William Gordon of Gight

High on the north bank of the river Ythan, midway between Fyvie and Methlick, near the middle of a field usually inhabited by inquisitive cattle, stand the ivy covered remains of a castle that once housed arguably the most notorious family in Aberdeenshire’s frequently turbulent history. The castle is that of Gight. It stands in a barbed wire fenced enclosure, that in summer is all but choked with stinging nettles. Signs warn the curious that the crumbling building is unsafe and that those entering do so at their own risk.

The building is “L” shaped in plan, a design popular with castle builders, as it enabled the defenders to cover most of the walls with defensive fire from within. A further block has been added at a later date. The ground floor remains comparatively intact, consisting of stone vaulted cellars and store-rooms, the vaulting not only lending the building great strength, but also negating the need to use flammable materials such as wooden rafters, which could be set on fire by attackers. The kitchen can be identified by its great fire-place, and a small spiral staircase can be seen winding up within the walls at the back corner of the building, from what would undoubtedly have been the wine cellar, to the great hall above. Above the ground floor, little remains except fangs of stone-work reaching skyward and piles of grass-grown fallen rubble. A mountain ash now grows in the middle of the great hall, a room in which undoubtedly, just a few centuries ago, dastardly deeds were often planned and sometimes even performed!

The property of Gight came into the hands of the Gordons, the greatest of all the north-east families, in 1480, when it was purchased by Sir William Gordon, son of George, 2nd earl of Huntly. Sir William was killed, with so much of the rest of the Scottish nobility, at the battle of Flodden. One of his sons was killed fighting at the battle of Pinkie. Of the third generation, one drowned, one was executed, two were killed fighting abroad and three were murdered! Those marrying into the family fared no better, for one son-in-law was also murdered and a grand-daughter’s husband was murdered by her own brother!

Perhaps the most notorious member of this notorious family was William Gordon, the fifth laird, son of John Gordon the fourth laird and Margaret Gordon of the Lesmoir branch of the family. It has been suggested that perhaps the double dose of Gordon blood in his veins drove him to try and outdo the excesses of his predecessors!

He had already gained considerable notoriety long before his father’s death in 1592. At a date unknown, William Gordon was involved in a quarrel with Troup of Begshall. As the dispute grew more heated, one William Leslie, son of William Leslie of Warthill, attempted to intervene. Perhaps blades had already been drawn at this point, anyhow, William Leslie was killed by Gordon, apparently more by accident than by design.

In 1576 William Gordon became involved in a dispute between the Chalmers’ of Strichan and one Thomas Fraser. William Chalmers of Strichan had married Isabel Forbes, and on his death, she had remarried, to Thomas Fraser, who had subsequently titled himself as Thomas Fraser of Strichan. Relatives of the Chalmers’, particularly those of William Chalmers’ elder brother George, who lived abroad and was unlikely to return, “had recourse” to William Gordon of Gight (whose sister Margaret married into the Chalmers family), to recover (what they considered as) their property for them.

Gordon arranged to meet Thomas Fraser at the village of Old Deer on December 23rd 1576, in the hope of reaching some sort of compromise, but the discussion turned into a quarrel, and Fraser rode away. Gordon, apparently in a rage, rode after him, and catching up with him at the bridge on the edge of the village, that spans the river Ugie, struck Fraser a single blow with his sword, that killed him on the spot!

And I guess that settled the argument, because nothing else appears to have happened over the affair, indeed, the next time William Gordon appears in the records, is six years later, in May 1582, when he was honoured by being made a free burgess of Aberdeen!

Trouble found him again in 1587, when a vendetta between himself and the Keiths flared up, which was to drag on for ten years. The first documented evidence of the feud comes from May of that year, when a Caution of one thousand pounds was given by John Gordon of Cairnburrow, that William Gordon should “cause repair the place of Cairnbannoch, lately demolished by certain persons at his command”. This means that John Gordon of Cairnburrow stood to loose his one thousand pounds if William Gordon failed to repair the damage he had caused at Cairnbannoch. Furthermore, another Caution was given by Sir George Ogilvy of Dunglass, that William Gordon of Gight would not harm John Keith, the occupier of Cairnbannoch and brother of the Earl Marischal of Scotland, George Keith.

What the origin of this trouble was, is not apparently known, but things were to deteriorate further. On December 2nd, 1587, William Gordon murdered a Keith, John Keith of Clachriach, who incidentally, was his brother-in-law, being married to his sister. For this crime, young William Gordon had to flee, and sought the protection of the earl of Huntly, who was at the royal court at Linlithgow. Huntly, the Gordon chief, “declined to surrender him up to the king”!

