The first half of this page relies heavily on the article on Spynie in Sir James Balfour Paul's Scots Peerage, but I have tried to avoid cluttering the text with individual references to that work.
In the village of Leysmill, in the parish of Inverkeilor, there is a house that preserves possibly the last local trace of a name once familiar in the parish. It is called Spynie House. In a former life, it was the Spynie Arms Hotel, conveniently situated next to the village's railway station. The railway has long since vanished and it is possible that many now resident in the parish would be unable to account for the name "Spynie".
As in the case of many other names, "Spynie" is a name that has been transplanted from elsewhere - in this case, from Morayshire. The remains of the Castle or Palace of Spynie stand in the parish now known as New Spynie, some three kilometres north of the city of Elgin. (See also Geograph.org: Spynie Palace.) The palace was a residence of the bishops of Moray.
The bishops of Moray, from 1452 until the Reformation, held the lands of the church of Moray in a free regality. The last pre-reformation bishop of Moray, Patrick Hepburn, though he lost his spiritual functions in 1560, clung on to the temporalities of the diocese. Just as Alexander Campbell, bishop of Brechin, alienated many of the lands of the bishopric of Brechin after 1560, so too Hepburn granted away much of his church's property to friends and relatives. After Hepburn's death in 1573, the first Protestant bishop of Moray, George Douglas, acquired such property as Hepburn had not disposed of and held it until the Act of Annexation of 1587, by which James VI took all remaining church lands, except the chief seats of the bishops, back into his own hands. Douglas died two years later, when his palace also reverted to the king.
One variant of the arms of Lord Spynie
The above SVG image was generated by computer using Python and Pycairo.
View the SVG image full-size.
Alexander, 1st Lord Spynie
Mr Alexander Lindsay, fourth son of David, 10th Earl of Crawford and Margaret, daughter of Cardinal David Beaton, Archbishop of St Andrews had "since boyhood" been at court, had served James VI in numerous capacities and was much in the king's favour. By 1590, he was Chamberlain Depute and travelled to Denmark with James for the latter's marriage to Ann of Denmark. The king had promised that, on his return to Scotland, he would grant Lindsay the temporalities of the bishop of Moray. The promise was kept, and at Holyrood, on 6 May 1590, Mr Alexander Lindsay received a charter under the Great Seal of the lands and other properties of the see of Moray, which were erected into a free barony, called the Barony of Spynie [RMS, 5, 1727]. Six months later, on 4 November, Mr Alexander Lindsay of Spynie was knighted at Holyrood and created a Lord of Parliament, with the title Lord Spynie. In 1592, the charter of 6 May 1590 and the grant of a peerage were ratified by parliament [APS iii, 562 and translation]. The ratification took account of Lindsay's marriage to Jean Lyon, Countess of Angus (as widow of Archibald, 8th Earl of Angus), daughter of John, 8th Lord Glamis, by authorising a new grant under the Great Seal of the barony of Spynie, to Alexander and Jean, and survivor, and the lawful heirs procreated between them, whom failing the nearest lawful heirs male whomsoever of Alexander and their assignees. The ratification also confirmed the honour, as Lord of Spynie, to him and his foresaids.
The subsequent charter under the Great Seal of 17 April 1593 [RMS, 5, 2280] included additional property with the barony of Spynie, namely the patronage of various churches within the diocese of Moray that had previously belonged to the Treasurer, Chancellor and other members of the cathedral's Chapter. The charter erects all the property into the free temporal lordship, barony and regality of Spynie, granting these to Alexander and Jean and the heirs lawfully procreated between them, whom failing the lawful and nearest heirs male whomsoever of Alexander, and assignees.
The ratification of the original charter and the novodamus of 17 April 1593 both specify that the honour should descend, in the first instance, to Alexander and Jean's children, without any restriction to male issue.
