, albeit for a few short years, based here. Further research may help in this matter - especially at it should be noted that Euphemia was from Fife, and Kirkton, Balmerino, the village of her birth, was really quite close to the Collairniehill home. So as feasible as the Perth connection may be - it may not indeed convey the whole story!
Peter Gordon, the eldest child, was 24 years old when in November 1862 he married Euphemia at Flisk. Peter was already by then a 'working shepherd' and we know by his marriage certificate that he was in the employment of Lord Gordon-Cmyn Esquire of the Altyre Estate, Rafford (Just outside Forres.) It is not known what took Peter back North; not of course to his family roots in Deeside, but to Speyside, Moray. Likely, (this writer speculates) that it was by word-of-mouth through shepherd friends of either Peter or his father? Equally possible, is that the 'position' was advertised in a newspaper: adverts like this were appearing at that time in the local press.
What started out as a sole adventure for Peter was to become a family affair. First Peter brought his new bride, Euphemia to Altyre, and there in one of the estate cottages, on the edge of Altyre's wooded policy they raised their family. Subsequently Peter was followed to Altyre by Donald his younger brother. Donald was a full twelve years junior to Peter, and was it seems more restless.
Further glimpses of the life of 'Altyre Peter' (1838-1899) and his family can be gleaned from the separate account: "From Balmerino to Baccarat."
So to briefly recap: John Gordon and his wife Ann Selbie from 1855 (or so) were ensconced in a shepherds hill-top bothy at Collairniehill. With them were their five youngest bairns. The three oldest lads had 'flown the nest' - based briefly in Perth, John and James left their native shores for New Zealand in late 1861. They never returned. Peter, the eldest boy was at this time in love, and in 1862 took his new bride Euphemia back to his factor's estate in Altyre, Rafford. Here Peter and Euphemia raised their family, and this their matrimonial home became a dear and truly life-long one.
True to the hardships of a jobbing shepherd, Collairnihill was in turn debunked. As glorious and beautiful the setting, Collairniehill, given its remote isolation, must have been a truly difficult home in which to raise a family. Again exact dates remain obscure, but certainly by 1867, and probably a few years before, the Gordon family packed-up and trekked the Collairnie glen one last time. Totting up the years, Collairniehill had probably been the family chatelaine for the good part of a decade.
It was late November 1867 when Charlotte, the only daughter of John and Annie, lost her maiden name. For at Kinsleath Wester, in Creich, Fife, she married (you guessed it) a shepherd. Her groom was William Brown, of a local farming family. Two carte-visitie portraits were identified by this writer's great-aunt Mabel Gordon as that of Charlotte Gordon and her husband William Brown. If these portraits have been rightly attributed (and there is no reason to believe not - for Mabel's factual memory was superb) they presented as a truly handsome couple: William dapper and neat with film-star looks; and Charlotte a dark, truly stunning beauty. Charlotte, the only Gordon daughter, certainly must have been the dazzling-catch of this small north-east Fife parish.
Charlotte and William retained a considerable presence in this part of Fife and life-long dedicated themselves to the service of the land. One imagines a wide supporting circle of farming friends. As a newly wed, William Brown took up post as shepherd for Denmuir Farm, Dunbog, and here in a tied-cottage, raised with Charlotte a bounty of bairns. William's service to Denmuir was loyal - for 33 years he served the farm, and probably for most of that time as principal shepherd. With the turn of the century he 'retired' and moved with his wife Charlotte into his son John's farmhouse at Glentarky and here they must have lived in rich, commodious comfort. A far cry from the shepherds cottage at Denmuir.
Charlotte's name had generated some intrigue. This was not a Gordon Christian name - and given that she was the only daughter of John and Annie, this seemed odd. However her death certificate revealed a clue, for it recorded that her full name was 'Charlotte McPherson Gordon.' Well it is known that Charlotte's Gordon grandmother was a McPherson from Inchdowrie in Clova - but she was a 'Margaret' and definitely not 'Charlotte.' A possible explanation subsequently emerged: The McPhersons of Inchdowrie had a son James and in 1819 he married Charlotte Brown. Thus the speculation that the Browns and the McPhersons (and through marriage the Gordons) had shared roots! Ah you rightly say�. that inextricable sibness�. and yes, now well beyond the Girnoc!