The Keith feud was still going on merrily in April 1597, when the magistrates of Aberdeen thought it judicious to send the Bishop of the diocese to the castles of Gight and Inverugie near Perterhead, in an effort to secure peace between the families. The Bishop’s efforts seem to have been in vain, because in December of that year, George Keith the Earl Marischal and James Hogg of Ballyedrie complained to the Scottish Privy Council that one Alexander Keith and accomplices had stolen a gray horse belonging to the earl’s wife, and two mares belonging to Hog. Horse theft was an extremely serious crime in those days, often punished more severely than murder, and frequently by hanging. Perhaps because the culprit was a Keith, or more likely because the horses had still not been recovered, Alexander was not immediately hung, but was locked up in Inverugie Castle, however before a suitable punishment could be devised, he managed to escape.

Thereafter, the “complainants” carried out a diligent and methodical search, both for the escaped Alexander Keith, and also for the missing horses, which latter they eventually found – “in the possession of Gordon of Gight and certain of his tenants”! The complainants claimed their horses and also demanded suitable restitution. William Gordon however (who was by now laird of Gight, his father having died earlier that year) not only refused but “most maliciously and cruelly” and accompanied by his brothers and “divers other men, all armed with hagbuts, pistolets, jacks, steelbonnets, swords, gauntlets and other weapons”, pursued the said Hogg, and others with him, and “wounded them in divers parts of their bodies”!

The Privy Council also heard, that ever since his escape, the thief, Alexander Keith had been “resettled and maintained” by Gordon of Gight. The court found that Gordon of Gight, for failing to appear, was “to be denounced rebel”.

During the years that the Keith feud dragged on, William Gordon was involved in other unsavory affairs. In 1591, he took part in one of the more celebrated murders in Scottish history, that of James, the “Bonny” Earl of Murray.

As so often, the cause of the problem lay in a feud involving property, that grew in size until the protagonists had no doubt forgotten the original cause, and the original protagonists had been replaced by their feudal superiors.

When the Grant laird of Ballindalloch died, his son was “tutored” by John Grant, and the “Tutor of Ballindalloch” started to take more from his young charge’s estate than the boy’s mother considered he should. It was the normal arrangement in those days for a Tutor to be appointed to educate the under-age heirs of landed estates after their fathers had died. And it was not uncommon for these Tutors to severely run down the estates that they had charge of, to their own benefit, before the son and heir was old enough to take charge of his own affairs. The ‘Widow of Ballindalloch’ however, was a Gordon, and in 1590 she sought the assistance of her own family, to protect her son’s inheritance. Legally, Grant was entitled, as Tutor, to do as he liked at Ballindalloch, so to strengthen their cause, the Gordons proposed that the widow of Ballindalloch should marry John Gordon, the brother of Sir Thomas Gordon of Cluny.

John Grant resented the idea that “anyone of the name of Gordon should reside at Ballindalloch” and as the situation deteriorated, an incident occurred in which he shot and killed one of John Gordon’s servants. To the Gordons of course, this was exactly the excuse they were looking for, and they had Grant declared “outlaw”, which in turn gave them the right, particularly by virtue of the fact that George, 6th Earl of Huntly was Sheriff of the county, to “pursue him”. Huntly himself arrived in force and besieged Ballindalloch castle, but John Grant escaped. The dispute now widened, as the Earls of Moray (Huntly’s hereditary enemy) and of Athole, together with Mackintosh of Mackintosh, the Captain of Clan Chattan, joined in on the side of the Grants.

Believing that Moray and Athole were forming a faction against him, Huntly pursued them, besieging Murray in his castle of Darnaway. Huntly sent the recently married John Gordon to take a closer look at the castle, and he, “approaching the house more hardily than warily, was shot and slain from the house by one of the Earl of Murray’s servants”.

The earl of Huntly then hastened to court, and obtained a “commission” against the Earl of Moray from Chancellor Maitland (who disliked both Huntly and Moray, and cared little about what became of either of them!), which effectively gave him the right to pursue and arrest Moray.

The year of 1591 saw various punitive raids against Clan Chattan and the Grants. “Huntly sent Allan Macdonuill-Duibh into Badenoch against the Clan Chattan, where after a sharp skirmish, the Clan Chattan were chased off, and above fifty of them slain. Then Huntly sent MacRonald against the Grants, whom MacRonald invaded in Strathspey, killing eighteen of them, and wasting all Ballindalloch's lands”.

Then in February 1592, Huntly received news in Edinburgh, that Moray had recently arrived at his castle of Donnibristle in Fife. Huntly at once set out “with forty gentlemen”, among whom were William Gordon of Gight, his brother Captain John Gordon and Gordon of Cluny, whose brother had been slain at Darnaway.