Alexander Lindsay's family connexions were almost entirely confined to Angus (or Forfarshire). His father, the earl's, chief seat was at Finavon in Oathlaw. Moreover, Alexander had acquired the lands of Auchmithie, Brunton and Newton in the parish of St Vigeans in 1589 and part of the Mains of Kinblethmont in Inverkeilor, and resided at Kinblethmont. So acquisition of property in Morayshire may not have particularly suited him, and it is quite possible he never set eyes on his Castle of Spynie. It was perhaps therefore satisfying to Lindsay that James VI subsequently, as part of his plans for the Scottish Church, persuaded Lindsay to part with all the former bishop's property, on payment - or at least the promise of such payment. However, Lindsay retained the additional patronages granted to him in the charter of 17 April 1593.
It was not long before Lindsay was able to acquire another property "closer to home". The barony of Inverkeilor (or Redcastle) had been held, in part, by descendants of Sir John Stewart of Bonkyll since the 14th century. John Stewart, 2nd Lord of Lorne was baron of the barony of Inverkeilor by 27 July 1456 [Arbroath Liber, ii, p. 88, ch. 105]. John's immediately younger brother, Walter Stewart was created Lord Innermeath before 6 May 1471 and his descendants had remained as lords of Redcastle, and Innermeath (or Invermay) in Perthshire, without ever involving themselves to any great extent in affairs of state. They are all but dismissed as of little account in the Estimate of the Scots Nobility of 1583, being described as ancient, but of little estate, power or enterprise. But John, 6th Lord Innermeath was held in sufficient esteem to be created Earl of Atholl in 1596 after the male line of the Earls of Atholl failed, he being also a distant cousin of John, 5th and last earl. John 6th Lord Innermeath died between August and October 1603 and the honours, and the barony of Inverkeilor, were inherited by his son James, who proved an unworthy successor. The barony of Inverkeilor passed into other hands on 24 November 1607 and never returned to the Stewart family.
Before then, however, and certainly before 5 May 1603 [1], John, 6th Lord Innermeath must have granted a charter by which he resigned his rights of jurisdiction and superiority over the lands of Boysack and others, including Burnside and Muirhouse, in the barony of Inverkeilor. At the same time, the possessors of these lands, including father and son Henry Fithie, elder and younger of Boysack [2], resigned their rights. These resignations were made in favour of Alexander, Lord Spynie who, with his spouse, on 18 Jul 1605 received a crown charter of the lands of Boysack and others, for his "good service and payment rendered" [RMS, 6, 1648].
Lindsay did not survive long to enjoy possession of Boysack. Fatally injured in a brawl between his nephews in Edinburgh on 5 June 1607, he died a few days later. His only surviving son and heir, Alexander, was still a child of about ten years.
For further details of the first lord Spynie's life, see The Lives of the Lindsays [Lindsay, Lives, i, pp. 318-325].
Alexander, 2nd Lord Spynie
Too young to be served heir to his father in 1607 and faced with a debt of 12000 merks that had been promised by his father to Sir Robert Graham of Scotstoun by the contract of marriage between Graham and Anna Lindsay, his sister, the 2nd Lord Spynie saw his lands sold to Sir James Scrymgeour of Dudhope and James Tweedie of Drummelzier in 1610, redeemable within seven years [RMS, 7, 436]. Alexander was not finally served heir to his father until 3 March 1621 [Retours, Forfar, no. 130], well after the seven year period. Thereafter, on 16 July 1621, his lands were nonetheless granted anew to him, following on the resignations of Scrymgeour, Tweedie and others. And because his father had originally been granted the bishop's property of Moray as the barony of Spynie, but had subsequently had to resign that property back to the crown, the king now granted to Alexander that Boysack and his other lands in Inverkeilor should be united with the remaining patronages in Moray into the free lordship and barony of Spynie, with the "fortalice" of Boysack, which stood at or near to the present farmhouse of Boysack, as its caput. The destination in this charter is to heirs male, but there was no resignation of the honours prior to the grant of the charter, so the original destination of the lordship of parliament to heirs general procreated between Alexander Lindsay and Jean Lyon is unaffected by it [RMS, 8, 205]. The charter was ratified by Parliament on 4 August 1621 [APS, iv, 654 and translation]. The ratification does not mention the honour of Spynie.