(next to Balmeadowside Farmhouse and near Carphin Mansion House)
John Gordon, age 54yrs, Head, Married, Shepherd, 3 acres of Land, Born Forfarshire - then in brackets and together: Cortachy Crathie
Ann Gordon, wife, age 53yrs, born Forfar, Forfarshire
2 rooms with one or more windows
Apologies but details fade even further from this point. The next surviving artifact is again from the census return, but this time from 1881. By now John and Annie were in Kilmany, yet a further parish of north Fife. Again their main accompaniment is themselves - one can feel a palpably deep run bond (an interpretation.) On the census day, their son William was with them. This is significant. For based on the few facts available, it appears that father-and-son put together a farming enterprise. In the census return of 1881, John Gordon has severed his long-standing title, for no longer does he call himself a 'shepherd,' now he gives himself as a "Dealer of Sheep and Cattle."
John Gordon, 64yrs, Head, Sheep & cattle dealer, born Cortachy, Forfar
Ann P. Gordon, 63yrs, Wife, born Forfar
William B. Gordon, 26yrs, son, single, born Easter Fowlis
So it was that by the time 'auld John' and his son William gave their family details to the visiting census enumerator of 1891, circumstances were strikingly different: for this father and son, there was indeed to be no more hill-top bothies and no more but n' bens.
We learn from the enumerator, that in the year of 1891, John Gordon, who was by then aged 74 years and still working, was with his wife and grandson Peter at the farm of Parknowe (near Leuchars, Fife). As tenant farmer he lived in the large imposing granite farmhouse which had '8 rooms with one or more windows.' It must have felt so strange and rattlingly-empty compared to all former-abodes. John Gordon, now an old-man, yet (remarkably) still working had finally achieved a status neither enjoyed by his parents nor grandparents, for 'auld John' had nudged up that social ladder and was - in the very twighlight of his years - an 'employer.'
John Gordon, 74yrs, Farmer, employer, born Cortachy, Forfarshire
Anne Gordon, 73yrs, wife, born Forfar
Peter Gordon, 20yrs, grandson, unmarried, shepherd, born Forres
Susan Forret, servant, 16yrs, born Ceres, Fife
8 rooms with one or more windows.
1891 census - Drumnod Farmhouse, Kilmany, East Fife
William B. Gordon, Head, married, age 37, Farmer, born Perth, Fowlis Easter
Jane L. Gordon, wife, age 3oyrs, born Fife, Logie
Bessie Gordon, daughter, 8yrs old, scholar, born Kilmany, Fife
John Gordon, son, 6yrs old, scholar, born Fife, Leuchars
William Gordon, son, age 4yrs, born Kilmany
Janet Wilson, age 21yrs, Domestic servant, unmarried, born Fife, Kenbuck
Jane Thomson, visitor, age 57yrs, Cook Domestic retired, unmarried, born Fife, Balmerino
12 rooms with one or more windows
The census for 1891 has William living in this commanding and semi-baronial farmhouse of Drumnod with his wife Jane Luke Johnston and three children. This was a large farm and its management must have required enterprise, skill and leadership. This was the first 'independent' farm of William Batchelor Gordon. Not bad for a Collairnihill shepherd-boy! In fact - outstanding!
At this time, the mid 1890's there must have been a fair amount of coming and going between Drumnod and Parknowe. The exact family arrangements blur amidst this activity. And to add to the melee a further Gordon figure arrives and bridges the farm bipartite. This was Peter Gordon (1870-1950) who left Altyre to assist his grandfather 'auld John' at Parknowe (see the 1891 census) and who was to marry at Drumnod on the second last day of 1896.
So it was that John Gordon and his wife Annie were to leave Parknowe. They were not, as we now know, strangers to the flit - but sadly this was to be their last - and a withdrawal that brought them into the care of their dear daughter Charlotte. It was here that the 'switch' came in, for William Batchelor Gordon vacated his tenancy of Drumnod, and de-camped his entire family to Parknowe.