Captain John Gordon was sent up to the castle by Huntly, to “desire the earl of Moray to give over the house, and render himself up” but as he approached the castle, he was shot and severely wounded. The castle was then attacked and set fire to, and although Moray at first managed to escape from the flames, the Gordons apparently tracked him down by the flames from a silken tassel that had caught fire on his night cap as he escaped from the burning castle! It was said afterwards that Huntly gave orders that the earl should be taken alive, however the laird of Cluny, whose brother had been slain at Darnaway and the laird of Gight, whose brother lay “deadly wounded before his eyes”, caught up with him on the seashore and stabbed him to death. It is said (by some sources, but not all) that it was William Gordon of Gight that struck the final and fatal blows, with a dagger to the earl’s face, earning himself the Bonny Earl’s dying words “you have spoiled a better face than your own”!

Huntly, perhaps sensing the trouble that was to come, withdrew into the north, leaving Captain John Gordon, who was too badly wounded to travel, at Inverkeithing. He was captured there by the former earl of Moray’s supporters, and after a quick trail, executed at Edinburgh “being scarce able to live one day longer for his wound received at Donnibristle”. The evidence of the vicious murder can still be seen, for the Bonnie Earl’s outraged mother, herself badly burned in the fire, commissioned a portrait of his mutilated body, which still hangs at Darnaway Castle.

In March of 1592, the Privy Council denounced the earl of Huntly “and others concerned in the affair” as rebels, but this order appears to have been made more for form’s sake than anything else. Huntly was ordered to ward himself in Blackness castle, which he did for a while, and the others were ordered to ward themselves in Edinburgh castle, which “they neglected to do”!

This incident in many ways demonstrates a fundamental unfairness about the legal system in those days, in that a great man, such as an earl, was often considered accountable for the actions of his men, but was at the same time, too powerful to be punished. So it was, that less than a year later, the records show that “The king gave anew to William Gordon “de Geight”, the lands of Fyvie, which included Maktarie, Blachrie, Badichellis, Murefunlands and Swanford, which William Meldrum of Moncoffer, brother of George of Fyvie, resigned”.

But the Donnibristle affair was not forgotten. In 1594, James VI, who was strongly Protestant himself, and keen to please Elizabeth I of England, whose throne he was hoping to inherit, agreed to a request by Elizabeth to forfeit the three catholic earls of Scotland - Gordon, Earl of Huntly, Hay Earl of Erroll and Douglas Earl of Angus. Huntly’s position of Lieutenant of the North, was given to the Campbell earl of Argyll, who was pleased to take up this challenge, particularly as it diverted attention away from the fact that he had been receiving money from Elizabeth, to further English interests in Scotland, and also as it gave him the opportunity to revenge his brother-in-law, the earl of Moray!

In the late summer of 1594, Argyll with an army of over 10,000 infantry, moved towards the north-east, with the intention of meeting up with the Lord Forbes and his men. The army consisted of Campbells and their supporters, and anyone else that either hated the Gordons or hoped to profit from their downfall and the inevitable pillaging.

The Gordons and the Hays ‘assembled all such as would follow them and their fortune in this extremity’, but in all they had only raised around 1500 mounted men when they rode out to meet Argyll on October 3rd. Riding out from Auchindoun, they by chance intercepted some of Argyll’s spies, whom they killed, all except for one, whom they “saved and examined”, thus discovering much of what Argyll intended. The Gordons were apparently much encouraged by this event, considering that it “presaged victory”.

The Gordons found Argyll’s infantry drawn up in a strong position on a hillside in Glenlivet, above ground that was difficult for horses. Wasting no time, Huntly discharged three small field cannon he had brought with him (artillery was still most unusual in Scotland at that time), ‘which bred a confused tumult among them’, and then charged his vanguard, consisting of 300 horsemen under the earl of Erroll and William Gordon of Gight, into the resultant confusion.

The battle lasted more than two hours. Huntly’s uncle, Gordon of Auchindoun was killed leading a charge. At one point William Gordon of Gight and the rest of the vanguard looked as if they would be surrounded and cut-off, and were only saved by a charge made by Huntly, whose horse was killed under him. But in the end it was Argyll’s army that began to waver. His men started to flee in increasing numbers, running for the shelter of the hills, pursued by the mounted Gordons until they reached country inaccessible to horsemen.