Thus it was that "Boysack" became "Spynie". Alexander retained the property that was now called "Spynie" until 6 August 1627. By his charter of that date, he sold Spynie and others, but excepting the patronages in Moray, to George Hay, Viscount of Dupplin (later, 1st Earl of Kinnoull), his father-in-law, and John Lyon, 2nd Earl of Kinghorne, his maternal first cousin [RMS, 8, 1190]. George, 2nd Earl of Kinnoull, was served heir to his father in his father's half of the lordship and barony of Spynie on 5 May 1635 [Retours, Forfar, no. 230]. Shortly thereafter, Sir John Carnegie, later to be 1st Earl of Northesk, purchased the property in Inverkeilor that had of old been called Boysack and now reverted to its former name; he gave it to his second son, John. Through one of the descendants of that John Carnegie, 1st of Boysack, as detailed below, the lands of Boysack and the right to the honour of Spynie were to be re-united.
Alexander died in March 1646. He had two sons and a daughter. The elder son, Alexander, had married but died in his father's lifetime, without issue. The younger, George, became 3rd Lord Spynie.
George, 3rd Lord Spynie
On 12 June 1646, George was served heir to his father in the patronages of the churches of Moray [Retours, Elgin & Forres, no. 85]. On the death of Ludovic, 16th Earl of Crawford in November 1652, George became head of the house of Lindsay & de jure Lord Lindsay. He died, unmarried, on 26 January 1671 and was buried at Holyrood Abbey. In the absence of lawful issue of George, and of a younger brother, the title passed by right to his eldest sister, Margaret.
Margaret, de jure (4th) Lady Spynie
Margaret Lindsay does not appear ever to have claimed or used her title. By 31 May 1648, she was married to William Fullarton of that ilk, who possessed the barony of Fullarton in the parish of Meigle in Perthshire [3]. The place-name "Fullarton" had been transplanted by the Fullartons from Maryton in Angus to this new location in 1447. The couple had a son, William, and two daughters. The son was granted a charter under the Great Seal of the barony of Fullarton in 1687, with reservation of life-rents to his parents.
William Fullarton of that ilk, de jure 5th Lord Spynie
William Fullarton married Susanna, a daughter of John Fullarton of Dudwick, before 1681 and the couple had a son John. William certainly died before 27 June 1746; as his son John was designed "of Fullarton", it is assumed here that William predeceased his son.
John Fullarton of that ilk, de jure 6th Lord Spynie
John Fullarton's first marriage (contract dated 1702) was to Margaret, daughter of John Carnegie, 2nd of Boysack, by whom he had a son, William. John died on 13 October 1737 and his testament was recorded at Dunkeld on 29 April 1742.
William Fullarton of that ilk, de jure 7th Lord Spynie
William married Susanna, daughter of David Ogilvy of Cluny in 1730. He was served heir special to his father, John, in the lands and barony of Fullarton, &c, on 30 July 1740 and heir general to him on 25 May 1744. He was, additionally, served heir general to his grandfather, William Fullarton of Fullarton, and his grandfather's sisters Elizabeth and Margaret, on 27 June 1746. He died on 7 June 1771, leaving a son William.
