Guthrie of Gagie
Meet the Guthries of Gagie
Few Guthrie names were remembered more neatly than those preserved in the old family rhyme:
Guthrie of Guthrie, and Guthrie of Gagie, Guthrie of Taybank, and Guthrie of Craigie.
Traditional source: Robert Chambers, Popular Rhymes of Scotland (1870), p. 305, where the couplet is described as referring to the principal branches of the old Forfarshire Guthrie family; Alexander J. Warden, Angus or Forfarshire, vol. III, p. 385.The rhyme places Gagie among the best-remembered territorial Guthrie identities of Angus, but it should not be read as a pedigree chart. The records are more complicated—and far more interesting. Gagie itself was divided into Easter and Wester Gagie, in the parish of Murroes just north of the old King’s Way between Dundee and Brechin. Different portions of the lands could have different holders, making the history of the estate more complex than the simple succession preserved in traditional pedigrees.
William stands at the center of one of the most dramatic stories in Guthrie family tradition: a bloody feud with the Gairdins following the murder of his father. The surviving records confirm that the feud was real. William was implicated in the slayings of Patrick Gairdin of that Ilk and Robert Gairdin of Tullois, and in 1618 he received a royal remission for both deaths.
The records also reveal that the familiar revenge story compressed several events spread across many years. Patrick Gairdin was killed before Alexander Guthrie’s death and therefore could not have been slain in revenge for it. Robert Gairdin was killed later, after Alexander’s murder, on the highway between Brechin and Dundee. That later episode fits both the chronology of retaliation and the landscape remembered in the traditional tale.
Key evidence: Scottish criminal proceedings concerning Patrick Gairdin (May 1578), the killing of Alexander Guthrie of that Ilk (Oct 1587), and Robert Gairdin of Tullois (Nov 1589); NRS GD188/24/6, Letters of Remission under the Great Seal, 6 Jul 1618.The next generation carried the story of Gagie far beyond Angus. William’s son Alexander Guthrie of Gagie became involved in the administration and revenues of the Western Isles, appearing in records connected with the Bishopric of the Isles, northern fisheries, and Highland ecclesiastical affairs. His surviving testament records that he died on 1 November 1637 and reveals another side of him: he directed the extraordinary sum of 10,000 merks Scots toward the education and upbringing of young scholars.
Sources: Forfarshire Special Retour no. 180, 24 Mar 1629, identifying Alexander as heir to his father William in Wester Gagie; precept of clare constat, 30 Apr 1630, for Alexander’s infeftment in Gagie as heir to William; Western Isles and episcopal records of the 1620s–1630s; Edinburgh Commissary Court CC8/8/59, testament testamentar and inventory of Alexander Guthrie of Gagie.After Alexander’s death without issue in 1637, his younger brother Francis Guthrie, another son of William, succeeded at Gagie. Francis married Bathiah Guthrie, daughter of John Guthrie, Bishop of Moray, and through their marriage the Gagie family became entwined once again with the principal estate of Guthrie of that Ilk. Their son John continued the reunited succession, while Gagie itself remained part of the wider Guthrie landed estate for centuries.
Evidence basis: the William → Francis relationship is consistently preserved in the Guthrie family muniments and in nineteenth-century genealogical works that drew upon those papers, including Burke, Warden and The Scottish Nation. No publicly cited retour has yet been identified that literally says “Francis, brother of Alexander,” but Francis succeeds after Alexander died without issue and is thereafter consistently styled of Gagie. Bishop John Guthrie’s family account records Francis’s marriage to Bathiah on 4 May 1647; RMS XI, no. 565, 4 Mar 1664, names Francis Guthrie of Gagie and Bathiah his wife in the Guthrie settlement; Forfarshire Retour no. 412, 4 Apr 1665, serves their son John heir to Francis.The story of Gagie is therefore more than a short cadet pedigree. It is a history of two neighboring Gagies, changing property interests, family violence, royal pardons, Western Isles administration, educational philanthropy, and the eventual reunion of Gagie with the principal house of Guthrie. Traditional accounts preserve much of the drama. The surviving records allow us to place that drama back into its proper chronology.
Succession at a Glance
Documented in the 1590s. James appears repeatedly as Guthrie of Gagie and, in surviving National Library of Scotland material, more specifically in association with Easter Gagie. His precise relationship to William Guthrie of Wester Gagie has not yet been established.
William was a documented son of Alexander Guthrie of that Ilk and Isobel Wood. A 1571 Kincreich infeftment styles William filius dicti Alexandri; a 1574 Eastertown charter calls him Alexander’s second son; and a 1603 Ravensbie disposition calls him brother-german of Alexander Guthrie of that Ilk. His father’s 1587 testament identifies Margaret Erskine as William’s wife. By 1621, Isobel Leslie is independently documented as the wife of William Guthrie of Gagie.
A 1610 infeftment still styles William of Ravensbie; by the royal remission of 6 July 1618 he is styled of Wester Gagie. The remission covered the slayings of Patrick Gairdin of that Ilk and Robert Gairdin of Tullois. William was dead before his testament testamentar and inventory was registered on 16 July 1625; that register date should not itself be treated as his exact death date.
On 24 March 1629, Alexander was served heir to his father William in Wester Gagie. A 30 April 1630 precept of clare constat followed, providing for his infeftment in Gagie as William’s heir. His later records place him in the administrative world of the Bishopric of the Isles, including northern teinds and fisheries. No wife or children have yet been securely documented, and the later succession is consistent with his having died without issue.
Alexander made his testament on 27 October 1637, only days before his death on 1 November 1637. It was recorded on 15 February 1640. Among its most striking provisions was a mortification of 10,000 merks Scots for the education and upbringing of young scholars, together with smaller charitable provisions for the poor.
After Alexander’s death without issue, Francis Guthrie, William’s younger son and Alexander’s brother in the accepted Gagie reconstruction, succeeded at Gagie. Francis married his cousin Bathiah / Bethia Guthrie, daughter of John Guthrie, Bishop of Moray, on 4 May 1647.
Their marriage became the bridge by which the Gagie family was joined to the principal estate of Guthrie of that Ilk. A major Crown settlement in 1664 names Francis Guthrie of Gagie and Bathiah together in the succession to Guthrie. Francis was still alive on 4 March 1664 but had died by 4 April 1665, when their son John was served heir.
On 4 April 1665, John Guthrie was served heir-male to his deceased father Francis in Wester Gagie and, through his mother Bathiah, in the lands of Guthrie. From this generation onward, the family story belongs principally to the succession of the Guthries of Guthrie, although Gagie remained part of the wider family estate for centuries.
Gagie in the Angus Landscape
Gagie lies in the parish of Murroes, northeast of Dundee. The historic landscape is important to understanding the family because the name did not describe one indivisible property. Surviving records distinguish Easter Gagie and Wester Gagie, sometimes placing different people in association with the two portions.