In all, Argyll lost 700 men in the engagement, including two of his cousins, Campbell of Lochnell and his brother, and also MacNeill of Barra (who was killed by the initial artillery discharge at the beginning of the battle). On the Gordons side, the losses were much lighter, but included William Gordon of Gight among the wounded. Huntly’s victory was short-lived however, the king with a larger army invaded from the south, burning the houses and castles of the Gordons and Hays, including the Earl of Erroll’s castle of Slains, and Huntly’s castle of Strathbogie, both of which remain in ruins to this day. Huntly and Erroll were pursued north to Caithness from where they had to flee abroad, although a year and a half later they were recalled by the king, and their honours and dignities restored to them.

William Gordon of Gight, perhaps because of his wounds, dropped out of sight for a while, although in April of 1595, he was excommunicated. It would appear that this was a response to the Donnibristle affair, because at the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in March of the following year, his arrest was ordered, and an order issued that the lairds of Gight and Cluny should be “chargeit to come south” and place themselves in ward.

What became of it all, is again not recorded, but not much it would appear, because nine months later, in January 1597, he was made a Burgess of Aberdeen, an honour he had first received back in 1582, but had perhaps lost in the interim! In June 1597, he was one of the sureties to George, Earl of Huntly, who had given a caution of twenty thousand pounds, that he would not communicate with Jesuits. The reformation was still very much at its height then in Scotland, and dealings with Catholics, together with any form of religious freedom, were strictly banned.

In 1601, having apparently tired of his feuds with the Keiths and the church, the laird of Gight turned his attentions to the Mowats and the Hays. In September of that year, Magnus Mowat of Bulquholie (now called Hatton, near Turriff in Aberdeenshire) complained to the Privy Council that, although he and his family had “peaceably possessed” the lands of Balmelie and others specified “past memory of man”, “yet William Gordon of Gight, John and Alexander his sons, and George Gordon of Bridgend, envying the pursuer’s possession, and not content to live in peace, as becomes Christians, continually do trouble and molest him.”

Apparently, the trouble started when George Gordon of Bridgend, the neighboring property, came onto Balmelie land and started building the stone walls for a sheep pen. When John Mowat attempted to stop the construction, the Gordons shot and wounded him, and later “wounded him with a sword”. The following month, Gordon of Gight, with twenty of his men, armed with “hagbuts, pistolets, swords, and lances; came onto the lands of Balquholie, trampled the corn, wounded one of Mowat’s servitors and threatened others”. The following day, the Gordons returned, this time with 300 men on horse and foot, and “trampled down and destroyed” more of the Mowat’s corn. Later that month, William’s son John Gordon of Gight and a number of other “evil disposed persons” went onto some other Mowat farms, where they broke open doors and windows of the tenant’s houses, “sought out the occupants for their slaughter”, and apprehended and carried off a William Smyth, to Gight Castle. The Gordons were all charged to appear before the Privy Council, and all failed to appear!

Three months later, a messenger, Alexander Chalmers, was returning from the Privy Council with letters charging William Gordon to “answer for certain crimes”, when he was pursued by the Gordons and captured. On being brought to William Gordon, the laird “would have shot him with a pistolet, if he had not been stayed by another person present”. Gordon then took the letters and “kaist them in a dish of bree” and forced the unfortunate Chalmers to “sup and swallow thame” while he “held ane drawne dagger foiranent his heart, avowing with mony horrible and blasphemous oaths to have thrust the dagger throw his heart if he had not suppit the said copys.” Unfortunately, William Gordon later found out that the letters that he had forced Chalmers to eat, were only copies, and that Chalmers still had the originals in his sleeve. He “came to the said officer in a new rage and furie, raif the principle letters from his sleif, raif thame to pieces and kaist them into the fyre.”

The only fallout from this incident, seems to have been that the following month, the Marquis of Huntly was rebuked “for carelessness in the execution of the laws within the bounds of his northern lieutenancy, and especially for his laxness in dealing with Gordon of Gight.” The vendetta with the Mowats was to drag on until at least 1610, with frequent mentions in the records, of “cautions” or bonds having to be found for the good behavior of the Gordons!

As mentioned above, at the same time that William Gordon’s disagreement with the Mowats flared up, he also fell out with the Hays. In July 1601, while the Privy Council was drafting the letters that Chalmers was to eat, an incident occurred that was also to lead to a complaint to the Privy Council. On July 18th, William Gordon’s son John, and others, entered the town of Turriff and pursued Alexander Coupland and Ralph Ainslie, servitor to Francis, Earl of Erroll “for their lives, wounding Ainslie beyond hope of recovery.” William Gordon, having been informed of what had happened, rode into Turriff himself, and “enterit in communing with George Hay, parson and minister of Turriff”, telling him that “the whole inhabitants of the town would be answerable for any injury done to himself, his sons or any of his company.” Thereafter, the laird of Gight had departed, and the inhabitants of the town, thinking themselves safe, had retired for the night.

