New Spalding Club > Records of Invercauld MDXLVII - MDCCCXXVIII [1547- 1828]

ESTATE PAPERS : MELGUM. 85
there was a Charles Farquharson, styled a tvritcr, grandson of Robert
Farquharson, Minr. of Kennethmont (1676-1687), it was propably he
who signed this deed. His father, Alexander, was a W.S. in Edinburgh,
and his grandfather, the Minister, had been tutor or factor to Invercauld
under Robert and his brother Alexander. He would thus be of the
House of Rivernie.
James Shaw signs with many flourishes. He was evidently well
satisfied with his handiwork ; and, though he styles himself " servitor to
the Leard of Envercald," he was certainly not a menial — probably he
was Mr. Farquharson's secretary.
MELGUM.
The estate, now known by this name, lies to the N.-W. of, and near
to the village of Tarland, though ecclesiastically within the Parish of
Logie-Coldstone. The derivation of the word is somewhat obscure. It
may be a corruption of the Gaelic — Meall gorm, green height ; or Meall
loin, bare height, perhaps rather the latter, since there is a place on the
property which still bears the name of Barehillock.
At an early date it belonged to the knightly house of Pitsligo. Sir
William Forbes of that family bestowed it upon his second son, who was
afterwards styled " William of the Daach," the daach, or davoch, of
Melgum being the local designation of the property. Patrick Forbes, a
grandson of William of the Daach, acquired also the lands of Pitellachie
about 1 540 ; but he dying without male issue, both estates— Daach
(Melgum) and Pitellachie (Kinaldie) — came into the possession of his
kinsman, Alexander Forbes of Boyndlie, who married Mary Elphinstone,
a daughter of the Laird of Calderhall, a connection which gave rise to
the complication of interests in these properties which we find when they
came to be disposed of in 1693.
One of the earliest of the documents, relating to the Melgum estate,
in the Invercauld repositories, is headed : —
" Regrat Discharge and Assignation — Alexr. Ker to Harie
Elphinstone, Dated 8th February 1693."
It is a long legal document, in a good state of preservation, and
appears to have been required in order to enable Harry Elphinstone to