This distinction becomes especially important when reconstructing the earliest Guthrie presence. James Guthrie appears in records associated with Easter Gagie during the 1590s, while William Guthrie is later documented as of Wester Gagie. Blaeu’s map itself labels Gaige and Easter Gaige; the documentary references to Wester Gagie show why the early appearances should not be forced into a single simple succession to one undivided property.
View the original Blaeu map .
Spelling was not fixed. The place appears in surviving records and maps in forms including Gagie, Gagy, Gaige, Gaygie and related variants. These forms should not be treated as different estates merely because the spelling changes.
The east–west distinction is more than a map label. Documentary references show that the two portions could retain separate legal identities and associations with different landholders. That division is essential to understanding the early Guthrie evidence.
Gagie belonged to the parish of Murroes, the parish designation found in the surviving testaments of William Guthrie and Isobel Leslie. Their probate records therefore place the family firmly within the same local landscape shown on the historic map.
One of the most evocative features of the Blaeu map is the road running immediately south of Gaige and Easter Gaige, labelled “The Kings Way” between Dundee and Brechin.
That road is more than picturesque background for the Gagie story. Contemporary criminal proceedings concerning the Guthrie–Gairdin feud place the killing of Robert Gairdin of Tullois on the highway between Brechin and Dundee. The map therefore preserves the same regional road corridor named in the documentary account.
It does not identify the precise site of the encounter or prove that the killing occurred beside Gagie itself, but it allows us to place the event within the road network connecting Dundee, Brechin and the Gagie landscape.
The Landholders of Gagie
The early history of Gagie cannot be reduced to a single chain of lairds. Easter Gagie and Wester Gagie could be held and described separately, and the surviving records place more than one Guthrie in the landscape before the branch represented by William, Alexander, and Francis becomes clear.
This distinction also matters when reading traditional accounts. A statement that someone acquired “Gagie” may refer to one portion of the lands rather than the whole estate.
The Guthrie family archive contains writs concerning Wester Gagie extending well before the period of William Guthrie. A later inventory compiled in 1711 describes writs of the lands of Gaigie covering the years 1486–1686.
The catalogue descriptions alone do not identify every holder or transaction, so those early dates cannot be used to place a particular Guthrie at Gagie. They do, however, show that the title history of the property was considerably older than the seventeenth-century family story.
One contemporary record makes that complexity especially clear. On 20 April 1603, Robert Lundie of Balgonie was served heir to his father, also Robert Lundie, in the lands of Wester Gagie. That title evidence falls between James Guthrie’s Easter Gagie appearances and William Guthrie’s later establishment at Wester Gagie and cautions against treating the property as one uninterrupted holding.
The earliest Guthrie currently identified with Gagie in the contemporary records is James Guthrie. He appears repeatedly during the 1590s as James Guthrie of Gagy or Gagie.
National Library of Scotland records from 1597 associate him more specifically with Easter Gagie. His appearance predates William Guthrie’s later documented association with Wester Gagie.
James’s precise relationship to William has not yet been proved. He should therefore be recognized as an earlier documented Guthrie landholder without inserting him into William’s pedigree.
William’s identity is secure before his Gagie tenure. The 1571 Kincreich infeftment calls him son of Alexander Guthrie of that Ilk; the 1574 Eastertown charter calls him Alexander’s second son; and the 1603 Ravensbie disposition calls him brother-german of Alexander Guthrie of that Ilk.
On 6 June 1610, William received infeftment in Gagie while still styled of Ravensbie. This is important contemporary evidence that his Gagie interest was already being established by 1610, although the surviving description does not by itself prove that he purchased the whole property from the Sibbalds.
The Guthrie archive also contains an item catalogued simply as “Westir Gagy, 1611.” Because the online catalogue gives no description of that individual instrument, it cannot yet be identified as the purchase deed, a sasine, or another stage in the same title transaction.
His position at Wester Gagie is explicit by 6 July 1618, when the Crown issued letters of remission to William Guthrie of Wester Gagie for the slayings of Patrick Gairdin of that Ilk and Robert Gairdin of Tullois.
William’s succession is considerably clearer than the earlier title history. On 24 March 1629, Alexander Guthrie of Wester Gagie was served heir to William Guthrie of Wester Gagie, his father.
A 30 April 1630 precept of clare constat followed, providing for Alexander’s infeftment in Gagie as heir to William. Alexander thereafter appears simply as Alexander Guthrie of Gagie in records extending well beyond Angus. He made his testament on 27 October 1637 and died on 1 November 1637; the testament was recorded 15 February 1640.
After Alexander died without issue, Francis Guthrie, William’s younger son and Alexander’s brother in the accepted Gagie reconstruction, succeeded at Gagie. His marriage on 4 May 1647 to Bathiah / Bethia Guthrie, daughter of John Guthrie, Bishop of Moray, ultimately joined the Gagie family to the succession of the principal estate of Guthrie.
By 4 March 1664, a Crown settlement named Francis Guthrie of Gagie and Bathiah Guthrie his wife in the succession to Guthrie. Francis died before 4 April 1665, when their son John was served heir-male to him.
Traditional local and family accounts state that the Sibbalds of Rankeilour sold Gagie to William Guthrie about 1610. The tradition is plausible and is repeated by Warden and later architectural histories, but the surviving evidence needs to be described more carefully than a simple sale of one undivided estate.
The complication is important. James Guthrie was already associated with Easter Gagie in the 1590s; a 1603 retour places Robert Lundie of Balgonie in Wester Gagie; and William’s own 6 June 1610 infeftment in Gagie still styles him of Ravensbie. The unidentified 1611 family writ is again specifically “Westir Gagy.”
The evidence therefore supports William acquiring a genuine Gagie interest around 1610, but it does not yet show exactly which portion, from whom, and by what sequence of instruments. The original 1610–1611 title papers remain the best way to test the traditional Sibbald account.
Gagie remained an identifiable part of the larger Guthrie estate. Surviving records include minutes of the baron court of Wester Gagie in 1730–1732 and estate papers concerning plans for a new house at Gagie in 1758.
By the later eighteenth century, John Guthrie of Guthrie was recorded as proprietor of both Wester and Easter Gagie, together with Muirhouse. The two old divisions had therefore come within the same Guthrie estate.
The territorial identity survived remarkably late. In 1910, John Douglas Maude Guthrie was formally styled “of Guthrie and Gagie.” Gagie was therefore still recognized as part of the family’s landed identity centuries after Francis and Bathiah.
The old landed estate finally changed fundamentally in 1919, when most of the Gagie estate was acquired by the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries and divided into smaller holdings. The house and a reduced property survived, but the historic estate no longer remained intact.
The property history therefore mirrors the genealogy only in part. Gagie did not disappear when Francis Guthrie’s family succeeded to Guthrie of that Ilk. The lands remained an identifiable part of the wider family estate, and the name continued to be used territorially into the twentieth century.
What remains unresolved is the beginning: how James of Easter Gagie, the documented Lundie interest in Wester Gagie, the traditional Sibbald ownership, and William of Wester Gagie fit together before the secure father-to-son succession of William and Alexander.