William Fullarton of that ilk, de jure 8th Lord Spynie
William married Stewart, only child of James Carnegie, 4th of Boysack. (Her name was doubtless chosen to reflect her father's Jacobite sympathies.) They had an only child, James, who was born in February 1764, and Stewart died later that year. William, as Col. William Fullarton of Glenqueich, being aware of his ancestry, had himself served heir of line general to George, 3rd Lord Spynie on 21 August 1783. He changed his name and designation to Lindsay of Spynie and, in 1784, laid claim to the peerage title. The Committee of Privileges of the House of Lords, however, opined that he was not entitled to it, on the grounds that the title could only descend to heirs male [Warden, Angus, ii, p. 33]. The newspaper, the Arbroath Herald, commenting on this in obituaries of two later lairds of Boysack (Henry Alexander Fullarton Lindsay Carnegie, in 1908 [20 November 1908] and David Crawford Rutherford Fullarton Lindsay Carnegie in 1935 [22 February 1935]), wrote of William Fullarton:
Sir James Balfour Paul, in his Scots Peerage, comments that this decision of the Committee of Privileges "has been generally regarded as erroneous" [SP viii, pp. 110-11]. See also the comments by Lord Lindsay in his Lives of the Lindsays [Lindsay, Lives, ii, p. 255]. For the full gory detail, and a damning indictment of Lord Mansfield's opinion in this case - "astounding, futile and inexplicable" - see the very extensive discussion in John Riddell's Inquiry into the Law and Practice in Scottish Peerages [Riddell, Inquiry, vol. 2, p. 654 et seq.].
William Fullarton died on 23 February 1813, outliving his son James and very nearly surviving his eldest grandson James.
James Lindsay of Boysack (1764-1805)
The arms of Carnegie of Boysack
[Fraser, Southesk, i, p. ciii]
The above SVG image was generated by computer using Python and Pycairo.
View the SVG image full-size.
James's maternal grandfather James Carnegie, 4th of Boysack had drawn up a tailzie (entail) of the estate of Boysack on 24 June 1766, following his daughter Stewart's death. James Carnegie died at Sancerre en Brie, France on 4 September 1768 [Fraser, Southesk, ii, 429], the tailzie was registered on 8 March 1771 and James Lindsay was served heir of tailzie to his maternal grandfather on 17 April 1771. On 2 June 1786, James Lindsay of Boysack was married in London by Thomas Waters, curate of St Dunstan's in the East, to Mary Elizabeth, daughter of Capt. James Strachan, merchant and one of the Elder Brethren of Trinity House and his wife Alexandrina Allan [St Dunstan's Parish marriage and baptismal registers]. The couple had five sons and three daughters. James died on 7 April 1805. His eldest son, James, succeeded to Boysack.
James Lindsay Carnegie of Boysack (1787-1814), de jure 9th Lord Spynie
James was born on 6 March 1787. He joined the Royal Navy, rising to the rank of commander, and died at sea on 5 October 1814, unmarried. He was succeeded in Boysack by his brother William.
William Fullarton Lindsay Carnegie of Spynie & Boysack (1788-1860), de jure 10th Lord Spynie
The arms of William Fullarton Lindsay Carnegie of Spynie & Boysack
The above SVG image was generated by computer using Python and Pycairo.
View the SVG image full-size.
William was born on 13 May 1788. He was served heir general to his brother James on 20 March 1815; heir male & of line special to his brother James in the lordship & barony of Spynie (i.e. the Moray patronages) on 29 May 1815; heir male & of tailzie special to his father in the lands & barony of Boysack also on 29 May 1815; and heir general to his mother on 29 December 1817. He died on 13 March 1860, having had six sons and four daughters by his wife Jane Christian Carnegie, daughter of William, 7th Earl of Northesk, whom he had married on 27 December 1820. The first four sons died in William's lifetime. The fifth son, Henry Alexander, inherited.
Henry Alexander Fullarton Lindsay Carnegie of Spynie & Boysack (1836-1908), de jure 11th Lord Spynie
Henry was born on 25 April 1836. Having been commissioned lieutenant in the Bengal Engineers of the H.E.I.C.'s forces, he served during the Indian Mutiny of 1857. During the siege of Birwah, in Oudh, he was very seriously injured by detonation of explosives he was preparing for an attack on one of the city's gates. He retired from the army and returned to Kinblethmont about 1859 [Arbroath Herald, 20 November 1908].
