This letter was written on headed notepaper; the address shown in small capitals is followed by a series of dots, then ‘18’ and some more dots; the rest of the date is inserted by hand.

7, UNION TERRACE.                          ABERDEEN 9 Feby 1877.     Dear Sir,                  All the information I can get from Mrs Garden is that your mother is the daughter of a Miss Cattanach, who was the daughter of an Helen Gordon who was the daughter of a son (out in the Re- bellion of 1745) of some Mr. Gordon of Terpersie.1               If your inquiry is one of mere curiosity you will consider how far you would go as to expense. If however you wish to ascertain how the Title to Terpersie stands for the purpose of ascertaining if anything can come out of it, this cannot be done without an exa- mination of all the Titles and an account of all the descendants of the Mr Gordon of Terpersie who was Helen Gordon’s Grand father.          The Entail was made in 1743 1744 by James Gordon of Knockes- pock, and confirmed including Terpersie in 1769 by James Brebner or Gordon and Francis Grant or Gordon the sons res- pectively of Margaret & Barbara Gordon who were sisters of James Gordon of Knockespock.            Now what relation was James Gordon of Knockespock to the Gordon of Terpersie who was Helen Gordon’s Grand father or was he the same person; and if not the same person how did the Lands of Terpersie pass out of his family?         If Mrs Fellows be the proper heir, and if she were dying without issue, so far as I can learn her heir under the Entail, would be Mrs Disney Leith2 a descendant of the above mentioned Barbara Gordon.              One cannot tell but it is extremely unlikely that the re- lationship of such a family should be uncertain or mistaken and this cannot be discovered with- out incurring a very heavy ex- pense likely in the end to be use -less; and any partial inquiry would certainly be money thrown away.            I shall retain the documents till I hear from you again                        Yours faithfully                                  Jas. Garden   William Leiper Esq        140 Bath Street                    Glasgow.

Notes

¹ Added in pencil immediately thereafter – ‘7^th & last Laird.’

² ‘M^rs Disney Leith’ was Mary Charlotte Julia Gordon, daughter of Henry Percy Gordon and wife of General Robert William Disney Leith, the hero of Mooltan, whom she survived.

James Garden to William Leiper