The Gairdin Feud: Tradition & the Record
One of the most memorable stories attached to the Guthries of Gagie tells of William Guthrie avenging the murder of his father, Alexander Guthrie of that Ilk. In the traditional account, William’s widowed mother, Isobel Wood, urged her son to avenge the killing, and members of the rival Gairdin family paid for Alexander’s death.
The tale has all the elements of an old family feud: murder, retaliation, pursuit along the roads of Angus, and eventual royal pardon. Unusually, much of its underlying violence can be confirmed in contemporary records. What changed in the telling was the sequence of events.
The surviving criminal and Privy Council records show that the familiar story compressed several separate episodes spanning forty years. William is directly named in proceedings over the deaths of two Gairdins; his father was slain in a separate attack involving another Gairdin; and William ultimately received a royal remission covering the two killings attributed to him. The dates, however, reveal that only one of William’s two Gairdin cases could have followed his father’s murder.
William Guthrie was accused of art and part in the slaughter of Patrick Gairdin of that Ilk.
This is the first major chronological correction to the traditional story. William’s father, Alexander Guthrie of that Ilk, was still alive. Patrick’s death occurred approximately nine years before Alexander was killed and therefore cannot have been an act of revenge for his murder.
William’s father, Alexander Guthrie of that Ilk, was slain in an attack described in the criminal record as hamesucken and slaughter near Inverpeffer.
The Gairdin named in connection with Alexander’s killing was Thomas Gairdin of Legatstoune. This is another important difference from versions of the family story that associate Alexander’s death with Patrick Gairdin.
Alexander’s surviving testament also identifies the two women whose names later become important in the Gagie story: Isobel Wood, Alexander’s widow and William’s mother, and Margaret Erskine, then wife of William Guthrie.
Two years after his father’s death, William Guthrie was accused of involvement in the slaughter of Robert Gairdin of Tullois.
Unlike the earlier Patrick Gairdin case, this killing does fit the chronology of retaliation. The proceedings place the episode on Carbundow Muir, on the highway between Brechin and Dundee.
The same proceedings identify William as the lawful son of the late Alexander Guthrie of that Ilk, providing independent contemporary evidence for William’s place within the principal Guthrie family.
More than twenty years after Robert Gairdin’s death, William Guthrie of Ravinsbie was brought before the justice court on the charge of art and part in that 1589 slaughter. The record repeats the location on Carbundow Muir and expressly identifies William as lawful son of the deceased Alexander Guthrie of that Ilk.
William produced a royal respite under the Privy Seal for the Robert Gairdin case. The prosecution therefore provides an unusually valuable later transcript of the underlying allegation without requiring us to treat the charge itself as a conviction.
A later summons names Isobel Wood, relict of Alexander Guthrie of that Ilk, and William Guthrie her factor.
The record is valuable because it shows mother and son still acting together in family affairs twenty years after Alexander’s death. It provides a genuine documentary relationship behind the much more dramatic role assigned to Isobel in the traditional revenge story.
The surviving Guthrie family papers include original letters of remission under the Great Seal in favor of William Guthrie of Wester Gagie.
The remission expressly concerned the slaughters of Patrick Gairdin of that Ilk and Robert Gairdin of Tullois. Forty years after Patrick’s death, both cases were gathered together in a single royal pardon.
That later document may help explain how family tradition eventually remembered the two deaths as parts of one episode, even though the original events belonged to very different moments in William’s life.
- Patrick Gairdin was not killed in revenge for Alexander Guthrie’s murder. His death came first.
- The Gairdin associated with the murder of Alexander Guthrie was Thomas Gairdin of Legatstoune.
- Robert Gairdin’s 1589 death occurred after Alexander’s murder and is the episode that fits the chronology of retaliation.
- William’s mother Isobel Wood survived Alexander and continued to appear with her son in later records, but the surviving evidence reviewed so far does not prove that she ordered or demanded revenge.
- The 1610 prosecution for Robert Gairdin’s death preserves the 1589 place, charge, and William’s father-son identification, while also showing that William relied on a royal respite rather than the case simply vanishing.
- The 1618 remission was real and covered both Gairdin killings, helping explain why later accounts could merge the events into one dramatic family story.
The Blaeu map shown above gives the documented Robert Gairdin episode an unusually vivid geographical setting. Immediately south of Gaige and Easter Gaige runs “The Kings Way” betwixt Dondei and Brechin.
The criminal proceedings do not identify an exact point on that route, so the map cannot mark the scene of the killing itself or prove that the encounter occurred beside Gagie. What it does show is the same regional Dundee–Brechin road corridor named in the record.
In this case, the old family story was not invented from nothing. It preserved the memory of a genuine feud, a murdered father, a widowed mother, later retaliatory violence, a road between Dundee and Brechin, and eventual royal pardon. The records allow those pieces to be restored to their correct order.
The Guthries of Gagie: Generation by Generation
The secure father-to-son succession begins with William Guthrie of Wester Gagie and his son Alexander. Earlier records for James Guthrie of Easter Gagie remain important to the history of the lands, but his relationship to William has not yet been established.
The generations that follow show how a younger branch of the Guthries of Guthrie developed its own territorial identity at Gagie, reached into the Western Isles, and ultimately rejoined the principal family through the marriage of Francis Guthrie and Bathiah Guthrie.
William’s place within the Guthries of Guthrie is not dependent upon a traditional pedigree. A 13 August 1571 infeftment of the temple lands of Kincreich styles him filius dicti Alexandri—son of the said Alexander. A 29 December 1574 charter by Alexander Guthrie of that Ilk then expressly grants a fourth part of Eastertown to William as his second son.
The relationship is reinforced again on 11 June 1603, when the Ravensbie disposition styles William brother-german of Alexander Guthrie of that Ilk. The later criminal proceedings and his father’s 1587 testament provide additional contemporary family context.
Alexander Guthrie’s testament identifies Margaret Erskine as William’s wife in 1587. No surviving OPR marriage or baptismal records have been found for the couple.
By 1621 William was married to Isobel / Isabella Leslie. Her own surviving testament dative identifies her directly as the spouse of William Guthrie of Gagie. She died in June 1621. William’s own testament was not registered until 1625, so that later registration date should not be used to imply that she predeceased him by several years.
The Guthrie pedigree tradition identifies Isobel as a daughter of John Leslie, younger of Balquhain; Burke’s later pedigree likewise places William’s wife in the Balquhain family. Other modern genealogical summaries give conflicting Leslie parentage, so the exact Leslie generation should remain subject to documentary confirmation.
A further tradition says that Isobel had previously married a Forbes of Touch. No contemporary evidence for that first marriage has yet been located. Her marriage to William, however, is established by her own 1621 testament.
William appears first in connection with Ravensbie. The early Wester Gagie title history is not linear: a 1603 retour places Robert Lundie of Balgonie in Wester Gagie, while on 6 June 1610 William received infeftment in Gagie but was still styled of Ravensbie. A surviving family writ is then catalogued simply as “Westir Gagy, 1611.”
