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The Valuation of the County of Aberdeen for the year 1667

A. and H. Tayler

Third Spalding Club, vol. 5 (1933)
Arthur Anderson of Candacraig

Son of Duncan Anderson of Candacraig. He married, in 1661, Marjorie, daughter of John Lumsden of Auchindoir and Corrachree. (Her brother, Harry, succeeded to Cushnie, 1718.)

Arthur had sasine on the lands of Candacraig on 25th February, 1660.

His eldest son was Duncan Anderson, who married (1) "Nan" Forbes of Invernettie in 1674, and (2) Helen Forbes, elder daughter of Alexander Forbes of Invernochty. Duncan was dead before 1717, in which year his widow married George Downie.

A great deal of information regarding the Andersons of Candacraig has been obtained from the papers of Falconer L. Wallace, Esq., present owner of the estate.

Patrick Anderson was in Candacraig in 1579 and was still living in 1581. He was the father of Alexander or Alistair Anderson who had the first recorded sasine on the estate on 7th May, 1620. As already stated in the volume of the Third Spalding Club for last year (The Cess Roll of Aberdeenshire in 1715), Charles Anderson of Candacraig (b. 1711, d. 16th March, 1776) erected a monument on the parish church of Strathdon in 1757 "to the memory of his predecessors, the Andersons of Candacraig, who have been interred here for the last seven generations." It was shown that there were only six generations of Andersons, Lairds of Candacraig, known (including Charles), but Patrick (father of Alexander who had the first sasine) makes the seventh. The sasine was granted by Alexander, Lord Elphinstone, with the consent of Alexander, Lord Kildrummy, his son, to Alexander (or Alistair) Anderson, who in the same year granted a sasine to his own two sons, John and Duncan, the elder of whom succeeded in 1630, but died in the following year, as Duncan had sasine 31st October, 1631, of the lands previously held by his father and brother, viz. Candacraig, Tomanchaple or Tomantapel, Tomachon, Faichlaw, and croft of Craig. As already seen, Duncan was succeeded by his son, Arthur, the sasine in whose favour is dated 22nd May, 1672, though he was already in possession in 1667. Arthur was succeeded by his son, another Duncan, who had sasine in 1684 and died in 1715. Duncan's second wife, Helen Forbes, had sasine for her liferent in that year. Two years later, as seen, she married again, and John Anderson, her second son, was, on the death of his elder brother, Arthur, appointed, "as nearest Agnate," tutor to his infant nephew, Charles, the Laird who erected the monument "commemorating his ancestors for seven generations past." The subsequent history of the family from the death of Charles on 16th March, 1776, has not been given correctly in any genealogical work, but can be elucidated from the Candacraig papers.

Charles Anderson, 7th Laird, is proved, by the petition of his great-grandson, Alexander of Godmanchester, Canada, dated 1855, to have died unmarried. He had, however, three natural sons -- Alexander, who succeeded him, whose mother was Elizabeth Wattie, William, whose mother was Mary McHardy, and Joseph, whose mother was Margaret Sim. By registered "Disposition of Taillie, 13th March, 1769, Charles Anderson left his property to a long series of heirs of whom the three sons above-named come first," whom failing, to Charles Lindsay, son of his sister, Anne Anderson, whom failing, to ten different cousins by name, and finally to heirs whatsoever male or female, the eldest female, "as oft as the same shall open to females and their descendants, being always to succeed without diversion or bar and to exclude all heirs portioners whatsoever." (According to William Middleton Stewart, in "Scottish Notes and Queries," September 1932, there was yet another son, Arthur, by "a Miss Michie," whose descendants were numerous, but he was not mentioned in the "Disposition of tailzie" quoted above.)

Alexander, the eldest son, did succeed; he was born in 1752 and died 1817. He married, first, Jean Farquharson of Allargue, and second, Helen Grant. He was followed by two sons of his own, Major John of the 28th Regiment, and Doctor Robert, neither of whom had surviving issue. The estate then devolved upon Alexander, son of Jean, sister of John and Robert, who had married her cousin, Alexander, son of William Anderson, natural son of Charles, 7th Laird, and Mary McHardy. The son of this last Alexander, another Alexander, who resided in Huntingdon, Canada, sold the estate of Candacraig, which had been disentailed, to Sir Charles Forbes of Newe in 1866. It was purchased in November, 1900, by Falconer L. Wallace, Esq., by whose kindness the above details are given.