In an obituary, writing of the peerage claim, the Arbroath Herald wrote [20 November 1908]:
Henry married, on 7 October 1862, Agnes, eldest daughter of James Rait of Anniston, but the couple had no children. He died at Kinblethmont on 14 November 1908, and was succeeded by his younger brother, Donald. A further obituary for Henry, together with a brief notice of the death of his younger brother and successor, Donald, appears in the Publications of the Clan Lindsay Society [Publ. Clan Lindsay Soc., vol. ii, no. 5, pp. 159-160, 1911(?)].
Donald Christian Strachan Lindsay Carnegie of Spynie & Boysack (1840-1911), de jure 12th Lord Spynie
Donald was born on 9 July 1840. He served as a major in the Indian Army, before retiring to St Andrews in Fife. He died, unmarried, at St Andrews on 16 May 1911. He was succeeded in Boysack & Kinblethmont by his heir male, David Crawford Lindsay (1852-1935), who was the grandson of Donald's uncle, Capt. Alexander Lindsay, H.E.I.C.S. (1790-1822), third son of the above-mentioned James Lindsay of Boysack; David's mother was Donald's sister Jane.
However, Donald's heir of line was the elder son of his eldest sister, Mary Elizabeth Lindsay Carnegie.
Mary Elizabeth Lindsay Carnegie (1822-1858)
Mary was born on 30 December 1822, the eldest child of William Fullarton Lindsay Carnegie and Lady Jane Christian Carnegie. She was married at Kinblethmont on 9 January 1845 to Lieut. George Gordon, H.E.I.C.S.
George Gordon was born in Edinburgh on 13 March 1810, fourth son of William Gordon of Halmyre (an illegitimate son of Sir William Gordon of Gordonstoun, 6th bart.) and Mary Dunn. George's father had bought the estate of Halmyre, in the parish of Newlands, Peeblesshire in 1808, but the children appear all to have been born in Edinburgh and, after William's death in 1823, Mary Dunn lived at 35 Drummond Place there. Their eldest son James became a Writer to the Signet, while the second son, Richard (1805-1865), an accountant, took over the Halmyre estate. On Richard's death, Halmyre passed to the next then surviving brother, Archibald Gordon, C.B., M.D. (1812-1886), Inspector General of Hospitals [DNB, xxii, 168], and finally to Archibald's only son and child of his first wife, Magdalene, daughter of Charles Ferrier of Baddinsgill, Peeblesshire. That son was Charles Ferrier Gordon (1853-1918), an eccentric and ultimately insane collector of guns, books and much else whose life and gun collection have been documented by Donald Dallas in Charles Gordon: Magnificent Madness (Wikey: Quiller Publishing, 2010).
George Gordon entered as cadet into the Bengal army of the Hon. East India Co. in 1825, was commissioned ensign in the 50th Native Infantry on 15 March 1826 and lieutenant on 12 March 1829. Having been promoted captain on 4 Jan 1849, he was appointed acting commandant of the 1st Sikh Local Infantry in June of that year [GA, no. 551].
Mary Elizabeth Lindsay Carnegie had set sail for India shortly after her marriage to George Gordon, and their eldest child, William Lindsay Carnegie, was born at sea on 11 November 1845 and baptised on 31 December at Calcutta. A second son, George Keith, was born in Edinburgh on 26 July 1850, and a daughter, Alexandrina Lily Jane, was born in Punjab on 18 December 1851 [GA, no. 551]. Mary returned to Britain and died at Great Malvern, Worcestershire on 28 January 1858, though an inventory of her estate was not registered at Edinburgh until 1 September 1880 [NRS SC70/1/202]. Her widower remained in India, his final promotion being to lieut.-colonel on 20 July 1858. He died on 7 March 1860 and was buried the following day at Fort William, Calcutta [GA, no. 551]. The three children were brought up by relatives in Scotland.