Traditional accounts place a purchase from the Sibbalds of Rankeilour about 1610. The contemporary evidence supports William acquiring a real Gagie interest at about that time, but the exact portion, previous holder, and sequence of conveyancing instruments remain unresolved.
His life was also marked by the long-running conflict with the Gairdins. William was implicated in the deaths of Patrick Gairdin and Robert Gairdin and eventually received a royal remission for both cases on 6 July 1618. The documented sequence behind that story is examined separately in The Gairdin Feud.
William’s surviving St Andrews Commissary Court record is a testament testamentar and inventory. It identifies him as the deceased William Guthrie of Gagie in the parish of Murroes.
The register entry is dated 16 July 1625, so William was dead by that date. Until the death clause can be read with complete certainty, the registration date should not be converted into an exact death date.
Alexander’s relationship to William is secure. On 24 March 1629, he was served heir to William Guthrie of Wester Gagie, his father. A 30 April 1630 precept of clare constat then provided for his infeftment in Gagie as William’s heir. From this period he appears in records simply as Alexander Guthrie of Gagie.
Alexander’s career carried him well beyond Angus. Surviving records place him in the administrative network surrounding the Bishopric of the Isles, including the management or transfer of ecclesiastical rights connected with Highland and island teinds.
On 11 August 1630, Alexander ratified a tack by John, Bishop of the Isles, to Sir Donald Macdonald of Sleat concerning the teinds of Trotternish, Sleat and North Uist. A later deed of 4 February 1637 transferred Alexander’s rights in herring teinds from the seas and lochs pertaining to the Bishopric of the Isles.
Traditional summaries often reduce Alexander to the title “Commissary of the Western Isles.” The surviving records allow a more concrete picture: he was involved in the legal and financial administration of episcopal revenues across a geographically distant and politically complicated region.
Alexander also appears in one of the more colorful surviving episodes involving the wider Guthrie family. On 5 June 1627 he joined Alexander Guthrie, younger of Kincaldrum, William Guthrie his brother, and others in an armed pursuit of men who had recruited another Alexander Guthrie for military service under the King of Denmark.
The group pursued the recruiters for several miles and forcibly recovered their kinsman. The Privy Council described the party as armed and arrayed “in feir of weir”—equipped as for war.
Alexander made his testament on 27 October 1637, only days before his death on 1 November 1637. The surviving testament testamentar and inventory was recorded in the Edinburgh Commissary Court on 15 February 1640.
Its most striking provision is a mortification of 10,000 merks Scots intended for the bringing up of youths at schools. Whatever else remains to be learned about Alexander’s personal life, this substantial educational bequest reveals an important part of his priorities and legacy.
No wife or children have yet been securely identified in the records reviewed for this reconstruction. Traditional pedigrees describe Alexander as dying without issue, and the later succession is consistent with that account, but the testament itself should not be made to prove more than it expressly states.
After Alexander died without issue, Francis Guthrie succeeded at Gagie. The accepted Gagie reconstruction identifies Francis as William’s younger son and Alexander’s brother. That placement is consistently preserved in the Guthrie family muniments and in nineteenth-century works that drew upon those papers.
A publicly cited contemporary retour literally stating “Francis, brother of Alexander” has not yet been identified. The profile therefore preserves the evidentiary distinction while treating the relationship as the established working succession rather than reducing Francis to an unrelated later holder.
Francis married Bathiah / Bethia Guthrie, daughter of John Guthrie, Bishop of Moray, on 4 May 1647. Her family belonged to the principal Guthrie succession, making the marriage important far beyond Gagie itself.
In the Bishop’s own family account, Francis was affectionately described as his “adopted son” when recording Bathiah’s marriage. The phrase belongs to the language of the seventeenth-century family record and should not be interpreted as a modern legal adoption.
The marriage ultimately brought the Gagie family into the succession of the principal estate. A Crown settlement of 4 March 1664 names Francis Guthrie of Gagie and Bathiah Guthrie his wife in conjunct fee within the legal arrangements for Guthrie.
Francis was still alive on 4 March 1664. By 4 April 1665, however, his son John was being served heir-male to the deceased Francis.
Francis therefore died within that thirteen-month interval, correcting older estimates that placed his death much later in the century.
On 4 April 1665, John Guthrie was served heir-male to his deceased father Francis in Wester Gagie and, through his mother Bathiah, in the lands of Guthrie. With John, the family succession is best understood as part of the continuing history of the Guthries of Guthrie rather than as a new generation of a separate Gagie pedigree.
John married Cecilia, or Cecil, Carnegie, and their descendants continued the principal Guthrie line. Gagie, however, did not disappear from the family’s landed identity. The estate remained associated with the Guthries of Guthrie for generations afterward.
The Gagie profile ends its generational reconstruction with John. Continuing his descendants here would duplicate the established Guthrie of Guthrie succession. From this point, the story of Gagie is better followed through the property itself rather than by repeating the principal pedigree.
Traditional pedigrees assign several children to William Guthrie and Isobel Leslie, including Alexander, Francis, Margaret, Isobel, and Jean. The contemporary succession securely establishes Alexander as William’s son, while Francis is retained as William’s younger son in the accepted Gagie reconstruction. What remains unresolved is the maternity of those sons and the documentary placement of the daughters.
Because Margaret Erskine was William’s documented wife in 1587 and Isobel Leslie was his documented wife by 1621, the maternity of William’s children cannot safely be assigned from the traditional pedigree alone. The daughters attributed to William likewise remain to be tested individually against contemporary records.
Gagie House: Four Centuries of Change
Gagie House still preserves an early seventeenth-century core associated with William Guthrie. Historic Environment Scotland dates the original structure to circa 1614 and describes it as a two-storey, originally rectangular fortified house.
What stands today, however, is not simply William’s house frozen in time. Eighteenth-century additions, the major 1893–94 reconstruction, and later twentieth-century work all contributed to the present building. The result is a house in which several centuries of Gagie’s history remain visible at once.
The earliest surviving core was a relatively compact, rectangular-plan fortified residence, associated with an adjoining garden wall or barmkin. Historic Environment Scotland compares its original form with other early seventeenth-century fortified houses in Murroes parish.
The present bartizans, crowstepped gables, dormerheads, and other picturesque details should not all be assigned to William’s house: Historic Environment Scotland considers several of those features likely products of the 1893–94 reconstruction. The listing nevertheless specifically states that Gagie House was built for William Guthrie.
Major additions changed the scale and appearance of the older fortified house. Wings, an entrance porch, and other alterations created the more irregular plan visible today.
The wider estate was being embellished at the same time. The surviving coach house and stable are dated 1759. The garden summerhouse was recorded as dated 1762 by MacGibbon and Ross; the final two digits on its datestone are now indecipherable.
