Thomas Gordon, 1788-1841

The Gordons of Buthlaw were descended from a cadet of the family of James Gordon, the first laird of Lesmoir, and from Thomas Gordon of Broadland. Intermarriage with the family of Barclay of Peterhead, when 2 brothers, John and Thomas Gordon, married their cousins, Mary and Jean Barclay, daughters of John Barclay and Anne Gordon, led to legal complications in the inheritance of property both in Scotland and in Jamaica, where both families were in business. After the death of Thomas Gordon (1788 - 1841), 8th laird of Buthlaw, and 2nd laird of Cairness, the estate of Cairness and property in Jamaica, passed to his son, James Wilkinson Gordon and his descendants; while the lands of Buthlaw were inherited by descendants of the aunts of Thomas Gordon.

In his early life, Thomas Gordon (1788 - 1841) served in the British, Russian and Hanoverian Army, and travelled extensively abroad. Throughout the Greek War of Independence (1821 - 1828) he offered his unwavering support to the Greeks, both from Scotland and through active participation on two separate occasions (1821 and 1826 - 1827). After the war, he divided his time between Greece, where he served in the army and reached the rank of major-general, and Scotland, where he wrote his History of the Greek Revolution, 2 vols. (London, and Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1832).

Genealogical information regarding the family is contained in W. Temple, The Thanage of Fermartyn (Aberdeen: Wyllie, 1894), pp 272 - 275; and J.M. Bulloch, The House of Gordon (Aberdeen: New Spalding Club, 1903 - 1907) vol. 2, pp 261 - 262; vol. 3, pp 81 - 81, 315, 466 - 467, etc. J.M. Bulloch's extensive collection of Gordoniana, deposited in the University, which was drawn upon by Edward Gordon of Cairnfield for his manuscript Book of the Gordons (known as the Gordon of Cairnfield manuscript: GB 231 MS 1164), contains further details.