But despite this agreement, “William Gordon of Gight, George his son and heir, William and Adam also his sons” and many others, returned to Turriff at around midnight, all heavily armed, and “oppresst the haill town.”

In particular, they went to the house of William Duffus, with whom William Gordon obviously had a particular disagreement, because when Duffus was dragged in front of him, he drew his sword and would have slain him had not “ane of the cumpany keppit the straik upon ane lang gun.” William Duffus chose this moment to flee for his life, which “the laird of Gight perceiving, cryit “Lett him not away, bot schuite him” whereupon dyvers schottis wwere schot at him with pistolettis, muscattis and hacquebuttis.” Duffus was shot with “nyne bulletis in dyvers parts of his body, whereby he remainis in such danger of his life as no man knows what hour he shall die.”

In October 1601, Gordon of Gight and his supporters were “denounced as rebels”, and a commission was granted to the Earl of Erroll (chief of the Hays) against Gight and “the rebels who adhered to him,” in much the same way that Huntly had obtained a commission against the Bonny earl of Moray in 1591. This was the most serious trouble that Gight had yet been in, and this time he decided to flee Aberdeenshire and escape across the border into England. A letter written to Lord Cecil by Sir John Carey describes the relationship between Gight and Huntly.

“There is a laird of Scotland named the Laird of Gight, which for some particulars amongst themselves hath been thought fit by the King to be banished for a tyme his own country. He hath made choice to come hither until his remission be granted and till the Earl of Erroll can be agreed with him. This Laird of Gight is the only principle man of the Earl of Huntly’s house, and on that hath ever partied him in all his actions, and knows most of the earl’s mind of any man living.” Gight was safely back in Scotland three months later!

William Gordon of Gight died in 1605, and in death caused nearly as much trouble as he had in life, for he was buried with full Roman Catholic honours. The Reformation had come later to Scotland than to England, and perhaps as a result, Catholicism here was replaced with an even more puritan form of Protestantism. No other form of religion was tolerated, particularly Catholicism. Two years after William’s death, the devoutly Protestant King James VI of Scotland (and by then James I of England), sent a letter from Whitehall to the Privy Council “concerning the mode of dealing with noble men suspected in their religion.” The king wrote:

“And herewith we are specially to recommend unto you the two several burials and funerals of the Lord Ogilvie and Laird of Gight, wherein there was some superstitious ceremonies and rites used as if the profession of Papistry had been specially licensed and tolerated, and upon the knowledge of the authorities of those insolences, our pleasure and will is that you do presently commit them, and after examination of all the particular circumstances in that matter that you shall acquaint us therewith to the effect that we may return back unto you our pleasure therein.”

The careers of William Gordon of Gight’s successors were frequently as controversial as his own. The life of his son George, 6th laird, was one long struggle against authority and he died in prison in 1640. George the 7th laird’s career was likewise stormy, and his son, George the 8th laird, attacked the castle in an attempt to oust his father from the estates. Alexander the 11th laird was found drowned in the river Ythan, and his son, George 12th laird, drowned himself at Bath in 1779. Having no sons, the estates passed to his daughter Catherine, who married John “Mad Jack” Byron, an infamous gambler, who eventually gambled away her entire inheritance. A contemporary account describes Catherine Gordon as “a stout, dumpy, course looking woman, awkward in her movements and provincial in her accent and manners”! Their son was the renowned poet, Lord Byron.

William Gordon, 5th laird of Gight, between all his miss-doings, found time to marry Isobel Ochterlony, by which lady he had seven sons and seven daughters. There are many descendants of this brood! The fifth daughter, Lucy, married James Mowat of Bulquholie, the family, as mentioned above, that her father was for several years at feud with. Four generations later, their great great granddaughter Christian Mowat married Sir John Sinclair of Dunbeath (grandson of the 4th earl of Caithness) and their daughter Margaret married Colonel Hugh Rose of Kilravock. Their granddaughter Margaret Rose, married Sir William Forbes of Craigievar, 3rd Baronet, and four generations later, Charlotte Susan Forbes-Gordon married John Alexander Burnett of Kemnay. Their granddaughter, Ann Margaret Burnett (who lived until her death in 2004 within walking distance of Gight castle), married John Humphrey Stratton, by whom she had four children, the third of whom, Katherine Diana Stratton, is my wife - which explains much! (Only joking dear!)

William Gordon of Gight’s musket can be seen at the National Museum of Antiquities in Edinburgh.