Following a major fire, architect James MacLaren carried out an extensive reconstruction in 1893–94. Historic Environment Scotland considers the pedimented dormerheads, crowstepped gables, and the north-west bartizan among the features probably belonging to this rebuilding rather than to William Guthrie’s original house.
The interior was also substantially reconstructed at this time.
A further fire affected the dining-room wing in 1980. Historic Environment Scotland records that the dining-room interior was reconstructed by the then owners, architect France Smoor and his wife.
Despite repeated alteration, Gagie retains enough of each major building phase to make the house itself a record of the estate’s changing fortunes.
Two architectural details are particularly interesting for the family history because nineteenth-century observers and Historic Environment Scotland associate their initials and heraldry with William Guthrie and Isobel / Isabella Leslie.
A sculpted lintel bearing the Guthrie arms and the initials W.G. with the date 1614 was recorded in the Gagie summerhouse by Andrew Jervise in the nineteenth century. Historic Environment Scotland states that it was removed to Guthrie Castle in the mid-twentieth century.
Andrew Jervise described a shield on the front wall bearing the Leslie arms with the initials I.L.. Historic Environment Scotland likewise interprets the panel as referring to Isabella Leslie, wife of William Guthrie. Her surviving 1621 testament independently proves that Isobel Leslie was William’s wife.
The Guthrie estate papers add an intriguing piece of documentary evidence. A memorandum dated 25 August 1758 concerns measurements connected with “a new house to be built in Gagie.”
At first glance that sounds as though William’s earlier residence was completely replaced. The surviving architecture suggests a more complicated story. Historic Environment Scotland identifies an early seventeenth-century core within the present building and dates major additions to the middle or later eighteenth century.
The 1758 wording may therefore belong to a substantial enlargement or rebuilding campaign around the older house rather than to the complete disappearance of the 1614 structure. Until the estate papers reveal more detail, the exact scale of that project should remain open.
Gagie House is therefore unusually useful to the family historian. It preserves a physical connection with the early seventeenth-century Guthries of Gagie while also recording the long life of the estate after the Gagie branch had become reunited with the principal Guthrie family.
The W.G. 1614 stone formerly at Gagie, the panel associated with Isobel Leslie, the eighteenth-century enlargement, and the later reconstructions all belong to different chapters of the same architectural story rather than to a single untouched moment in the house’s history.
Family & Property
The Gagie pedigree and the history of the property overlap, but they are not exactly the same story. The clearest hereditary sequence begins with William Guthrie of Wester Gagie and his son Alexander. After Alexander died without issue, Francis Guthrie continued the Gagie family in the accepted succession, and his marriage to Bathiah Guthrie ultimately brought that male line into the succession of Guthrie of that Ilk.
From that point onward, Gagie did not require a separate line of lairds to preserve its identity. The lands themselves continued as part of the wider Guthrie estate even after the pedigrees had effectively reunited.
On 24 March 1629, Alexander Guthrie was served heir to William Guthrie of Wester Gagie, his father, in the town and lands of Wester Gagie.
A 30 April 1630 precept of clare constat followed, providing for Alexander’s infeftment in Gagie as William’s heir. Together these records form the strongest early genealogical and property anchor in the Gagie succession.
Alexander made his testament on 27 October 1637 and died on 1 November 1637. No wife or children have yet been securely identified in the records reviewed for this profile, and the later succession is consistent with his having died without issue.
Francis Guthrie, William’s younger son and Alexander’s brother in the accepted Gagie reconstruction, then succeeds in the family and property story. The Guthrie muniments and the later documentary pedigrees consistently preserve that placement, although the specific contemporary instrument by which Francis entered Alexander’s Gagie title has not yet been located.
On 4 May 1647, Francis married Bathiah / Bethia Guthrie, daughter of John Guthrie, Bishop of Moray. Their marriage joined two Guthrie lines that had developed separate territorial histories.
Bishop John had acquired the estate of Guthrie in 1636. Bathiah’s place in his family therefore became crucial to the future succession, while Francis supplied the older collateral male Guthrie line descending through Gagie.
Francis consequently stands at a turning point: he remained of Gagie, but the settlement of Guthrie upon Francis and Bathiah placed their descendants in the principal succession as well.
Francis was alive on 4 March 1664 but had died by 4 April 1665, when his son John Guthrie was served heir-male to him in Wester Gagie and, through his mother Bathiah, in the lands of Guthrie.
From John’s generation onward, continuing the pedigree as a separate “Gagie” line would artificially divide a family that had become part of the principal succession of Guthrie of that Ilk.
A major Great Seal settlement dated 4 March 1664 names Francis Guthrie of Gagie and Bathiah Guthrie his wife in conjunct fee within the arrangements for the estate of Guthrie.
The record is important because it does more than document their marriage. It preserves the legal destination by which the future of the Gagie family was joined to the succession of Guthrie of that Ilk.
The result was not the disappearance of Gagie. Instead, the same descendants could inherit within both territorial histories. Gagie continued as an identifiable estate even after the family pedigree had re-entered the principal Guthrie succession.
This is an important distinction in the Gagie story. The separate Gagie pedigree effectively ends with the family’s return to the principal Guthrie succession, but the Gagie estate continues.
Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century records still distinguish Gagie within the wider family properties. By the later eighteenth century both Easter and Wester Gagie were recorded under the same Guthrie proprietorship, and the territorial style survived into the twentieth century.
Only with the breakup of much of the estate in 1919 did the old landed structure of Gagie change fundamentally.
Open Questions & Further Research
The surviving records have corrected several important parts of the traditional Gagie pedigree and narrowed others considerably. They have also revealed questions that older family accounts tended to conceal. Rather than filling the remaining gaps with assumptions, this profile keeps them visible as active research problems.
Several of the best targets are already known to exist in the Guthrie family papers. Others may depend on finding or inspecting marriage contracts, sasines, services of heir, testaments, and title instruments that are not yet fully identified.
James Guthrie appears repeatedly during the 1590s as of Gagie and more specifically in association with Easter Gagie. His documentary presence predates William Guthrie’s secure association with Wester Gagie.
Was James a brother or other relative of William? Was he the same James who appears elsewhere among the sons or brothers of the principal Guthrie family? Or did Easter Gagie belong to a separate Guthrie line altogether?
Traditional accounts say that the Sibbalds of Rankeilour sold Gagie to William Guthrie about 1610. The tradition is plausible, but the surviving title evidence shows a more complicated sequence than a single purchase of one undivided estate.
Robert Lundie of Balgonie was served heir in Wester Gagie on 20 April 1603. William then received infeftment in Gagie on 6 June 1610 while still styled of Ravensbie, followed by the unidentified “Westir Gagy, 1611” family writ. The remaining question is therefore which portion William acquired, from whom, and through what sequence of instruments.
The Guthrie family archive includes an item catalogued simply as “Westir Gagy, 1611.” The online catalogue does not state whether it is a charter, sasine, disposition, contract, or another form of instrument.
Seeing the original could potentially clarify William’s title, identify the previous holder, explain the traditional 1610 date, and perhaps name a spouse or other relatives.
