Records of the Gardens of Troup

This material is held atAberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Archives (Aberdeenshire)

  • Reference
    • GB 228 DD21
  • Dates of Creation
    • 1653-1950
  • Name of Creator
  • Language of Material
    • English Latin
  • Physical Description
    • 5 linear metres (105 bundles, 43 volumes, 38 documents, 1 photographs)

Scope and Content

DD21/1 Garden of Troup: Deeds and Legal papers

DD21/1/1 Garden of Troup: Writs and Bonds

DD21/1/2 Garden of Troup: Inventories

DD21/1/3 Garden of Troup: Executry papers

DD21/1/4 Garden of Troup: Trustee, guardian and curatorship records

DD21/1/5 Garden of Troup: Papers relating to case Garden v. Garden Campbell

DD21/1/6 Garden of Troup: Bundles relating to various legal cases

DD21/1/7 Garden of Troup: Legal correspondence and accounts

DD21/1/8 Garden of Troup: Francis, Lord Gardenstone's, financial, legal and executry papers

DD21/2 Garden of Troup: Troup Estate records

DD21/2/1 Garden of Troup: Troup Estate Rent Collection Books

DD21/2/2 Garden of Troup: Troup Estate Rentals and Factor's Accounts

DD21/2/3 Garden of Troup: Estate Plans

DD21/2/4 Garden of Troup: Troup Estate leases

DD21/2/5 Garden of Troup: Estate correspondence

DD21/2/6 Garden of Troup: Records relating to Herring Fishing concern at Gardenstown

DD21/2/7 Garden of Troup: Estate Management Books

DD21/2/8 Garden of Troup: Fishing Rents

DD21/3 Garden of Troup: Glenlyon Estate, Perthshire, records

DD21/4 Garden of Troup: Family Personal Papers

DD21/5 Garden of Troup: Gardenstown (Gamrie) Harbour records

DD21/5/1 Garden of Troup: Register of vessels entering Gardenstown Harbour

DD21/5/2 Garden of Troup: Gardenstown Harbour Financial Records

DD21/5/3 Garden of Troup: Papers relating to Gardenstown Harbour

DD21/5/4 Garden of Troup: Gardenstown Harbour Orders

DD21/5/5 Garden of Troup: Gardenstown Harbour Rules and Notices

DD21/6 Garden of Troup: Pitsligo Estate records

DD21/7 Garden of Troup: Miscellaneous items

Additional information in descriptions taken from the "Knipe analysis" document.

Administrative / Biographical History

The Garden family seems to have acquired the lands of Troup in Banffshire in the mid-17th century. They were concerned not only with their estates but also with the fishing industry, and Alexander Garden of Troup founded Gardenstown in Banffshire in 1720 as a fishing port. Troup House was build c.1770 by the 4th Baron Troup.

Francis Garden, Lord Gardenstone of Troup (1721-1793), developed Laurencekirk in Kincardineshire from the 1760s and in 1779 had it raised a burgh of barony to be a small manufacturing town. Like several other family members he chose the law as his profession, and was called to the Scottish Bar in 1744. In 1764 he was appointed as a judge of the Court of Session, and in 1776 became a lord of justiciary. He owned considerable property in the newly-fashionable Edinburgh suburb of Morningside and bought Morningside House in 1789: in the same year he had a wellhouse built by Alexander Nasmyth for St. Bernard’s Well by the Water of Leith. He was regarded as somewhat eccentric, and died unmarried in 1793.

He was succeeded in the lands of Troup by his nephew Francis, the son of Peter Garden who (on marrying Katherine, the heiress of the Campbells of Glenlyon) assumed the additional surname Campbell. Francis Garden Campbell inherited the estates of Glenlyon in Perthshire, Johnston, Elrick & Delgaty. The latter had to be sold in 1815. Peter Garden was a a Captain, then Colonel in the 5th Regiment of Foot.

Thereafter there were a number of short-lived heads of the family, and in the late nineteenth century there were several legal disputes between the Gardens and Garden Campbells for the estate. The Gardens were owners again by the turn of the twentieth century, at which point Troup House was rebuilt (1897) and renovated and another Francis Garden was claiming treasury grants for its upkeep. Gardens continued to own the estate of Troup well into the twentieth century.

1st Baron of Troup to 1663 Major Alexander Garden 1594-1663

2nd Baron of Troup 1663-1712 Alexander Garden 1657-1712

3rd Baron of Troup 1712-1740 Peter Alexander Garden 1685-1740

4th Baron of Troup 1740-1785 Alexander Garden 1714-1785

5th Baron of Troup 1785-1793 Francis Garden, Lord Gardenstown 1721-1793

6th Baron of Troup 1793-1815 Francis Garden Campbell 1768-1815

7th Baron of Troup 1815-1826 Francis Garden Campbell 1793-1826

8th Baron of Troup 1826-1848 Francis Garden Campbell 1818-1848

9th Baron of Troup 1848-1895 Francis William Garden Campbell 1840-1895

10th Baron of Troup1895-1913 Francis Alexander Garden 1869-1913 (son of Archibald Garden, younger brother of the 9th Baron)

11th Baron of Troup 1913-1984 Alexander Garden 1905-1984

Arrangement

Deposited at the Town House in 5 deed boxes and 11 archive storage boxes lettered A-K, from Cruik of Don, Dyce. The contents of the deed boxes were decanted into boxes L-Z and 2 miscellaneous boxes were listed in 1984.

Original arrangement split the collection into series by format, with series 1 being bundles and series 2 volumes. This was taken from a survey list compiled by the National Register of Archives (Scotland) [survey 1314: Jan 1976]. Additional material was added as the third and fourth series.

This arrangement was redone in Sept/Oct 2023: bundles have been retained as found by the NRAS, but some of them are very mixed.

Several of the bundles had labels midway through the sequence suggesting the original order had been muddled either prior to deposit or prior to bundle listing in 2023.

Access Information

Open

Other Finding Aids

Please see the Aberdeen City & Aberdeenshire Archives catalogue at https://archives.aberdeencity.gov.uk/CalmView/.

Printed list to item level in OAH Searchroom.

Additional Knipe analysis by a reader c. 2001 available in searchroom & on shared drive: this contains more details about the content of each bundle.

Archivist's Note

Originally catalogued in 2006: recatalogued in 2023.

Conditions Governing Use

Aberdeen City Archives

Custodial History

Deposited by Isobel Cruickshank, the widow of Alexander Garden, 11th Baron of Troup, on permanent deposit in the Aberdeen District Archives in March 1984. Mrs Cruickshank died in 1985.

Moved from TH to OAH post 1996.

Accruals

None expected

Related Material

AS/Klrk/5/1 Laurencekirk Burgh: Memoranda Book with Rental and Account Records: contains a Rental account for Johnstown and Blackcokmuir (Blackiemuir) and the accounts for Johnstown for 1751 - 1757 , and Estate Memoranda of Lord Gardenstone (i.e. notes on the running of his estates in the Laurencekirk area) from May 1781 to 24 September 1790.

National Records of Scotland hold records of Messrs Burnett and Reid, Advocates, Aberdeen (reference GD57) which includes: records of Garden of Troup and Glenlyon, in sheriffdoms of Aberdeen, Banff and Perth, 1518-1886, references GD57/1/133-337 (Burnett and Reid were Factors for the estate). Collection includes deeds, writs and legal papers relating to the Troups land, rentals for the Troup and Glenlyon estates, and papers relating to the service of Major Alexander Garden with the Swedish Army (1635-1653).

For records of Francis Garden, Lord Gardenstone, see https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F66677.