William Lindsay Carnegie Gordon (1845-1930), de jure 13th Lord Spynie
The 1851 census lists William with his paternal grandmother Mary Dunn at 35 Drummond Place, Edinburgh. Mary Dunn died shortly thereafter, on 2 June 1853. By the census of 1861, William was a pupil at Trinity College, Glenalmond, Perthshire, which he attended from 1858 to 1862. He entered the Royal Military Academy as a cadet on 30 January 1864 and was gazetted lieutenant in the Royal Artillery on 17 July 1866 and captain on 1 August 1878. He served as Superintendant of Factories in the Ordnance Department in Bengal [GA, no. 1505]. He retired from the army on 19 November 1884 and sailed on the "Oregon" from Liverpool via Queenstown in Ireland to New York, arriving there on 9 March 1885. By 1891, he had returned to Britain and is listed in the English census as unmarried, "living on own means" and resident in a hotel at 1-3 St Albans Place, Westminster, London. The next record of him is the 1898 voters' roll for British Columbia, in which he is recorded as a mining engineer living at Greenwood, Rossland Riding, Kootenay West. In the 1901 census of Kootenay West, he is listed as having immigrated into Canada in 1896, born at sea in November 1844 (rather than 1845), of "Scotch" origin, sole member of household, unmarried, an agnostic, mining engineer and Canadian national. By the following census of 1911, he is listed as still living at Greenwood, but his religion is now Catholic. He died at Greenwood, testate, on 29 January 1930 [B.C. Archives] and was buried in Greenwood Cemetery [ref.]. It is not known if he had remained in contact with other members of his family.
George Keith Gordon (1850-1937), de jure 14th Lord Spynie
George Keith Gordon was a pupil at a school run by a James Browning at Woodvillas, Peebles at the time of the 1861 census. He followed his brother to Glenalmond, being a pupil there 1862-4. He entered the Royal Navy as a cadet at Dartmouth on 4 September 1864 [GA, no. 588]. Promoted from midshipman to sub-lieutenant on 18 December 1870, he appears as acting sub-lieutenant on the books of the gunnery ship H.M.S. "Excellent" at Portsea, Hampshire in the 1871 census. Promoted lieutenant on 15 June 1874, he was to serve thereafter on H.M.S. "Fawn", a surveying vessel employed along the east coast of Africa in the 1870s [NL, 20 June 1876].
George met his first wife Josephine Claypon Hodson through her brother, the Rev. Charles Edward Hodson, M.A. (Cantab), who in 1871 was curate of St James's, Devonport by Plymouth, Devon and later served as chaplain aboard H.M.S. "Discovery" during that ship's Arctic expedition [NL, 20 June 1876; Cambridge Alumni Records]. (It has been said [ref.] that George served with C. E. Hodson's brother, but this appears to be a misunderstanding, as C. E. Hodson seems to have been the only son.) George and Josephine, the daughter of the Rev. Charles William Hodson, were married at St Matthew's, Oakley Square, London on 31 August 1875, her sister Marian and his sister Alexandrina being two of the witnesses [St Matthew's Parish marriage register]. Their only child, Ethel Mary, was born on 12 June 1876 and baptised on 6 July thereafter at St James's, Hampstead Road, Middlesex by her grandfather, the vicar there [St James's Parish baptismal register]. The family were then living at 33 Edwardes Square, Kensington, and still there at the census of 3 April 1881, George being listed as "Lieutenant, R.N., active list". George retired from the Royal Navy on 7 May 1881, with the rank of commander.