William had at least two documented wives: Margaret Erskine, named in 1587, and Isobel Leslie, documented as his wife by 1621.
Alexander is securely proved to be William’s son, and Francis is retained as William’s younger son in the accepted Gagie reconstruction. What remains unproved is the maternity of either son and the documentary placement of the daughters traditionally named Margaret, Isobel, and Jean.
No surviving OPR marriage or child series has yet been located that resolves how the children should be divided between William’s two documented wives.
The Guthrie/Burke pedigree tradition places Isobel / Isabella Leslie in the Leslies of Balquhain, while some later modern genealogical summaries give conflicting Leslie parentage. A further tradition says that she first married a Forbes of Touch before marrying William Guthrie.
Her marriage to William is proved independently by her own 1621 testament. What remains to be found is contemporary evidence for the Forbes marriage and a document that fixes her exact place in the Balquhain Leslie family.
Alexander died on 1 November 1637 without any wife or children yet securely documented. The accepted Gagie reconstruction identifies Francis as his younger brother and successor, a placement consistently preserved in the family muniments and later documentary pedigrees.
What is still missing is the strongest possible contemporary bridge: a service of heir, disposition, sasine, testamentary clause, or other title record explicitly showing how Francis entered Alexander’s Gagie succession.
NRS GD188/1/5 is an inventory of writs of the lands of Gaigie covering 1486–1686.
This could be one of the most valuable surviving documents for reconstructing the estate’s title history. It may summarize deeds that would otherwise have to be located one by one and could clarify the transition between pre-Guthrie holders, Easter and Wester Gagie, William, Alexander, and Francis.
Historic Environment Scotland identifies an early circa-1614 rectangular core built for William Guthrie, while estate papers refer in 1758 to a “new house to be built in Gagie.”
The present building also contains major later work. HES considers several picturesque features—including some crowstepped gables, dormerheads and a bartizan—likely products of the 1893–94 James MacLaren reconstruction. A closer architectural or documentary study could therefore distinguish the 1614 fabric from eighteenth-century enlargement and later reconstruction more precisely.
- GD188/1/5 — 1711 inventory of writs of Gaigie, 1486–1686.
- GD188/24/6, item 1 — the unidentified “Westir Gagy” writ of 1611.
- The original 1610–1611 Gagie title instruments, including any conveyance that can test the traditional Sibbald of Rankeilour → William Guthrie account against the documented 1603 Lundie interest.
- A service of heir, disposition, sasine, or other title instrument showing exactly how Francis Guthrie entered Alexander Guthrie’s Gagie succession.
- A marriage contract, sasine, testament, baptism, or family settlement capable of identifying the mother of Alexander and Francis Guthrie and placing the daughters between William’s two documented wives.
- Contemporary evidence for the traditional Isobel Leslie → Forbes of Touch first marriage.
- Further documents clarifying the identity and family connections of James Guthrie of Easter Gagie.
Gagie is a good example of why territorial names should not be turned automatically into a straight-line pedigree. The records reveal two Gagies, overlapping Guthrie identities, multiple marriages, and a later reunion with the principal family.
New evidence may refine individual relationships, dates, and title mechanics, but any future reconstruction should preserve the distinction between what contemporary documents prove, what a cumulative documentary reconstruction securely supports, and what traditional family accounts preserve.
Most Wanted Documents
Records That Could Complete the Gagie Reconstruction
The recent Gagie audit resolved much of the traditional story. William Guthrie’s identity and parentage are documented; the chronology of the Gairdin feud has been corrected; Alexander’s succession, testament and death are established; and Francis is securely found as the next Guthrie of Gagie.
The remaining questions are narrower but important. They concern the earlier Easter and Wester Gagie holdings, the precise route by which William acquired Wester Gagie, the maternal identity of William’s children, and one missing contemporary bridge between Alexander and Francis.
1. NRS GD188/1/5 — Examine the 1711 Inventory of Gaigie Writs
The Question
What original Gagie deeds once existed, and do their descriptions preserve dates, parties or relationships not visible in the presently assembled evidence?
Why This Matters
This single document could provide the roadmap for several other Most Wanted targets. Even if some of the original writs have not survived or are difficult to access, an eighteenth-century inventory may preserve their titles and essential contents.
What We Need
A complete high-resolution image and transcription of the 1711 Gaigie inventory, preserving every date, property description, party name, relationship and cross-reference to an earlier writ.
View NRS GD188/1/5
2. James Guthrie of Easter Gagie — Identify His Family
NLS Ch.15013, 16 May 1597, is an obligation by John Finlayson to James Guthrie of Gargie.
The Question
Who was James Guthrie of Easter Gagie, and what relationship—if any—did he have to William Guthrie of Wester Gagie and the principal Guthrie family?
Why This Matters
James proves that a Guthrie territorial identity at Gagie existed before William is securely styled of Wester Gagie. Establishing James’s family could determine whether Easter and Wester Gagie represented two related Guthrie interests, a succession between branches, or entirely separate holdings.
What We Need
Trace James beyond the surviving 1590s references, especially in property, marriage, testamentary and Dundee burgh records. Witnesses and cautioners in Ch.15012–15013 should also be examined for kinship clues.
3. William Guthrie — Reconstruct His Acquisition of Wester Gagie
6 June 1610 — William Guthrie is infeft in Gagie, while still styled of Ravensbie.
6 July 1618 — William is explicitly styled of Wester Gagie in his royal remission.
The Question
Exactly when and from whom did William acquire Wester Gagie, and what part did the Lundie and traditional Sibbald of Rankeilour title history play in that transfer?
Why This Matters
Traditional histories describe a relatively simple purchase, but the surviving evidence suggests a more complicated chain. The original instruments could establish whether the transaction involved all of Gagie, Wester Gagie alone, or successive interests acquired from different holders.
What We Need
The complete sequence of title instruments from approximately 1603–1611, including any writ summarized as “Westir Gagy”, with exact parties, acreage or fractional interests, consideration and prior title recitals.
Browse the NRS GD188 collection
4. William Guthrie’s Children — Identify Their Mothers
Isobel Leslie is separately documented as William Guthrie of Gagie’s spouse in 1621.
The Question
Which children belonged to Margaret Erskine, and which—if any—to Isobel Leslie?
Why This Matters
Both marriages are real, but simply assigning all of William’s children to one wife creates an unsupported maternal pedigree. Establishing the mothers would clarify chronology, inheritance and kinship connections in the next Gagie generation.
What We Need
Search for marriage settlements and provisions for younger children, especially documents using phrases such as “son of the marriage,” “bairns procreated,” maternal consent, liferent, tocher or inheritance from the Erskine or Leslie side.
Scotland’s People · NRS GD188
5. Isobel Leslie — Verify the Reported Forbes of Touch Marriage
The Question
Was Isobel Leslie genuinely a Forbes widow before marrying William Guthrie, and if so, which Forbes of Touch was her husband?
