Clan Gordon
historians will be interested to learn that the Barony of Kelly
has been offered for sale by the Trustees of the Mar Estate.
The lands of Kelly, not then a barony, were among the first to be
acquired by the Gordons in the Thanage of Fermartyn, and were
subsequently united with the "Two Methlaykis" and "Haldauch" to
form the great estate of Methlick and Haddo. As long ago as 1261
Kelly belonged to Alexander Comyn, Earl of Buchan, and later to
Cheynes, Meldrums and Erskines, but the Gordons held it from the
15th century until recently, and the present Representer, the
Marquess of Aberdeen, lives nearby at Methlick (the House of Kelly
having been destroyed by the Covenanters in 1644, and Haddo
House, its replacement, having been donated to the National Trust
for Scotland).
The Gordons of
Methlick and Haddo descended from Jock Gordon of Essie (or
Scurdargue). Their most distinguished descendant is perhaps the
4th Earl who was Prime Minister in the mid-19th century, but their
most famous is undoubtedly Sir John Gordon of Haddo, the Royalist
martyr who defended his House of Kelly, capitulated on honorable
terms which were promptly dishonored by the Marquess of Argyll,
was tried in Edinburgh on Argyll's orders and beheaded there on
19th July 1644.