His brother-in-law Charles Edward Hodson had availed himself of the provisions of the Clerical Disabilities Act in 1879 [Cambridge Alumni Records], and resigned his priesthood. Newly married to Charlotte Elizabeth Minton (a great-grand-daughter of Thomas Minton, founder of the pottery factory), he had sailed with his wife from Liverpool to New York on the S.S. "Italy", arriving on 1 February 1882, and had visited San Antonio, Texas. Their daughter was born at San Antonio that November, but died the next April; their sons, Percy Charles and Bernard, were both born in London, in 1883 and 1885 [BFR, p. 327], and the family clearly led an itinerant existence, being in London in 1891 and Annapolis in Nova Scotia in 1901 before finally settling at San Antonio. It seems that Charles may have suffered from that common affliction of 19th century clergymen of the Church of England, namely, "doubts", for the 1901 census of Canada lists the family as being Catholics.
Apparently encouraged by Charles Hodson's impressions of Texas, George decided to emigrate there and become a cattle rancher, in spite of his lack of expertise. Ethel Mary was left in London with her grandfather, and was still living with him in 1891. George bought the OWL ranch, 15 km west of Junction City, Kimble County, and learned about cattle. It is unclear when Ethel first arrived there, but she married Arthur Lyon Mudge, who hailed from Paignton in Devon, on 9 April 1896 [ref.]. Josephine Hodson died at San Antonio the next year, on 15 February [English Probate Calendar, 1897; also, ref.]. The 1900 census of Texas shows the widowed George boarding in Junction City, his occupation being given as "merchant". He was back on his ranch by 1910, having married on 28 April 1902 at Galveston an Englishwoman, Louisa Malim [ref.]. Louisa was born on 20 April 1851 in Brompton, Middlesex [Brompton Holy Trinity baptismal register], daughter of Alfred Malim and Jane Elizabeth Hodson, who was an elder sister of the above-mentioned Rev. Charles William Hodson. So George's wives were first cousins. George's daughter Ethel and her husband are listed in the next-but-one schedule of the 1910 census, with their children Dorothy and Fred. Staying with the Mudges was George's sister, Alexandrina.
George and Louisa appear to have spent much of the next 25 years travelling in Asia and elsewhere, collecting items of interest as they went. There are records of George and Louisa arriving at Philadelphia from Liverpool on 14 February 1912 on the S.S. "Haverford", and at Québec from Southampton on 28 September 1924 on the S.S. "Antonia"; in the latter record, Louisa is incorrectly said to be Scots though born in England, and the couple's nearest relative is given as George's sister, "Angela" Gordon, 29 Wellington Road, Brighton. Not only had George's cousin Charles Ferrier Gordon been a collector, his uncle Donald Christian Strachan Lindsay Carnegie had assembled an extensive collection of British gold coins [Arbroath Herald, 19 May 1911], so George may have inherited the enthusiasm. He died on 1 February 1937 in Bexar County, Texas [Texas death index, 1903-2000] and was buried in Dignowity Cemetery, San Antonio [Monument]. About a year before his death, he penned an account of his early years, Seventeen Years In The Royal Navy, 1865-1881, that originally appeared after his death in instalments in the Frontier Times, a magazine published between 1923 and 1954 in Bandera, Texas by J. Marvin Hunter, founder of the Frontier Times Museum in Bandera. Louisa died on 3 April 1941 [Texas death index, 1903-2000], bequeathing the items collected by George and herself to the museum. These included a totem pole that now stands in front of the museum [ref.].
George's sister Alexandrina Lily Jane returned home from Brighton to reside at 25 Melville Street, Edinburgh and died at 10 Coates Crescent there, unmarried, on 18 April 1925 [Scottish death certificate; English Probate Calendar, 1925]. She is commemorated on a monument in St Cuthbert's Kirkyard, Edinburgh together with her paternal grandparents, William Gordon of Halmyre and Mary Dunn, her Gordon uncles Ludovick and James, W.S. (and his spouse Harriet Davies), and aunt Isabella Gordon [Inscription as of 1915].