Why This Matters
The claimed marriage affects Isobel’s chronology and may help explain later family alliances. It should not be repeated as fact merely because it appears in derivative pedigrees.
What We Need
A Leslie–Forbes marriage contract, sasine, testament, widowhood designation or other document identifying Isobel before her marriage to William.
Search the NRS Catalogue
6. Alexander → Francis Guthrie — Find the Direct Succession Instrument
Francis subsequently appears as Francis Guthrie of Gagie; his marriage to Bathiah Guthrie and their son John’s later succession are independently documented.
The Question
Can the accepted William → Alexander → Francis succession be completed with a contemporary document that explicitly states Francis’s relationship to Alexander?
Why This Matters
The succession is presently extremely strong when the records are read together, but this is the one remaining relationship in the core Gagie chain that lacks the ideal literal statement “brother and heir.”
What We Need
Search immediately after Alexander’s 1637 death for a service, retour or sasine placing Francis in Gagie as Alexander’s heir. Alexander’s testament and the Gagie title inventory may contain cross-references to the missing succession instrument.
Browse NRS GD188
7. Gagie House — Recover the Building and Alteration Records
The Question
Which portions of today’s Gagie House belong to William Guthrie’s original residence, and which changes can be tied to specific later Guthrie proprietors?
Why This Matters
The architectural evidence is an important physical counterpart to the land records. Original building papers could also explain heraldic panels, inscriptions and the development of the wider Gagie estate.
What We Need
Search estate correspondence and accounts in the Guthrie muniments, together with architectural records and early photographs, for construction dates, costs, architects and descriptions of the house before later rebuilding.
Historic Environment Scotland — Gagie House, LB19001 · NRS GD188 Guthrie family papers
Sources & Further Research
The reconstruction of the Guthries of Gagie draws on contemporary legal records, testaments, retours, Crown records, Privy Council proceedings, family papers, and later historical accounts.
Where traditional pedigrees preserve useful names or stories, they are retained as research evidence rather than treated automatically as proof. The strongest conclusions on this page are those tied directly to contemporary records; cumulative documentary reconstructions are identified separately when no single surviving instrument states the entire relationship.
Testaments & Commissary Court Records
Important for the immediate family of William Guthrie. Identifies Isobel Wood as Alexander’s wife and Margaret Erskine as wife of his son William.
This is the principal evidence presently establishing Margaret Erskine as an earlier wife of the future William Guthrie associated with Ravensbie and Gagie.
St Andrews Commissary Court, 18 July 1621. Identifies Isobel Leslie as spouse of William Guthrie of Gagie in the parish of Murroes.
The manuscript indicates that she died in June 1621. No children are securely identified in the surviving testamentary material reviewed for this profile.
St Andrews Commissary Court, CC20/4/8. Identifies the deceased William Guthrie of Gagie within the parish of Murroes.
The testament testamentar and inventory was registered 16 July 1625. That registration date should not automatically be treated as William’s exact date of death.
Edinburgh Commissary Court, testament testamentar and inventory. Alexander made the testament on 27 October 1637, died on 1 November 1637, and the record was entered on 15 February 1640.
The testament preserves his remarkable provision of 10,000 merks Scots toward the upbringing and education of youths at schools, together with smaller charitable provisions.
National Records of Scotland — Guthrie Family Papers
A sequence of Guthrie family writs independently anchors William’s identity before and during the emergence of his Gagie interest.
13 Aug 1571: Kincreich infeftment styles William filius dicti Alexandri; 29 Dec 1574: Alexander Guthrie of that Ilk calls William his second son; 11 Jun 1603: the Ravensbie disposition styles William brother-german of Alexander Guthrie of that Ilk; 6 Jun 1610: William receives infeftment in Gagie while still styled of Ravensbie.
These writs are the principal contemporary foundation for William’s place in the pedigree and for dating the beginning of his documented Gagie title sequence.
Groups of Guthrie family writs covering the barony of Guthrie and associated lands, including Wester Gagie, across the fifteenth through early eighteenth centuries.
The catalogue ranges alone do not establish who held Gagie at every date; the individual deeds must be examined before conclusions are drawn from them.
Inventory covering writs of the lands of Gaigie from 1486 to 1686.
This remains one of the highest-priority sources for future work because it may reconstruct the title history of Gagie across the period before and during the early Guthrie occupation.
A surviving family writ catalogued only by place and date. The online description does not identify the nature of the instrument or the parties involved.
It should therefore be treated as a known but unexamined record, not as proof that William purchased Wester Gagie in 1611.
Letters of remission under the Great Seal in favor of William Guthrie of Wester Gagie for the slaughters of Patrick Gairdin of that Ilk and Robert Gairdin of Tullois.
This record is central both to William’s documented territorial style and to the reconstruction of the Guthrie–Gairdin feud. The profile presently cites the remission to the GD188 family papers generally rather than assigning the 1611 “Westir Gagy” sub-reference to it without direct item-level verification.
Later estate records include the 25 August 1758 memorandum concerning measurements for “a new house to be built in Gagie”, baron court material, nineteenth-century property records, and later estate administration.
Commission dated 7 December 1910 styling John Douglas Maude Guthrie of Guthrie and Gagie. The record demonstrates the survival of Gagie as part of the family’s territorial identity into the twentieth century.
Privy Council, Criminal & Feud Records
Privy Council material reports that Patrick Gairdin of that Ilk was shot on 10 May 1578 and names William Guthrie, son of the Laird of Guthrie, among those pursued in connection with the killing.
Because Patrick’s death occurred before the murder of William’s father, it cannot represent revenge for Alexander Guthrie’s later killing.
Criminal proceedings concern the hamesucken and slaughter of William’s father in October 1587. The Gairdin implicated in this episode was Thomas Gairdin of Legatstoune.
Great Seal evidence independently preserves the episode: RMS V, no. 1682 , 1 Aug 1589, grants remission to Thomas Gardyn for art and part in Alexander Guthrie’s slaughter.
Pitcairn’s published criminal proceedings of 25 July 1610 prosecute William Guthrie of Ravinsbie for art and part in the November 1589 slaughter of Robert Gairdin of Tullois on Carbundow Muir, in the highway between Brechin and Dundee.
The record explicitly identifies William as lawful son of the late Alexander Guthrie of that Ilk and records his reliance upon a royal respite.
Peace and caution proceedings repeatedly identify James Guthrie of Gagy/Gagie during the 1590s. Great Seal evidence also names James of Gagie on 4 November 1596.
These appearances are important because they predate William’s secure identification with Wester Gagie. NLS Ch.15012–15013 then associates James specifically with Easter Gagie in 1597.
Great Seal cross-reference: RMS VI, no. 479 , 4 Nov 1596.
Privy Council material dated 5 June 1627 records Alexander joining other Guthries in an armed pursuit to recover a recruited kinsman. The party was described as being “in feir of weir”.
Citation: Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, Second Series, vol. VIII, p. 379.
National Library of Scotland Records
Contract and related obligation involving James Guthrie of Easter Gargie.