So it was that Parknowe became, in those years short of the century's turn the 'Gordon Real Estate of Fife' and the progenitor of many of the later 'Cupar Gordons.' Yet for every family, and every generation, houses can be the silent witness to such mixed fortune - in this respect Parknowe was sadly not to be an exception. Thursday October the 20th 1898 must have brought much rejoicing within the solid walls of Parknowe with the safe delivery of two twin babes: Jean and James. Their mother Jane Luke Johnston truly must have been overjoyed especially as a full eight years had passed since the birth of any previous child; and now in one swoop she had added a healthy boy and a healthy girl to bring that haul to a wholesome six. Cruel then is life, that could take a mother from such wonder, for poor Jean developed an overwhelming post-partum infection, and within nine days of the twins birth she was barbarically and suddenly removed her from her Parknowe family.
William Batchelor must have been broken, and his tearful bairns broken twice-more: aside from the twin infants, there was; Annie aged 8, William aged 11, John aged 13 and Bessie aged 16 years. Tears of unfathomable sadness must have rained at Parknowe and the promise of that 'new century' must have been totally lost upon the family.
Six years later, William married his housekeeper Agnes Keddie. Who could dispute him such. After all his children had been left motherless and William without a companion. Agnes adopted to the family, was in time, to be called 'Granny Creich' to an ever expanding legion of 'Cupar Gordons.'
There are a few inter-generational coincidences here that beg to be rehearsed. You will recall 'grandson Peter' of whom was spoken earlier. Well this Peter, who had left Altyre in a storm: he was the first Gold-Medallist of Forres Academy, and had an apparently 'brilliant-mind' but he did forgo this, his academic prowess, to return to the working of the land, as his forefathers had always done. This Peter married at Drumnod in 1896, but he too was to lose his young bride. In December 1911 Peter Gordon witnessed the last choking breath of poor Stewart Carswell his wife. It seems she had been battling pulmonary Tuberculosis for two years. Within nine months Peter re-married. His bride? Yes his bride was to be 'number five of a run of housekeepers.' This writer recalls his Aunt Janet's chuckling rehearsal of this story. Janet was entitled to do so, for she was daughter of Peter and this, his second wife and 'housekeeper,' Margaret Muirhead.
I am afraid to say that this sad turn of events: the break of matrimony through early death and its later 'recapture' by the guiding ways of the housekeeper was to revisit later generations. That however is a story for another day.
On the theme of patterns, one final quick point is worth mentioning. John Gordon and his wife Annie had a family group dominated by boys: 6 sons and one daughter. A generation further on, and the first grandson of 'auld John,' of whom he was named after, was to mirror this imbalance in progeny. This was John Gordon (1864-1922), this writer's great-grandfather. This John married in 1892, Mary Cowan Jamieson, and like his grandfather before him was to sire a family group of six boys and one girl. Surely this was an uncanny coincidence?! When Mabel (1908-1993) the only daughter finally arrived, her older brother (yet another Peter: Peter Ferguson Gordon) was to remark "but mither, ye dinnae ken how to dress a girl!"
With this account drawing to an end this writer has to declare that he is disappointed with his efforts and is acutely conscious of how much has escaped. The most frustrating aspect of archives is that, in the majority, they reveal only the bones - not the flesh. Inevitably it is that 'being,' that 'soul' of a person or a family that is lost. So this writer urges you to look once again into those eyes of 'auld John' and see what you see.
1899 marked a true end-point. It was this year, the very last one of the 19th century, which saw the passing of father and son. In fact, strictly speaking, as it transpired, the other way around: son and father. Mid May 1899, and Peter Gordon, the eldest son of 'auld John' collapsed from a heart attack. He was not to survive. Four months later, at Denmuir, Dunbog, in the careful and tender hands of his daughter Charlotte, 'auld John' slipped away. He was in his 84th year. So it was that in one swoop, this writer lost his great-great grandfather Peter, and his 3G-grandfather John. This writer would suggest then, that it was pre-ordained that he compose this tribute to his dear 'lost grandfathers' for specially he carries forward both their names into this the 21st century.
John and Annie are laid to rest within the ancient and secluded Dunbog Cemetery. No stone marks their shared grave.
Rest in peace 'Bovaglie Boy.'
