Memorials of four old families

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The old building is now incorporated with a modern farmhouse. The
old part probably dates from about the end of the 16th century. — Vide
" The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland."
Sir William's second son, William Gordon, who assumed the name of
Learmonth i" addition to his own, was King's Solicitor to K. James VII.
Both families, Darsie and Balcomie, have been long extinct. The
lands of Darsie passed by purchase, in the reign of James VI., to Lord
Lindsay of the Byres ; afterwards to the Spottiswoods. — Vide Anderson's
" Scottish Nation."
Margaret, eldest daughter of Sir William Gordon, 3rd Bart, of Les-
moir, married Alexander Duff of Braco, by whom she had 4 children, viz.,
William Duff of Braco and 3 daughters : her husband was Commissioner to
the Scots Parliament in 1705 and died that year. There was a monument
to his memory in the aisle of the church at Grange, where he was buried.
Alexander Duffs father, Alexander Duff of Keithmore, had his armorial
bearings recorded in the Herald Office in 1676, as lineally descended of the
family of Muldavit and Craighead: and his grandfather, Adam Duff of
Clunybeg (2nd son of John, last of MuldavitJ, who lived in the earlier part
of the 17th century, and married Beatrix Gordon, daughter of Gordon of
Birkenburn, was a staunch loyalist and supporter of the royal cause : he
was fined 500 merks as a malignant, by the Covenanters in 1646, and died
in 1674. The Gordons of Birkenburn were cadets of the Lesmoirs. The
Duffs of Corsindae were descended frcm John the 2nd son, and the Duffs
of Drummuir from William the 3rd son of Adam Duff and Beatrix Gordon.
On the death of William Duff of Braco, son of Alexander Duff and
Margaret Gordon, his uncle, another grandson of Adam, viz., William Duff
of Diple, succeeded to Braco, and was the father of William, 1st Earl of
Fife of a new creation. — Vide Douglas' Baronage, under Duff of Diple.
Margaret Duff, only child of the above William Duff of Braco, and
grand-daughter of Margaret Gordon of Lesmoir, married Patrick Duff of
Premnay, who, on the judicial sale of the Drum estates in 1737, bought
Culter, Lord Aberdeen being the purchaser of the greater part of the
remainder.
Sir William, the 3rd Bart, of Lesmoir, had the fortune to live in less
troublous times than his father and grandfather, and must have been a man
of literary and scientific taste. There is still extant, in the possession of
the Rev. R. Harvey Smith, congregational minister at Duncanstone, Insch,
a manuscript book, written by him in Latin, treating of astronomy and the
influence of the heavenly bodies, with his autograph, " Wm. Gordoune Lm,"
and his son James' added in a boyish hand. He probably lived at Lesmoir
after his father's death, and may have been laird and held the baronetcy
from about 1660 till about 1680. He was succeeded by his eldest son.