These records provide the clearest surviving distinction between James’s association with Easter Gagie and William’s later connection with Wester Gagie.
Summons dated 9 April 1607 identifying Isobel Wood, relict of Alexander Guthrie of that Ilk, and William Guthrie her factor.
The record independently documents the continuing legal and family relationship between William and his widowed mother.
Retours, Great Seal & Western Isles Records
On 20 April 1603, Robert Lundie of Balgonie was served heir to his father, also Robert Lundie, in the lands of Wester Gagie.
This is an important check on the traditional Sibbald → William purchase story because it documents another title interest in Wester Gagie immediately before William’s 1610–1611 Gagie sequence.
Forfarshire Special Retour no. 180, 24 March 1629, serves Alexander Guthrie heir to William Guthrie of Wester Gagie, his father, in the town and lands of Wester Gagie.
A 30 April 1630 precept of clare constat followed for Alexander’s infeftment in Gagie as William’s heir. Together the two records provide the strongest surviving early proof of the father-to-son Gagie succession.
NRAS3273/4270, item 2, dated 11 August 1630, records Alexander Guthrie of Gagie ratifying a tack by John, Bishop of the Isles, concerning the teinds of Trotternish, Sleat and North Uist.
NRS GD30/2001, dated 4 February 1637, records the transfer of Alexander’s rights in herring teinds from seas and lochs pertaining to the Bishopric of the Isles.
A Ross-shire / Inverness feu-farm charter includes Alexander Guthrie of Gagie as a witness, providing further contemporary evidence of his activity beyond Angus.
Crown confirmation naming Francis Guthrie of Gagie and Bathiah / Betty Guthrie his wife in conjunct fee in the settlement of the lands and barony of Guthrie.
This is a central document for understanding the legal reunion of the Gagie family with the principal estate of Guthrie. View RMS XI, no. 565 .
Forfarshire Retour no. 412, 4 April 1665, serves John Guthrie heir-male to his deceased father Francis in Wester Gagie and, through his mother Bathiah, in the lands of Guthrie.
The service fixes Francis’s death between 4 March 1664 and 4 April 1665 and carries the succession into the principal Guthrie line.
Traditional Pedigrees & Family Accounts
Older Guthrie pedigrees preserve the descent of William, Alexander, Francis, and later generations, together with the dramatic account of the Guthrie–Gairdin feud.
Several elements once known mainly through pedigree are now independently supported—for example William’s status as Alexander Guthrie of that Ilk’s second son. Other points, especially the precise title instrument carrying Gagie from Alexander to Francis, still depend on cumulative evidence rather than one explicit surviving writ.
The feud tradition remains valuable as remembered family history, but the contemporary chronology shows that later retellings compressed or reordered separate events.
The Guthrie/Burke pedigree tradition places Isabella / Isobel Leslie, wife of William Guthrie, in the Leslies of Balquhain. Andrew Jervise likewise records that the first Guthrie of Gagie was said to have married a daughter of Leslie of Balquhain and describes the Leslie arms with the initials I.L. at Gagie House.
Isobel’s marriage to William is independently proved by her own 1621 testament. Her exact generation within the Balquhain family and the traditional earlier marriage to a Forbes of Touch remain to be established from contemporary evidence.
Near-contemporary family evidence recording the marriage of Bathiah Guthrie and Francis Guthrie on 4 May 1647. The Bishop affectionately describes Francis as his “adopted son.” The phrase is treated as family language, not as proof of a modern legal adoption.
These nineteenth-century works consistently identify Francis Guthrie of Gagie as a younger son of William and brother of Alexander. Their reconstruction agrees with the later documentary succession and with the Guthrie family muniments available to some of those writers.
They are used here as cumulative pedigree evidence rather than as substitutes for the still-wanted contemporary service of heir, sasine, or disposition explicitly showing Francis’s entry into Alexander’s Gagie title.
Gagie House & Later Estate History
Architectural description and development of the house, including its circa-1614 rectangular core built for William Guthrie, eighteenth-century additions, 1893–94 reconstruction, and later fire damage and restoration. HES cautions that several picturesque features visible today probably belong to the Victorian rebuilding rather than the original house.
Records the history of the garden structure and the earlier W.G. 1614 heraldic lintel, which was later removed to Guthrie Castle in the mid-twentieth century. The summerhouse itself was historically read as dated 1762, although the final two digits are now indecipherable.
Useful for later ownership of Easter and Wester Gagie within the wider Guthrie estate and for the local eighteenth-century context.
Andrew Jervise’s nineteenth-century description is especially useful because he recorded the W.G. 1614 Guthrie stone in the summerhouse and the Leslie arms with I.L. on the house wall while those features remained in their earlier setting.
Jervise and later Angus histories also preserve the traditional Sibbald → William acquisition story and the continued association of Gagie with the Guthries of Guthrie. These works are valuable historical witnesses but are distinguished from contemporary seventeenth-century evidence.
Historic Environment Scotland listing material records that most of the Gagie estate was acquired by the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries in 1919 and divided into smaller holdings.
The Blaeu map labels Gaige, Easter Gaige, and “The Kings Way betwixt Dondei and Brechin.” It provides geographic context for the separate Gagie designations and for the regional road corridor named in the Robert Gairdin proceedings.
The map is used for landscape context only; it does not prove genealogical relationships or identify the precise site of the 1589 encounter.
Guthrie Genealogy Special Collections
The Guthrie Genealogy Special Collections pages bring together chronological entries from NRS records, including Privy Council, Great Seal, sasine, testamentary, and family-paper material relevant to Gagie.
Includes the 1597 Easter Gagie material and other Guthrie records useful for separating similarly named people and territorial branches.
Contemporary records are given priority when they identify a relationship, territorial style, property interest, or dated event. A traditional pedigree is not rejected simply because it is old or dramatic, but its claims are separated from those that can be independently documented. Where several independent records support the same reconstruction without one surviving instrument stating the whole relationship, that conclusion is presented as cumulative documentary evidence.
Where a record says heir, this profile does not automatically substitute son unless the same record or other evidence supplies the parentage. Where a marriage is documented but maternity is not, children are not assigned to a particular wife without additional evidence. Territorial styles such as of Gagie are likewise treated as evidence of association with land, not by themselves as proof of descent from a previous holder.
Several records capable of refining the Gagie reconstruction are known to survive but have not yet been examined in full. Highest priorities include the 1711 inventory of Gaigie writs, the unidentified 1611 “Westir Gagy” writ, the original 1610–1611 title instruments needed to reconcile the Lundie evidence with the traditional Sibbald purchase, and a contemporary succession instrument showing exactly how Francis Guthrie entered Alexander’s Gagie title.
Genealogical priorities remain the maternity of William’s children, the exact Balquhain parentage of Isobel Leslie, the traditional Forbes-of-Touch first marriage, and the identity of James Guthrie of Easter Gagie. New discoveries will be incorporated as the documentary history of Easter and Wester Gagie becomes clearer.