Ethel Mary Gordon (1876-1967), de jure (15th) Lady Spynie
Ethel Mary Gordon and her husband Arthur Lyon Mudge (1863-1947) had three children: Dorothy Josephine, born 13 August 1898, died 6 May 1996 having married John Molesworth; Frederick Arthur Gordon, born 25 April 1900; and Mary Lily, born 20 October 1910, died 12 October 1912. According to the 1930 census of Texas, which lists the Mudges with their son Fred, Ethel and Arthur both immigrated into the USA in 1884; her father is wrongly stated to have been born in England. Ethel died on 29 March 1967 in Kimble County [Texas death index, 1903-2000].
Frederick Arthur Gordon Mudge (1900-1971), de jure 16th Lord Spynie
Fred Mudge married the widow of Maj. William Graham Gillis Jr (1917-1944), and had issue. He died on 13 April 1971 [Texas death index, 1903-2000]. His elder son is de jure 17th Lord Spynie.
Notes
1: On 5 May 1603, at Boysack, Alexander Lord Spynie, with consent of his spouse, granted a charter to David Gardyne and Jean Lindsay his wife of 100 bolls of victual annually furth of the lands of Braidfoots-Gardyne (Wester Gardyne) and other property. This was property for which Alexander did not receive the crown charter until 18 Jul 1605, but it is clear from this that he was already in possession of Boysack and the rest of the properties by May 1603 [RMS, 7, 436].
2: Five, possibly six, generations of the Fithie family, each of them called Henry, had held Boysack as vassals of the lords Innermeath. The earliest record of the family's possession is on 21 July 1450, when Henry de Fethy of Balesok was member of an inquest at Brechin [Brechin Registrum, ii, no. 42]. Further details of the early history of Boysack in Inverkeilor parish are at Boysack.
3: The brief account of the Fullartons of that ilk given by David MacGregor Peter in his The Baronage of Angus and Mearns is completely scrambled.
Abbreviations
APS - Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland, edd. T. Thomson and C. Innes (Edinburgh, 1814-75)
Arbroath Liber - Liber S. Thome de Aberbrothoc (Bannatyne Club, 1848-56)
Brechin Registrum - Registrum Episcopatus Brechinensis (Bannatyne Club, 1856)
Fraser, Southesk - W. Fraser, History of the Carnegies, Earls of Southesk, and of their Kindred (Edinburgh, 1867)
BFR - Ashworth P. Burke, Family Records (London, 1897)
DNB - Dictionary of National Biography, edd. L. Stephen and S. Lee (London, 1885-1900)
GA - Constance Oliver Skelton and John Malcolm Bulloch, Gordons under Arms: a Biographical Muster Roll of Officers named Gordon in the Navies and Armies of Britain, Europe, America and in the Jacobite Risings (New Spalding Club, 1912)
Lindsay, Lives - Alexander William Crawford Lindsay - Lives of the Lindsays: a Memoir of the Houses of Crawford and Balcarres (London, 1849)
NL - Navy List
NRS - National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh
Publ. Clan Lindsay Soc. - Publications of the Clan Lindsay Society, ed. John Lindsay (Edinburgh, 1901-)
RMS - Registrum Magni Sigilli Regum Scotorum, edd. J.M. Thomson et al. (Edinburgh, 1882-1914)
Retours - Inquisitionum ad Capellam Domini Regis Retornatarum, quae in Publicis Archivis Scotiae adhuc Servantur, Abbreviatio, ed. T. Thomson (Edinburgh, 1811-16)
Riddell, Inquiry - John Riddell, Inquiry into the Law and Practice in Scottish Peerages, before, and after the Union; involving the Questions of Jurisdiction, and Forfeiture: together with an Exposition of our Genuine, Original Consistorial Law (Edinburgh, 1842)
SP - The Scots Peerage, ed. J. Balfour Paul (Edinburgh, 1904-14)
Warden, Angus - A.J. Warden, Angus or Forfarshire (Dundee, 1880-5)
