The Blackmores and Gairdners and Gordons go back to the 1500’s and then some of the Gordons back to John 1st Lord Drummond in the 1400’s and much more definitely to John 1st Lord Drummond , whose grand daughter Lady Margaret Stuart was the daughter of James IV Scotland and Lady Margaret Drummond. Lady Margaret Stuart (also called Jane) married John Lord Gordon. (Seven or eight generations prior to another John Gordon, of South Carolina, marrying Catherine Smith)
John Gordon, from this branch of the Gordons married Catherine Smith and they settled in South Carolina . Two Gordon daughters, Mary and Jane, married two Gairdner men, Edwin and James, and had a large ‘Merchant and Purveyors’ business in South Carolina. Jane Gairdner, a daughter of Edwin and Jane Gairdner, married Dr Edward Blackmore of Bath. It seems Jane may have died in England and Dr Blackmore and his children then emigrated to Nelson, New Zealand in 1854. He died in 1865 and is buried in Nelson. His sons James and Edwin emigrated to Adelaide, whilst the eldest son, Edward, ended up in Sydney. There are none of the family left in NZ. Dr Blackmore is buried in Nelson.
Pictured below is Beldorney Castle, Scotland, built by George Gordon, the first Laird of Beldorney (and grandson of John Gordon and Margaret Stuart) on land he purchased on charter from Sir John Gordon of Findlater, the Earl of Huntly, in 1545. George died in 1575 and successive generations of Gordons gambled away and lost bits and pieces of the estate.
John Gordon, the 10th Laird, answered the call of Bonnie Prince Charlie in the 1745 rebellion and was forced to go into hiding. It seems quite likely that John Gordon spent at least some of his 15 years on the run hiding in a secret chamber within Beldorney Castle.
In 1807 the Beldorney Estate was sold by Charles Gordon to Thomas Buchan.
In July 2012, Beldorney Estate, Dumeath, Aberdeenshire, and about 7 miles west of Huntly, comprising 861 acres sold for 3,600,000 pounds. This was only the third time it had sold in 221 years.
Struth it's Blackmores 