New Spalding Club > Thanage of Fermartyn including the district commonly called Formartine

2/4 The Tlianagc of Fcrinartyn.
In 1792, he built the House of Cairness, which was finished in 1797, and cost about
^30,000. By his wife, Miss Forbes, he had two sons,
I. Thomas, who succeeded.
II. Charles, d. s. p.
Mr. Charles Gordon died in 1797, and was succeeded by his eldest son,
VIII. Thomas Gordon of Buthlaw.
His succession is evidently by the following retour : — " Thomas Gordon of Buthlaw
to his father, Charles Gordon of Buthlaw, who died, January, 1797. Heir special in
Newtyle, Mains of Buthlaw, with Mill, &c. in the parishes of Foveran and Longside.'"
He was educated at Oxford, and having early imbibed a taste for Greek literature, he
went to Greece, where he spent much of his time. Having a strong attachment to that
country, he eagerly espoused the cause of liberty, when the great revolution broke out
in 1830, and assisted the Greek leaders with large sums of money, and latterly obtained
the rank of general in the Greek army. After the emancipation of Greece he returned
to this country. He married a Greek lady, but died without lawful issue, leaving his
estates to a natural son,
Mr. Wilkinson Gordon of Cairness.
On the death of General Gordon, the representatives of Dr. Young, and Mrs. Logic,
namely, Dr. Young on the one hand, and on the other the three surviving daughters of
Mrs. Logie, namely Mrs. Putnam, Miss E. Logic, and Mrs. Pirie, having disputed the
validity of General Gordon's trust disposition and settlement in favour of his illegitimate
son, Mr. Wilkinson Gordon, in so far as it had reference to the estates of Buthlaw and
Newtyle, on the ground that seisin thereof had not been recorded within the statuted
period of sixty day, and did after a tedious lawsuit in the Scotch Courts and the House
of Lords establish their claim to the said estates by a decree of the latter, to the effect
that a seisin unrecorded within the legal terms of sixty days is a nullity. The conse-
quence was that one half of the estates came to Dr. Young of Fawside, in right of his
mother, and the other half in three equal portions to the above-named ladies, as heirs-
portioners in right of their mother."
Dr. Young's only child, a daughter, having predeceased him, his share came at his
death, by an agreement among his heirs, to the son of his elder sister, Jane Young, wife
of Right Rev. Patrick Torry, D.D., namely, John Torry, Dean of St. Andrews, burdened
with portions to his aunt, Mrs. Ellis, and to his brother. Rev. Thomas Torry Anderson,
and his two surviving sisters, Mrs. Andrew Sims and Miss Torry. Dean Torry sold his
half of Newtyle in 1856 to Mr. Lumsden of Balmedie, the other parties interested in it
selling him the other half The Dean sold his share of Buthlaw to Mr. Patrick
Pirie, eldest son of Mrs. Alexander Pirie, who also acquired the shares of his aunts, Mrs.
I Decen. Rets. 1797 2 Notes in possession of Representatives of late Dean Torrj".