Family Box Tidbits

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Gordon

From Janelle Whitbread. 9/03/2023 out of mum's family tree box.

• Margaret Gordon (Kirgan - Guidoux - Campbell).

What an interesting life our Margaret had! She was born on 26th August 1832 in Newton Stewart, Wigtown, Scotland to Wallace Gordon and Margaret Vernon. Oral history has it that she was married three times to James Kirgan, firstly eloping to Gretna Green because of parental opposition, secondly in a Roman Catholic Church to appease the Kirgans, and thirdly in a Presbyterian Church or Church of Scotland, because that was what she preferred. There are no records for Gretna Green so that cannot be proven and the only registration I found was the Church of Scotland one at County Barony, Lanark on 29th June 1851. As James Kirgan's occupation was Coach painter, he obviously moved around a lot and his seven children were all born in different places:

• 1853 James married Catherine Quinton in Sydney
• 21.3.1857 Andrew at Ayr - married Phoebe Cato in Sydney
• 21.3.1859 Isabella Kerr At Ayr - married James Stockbridge in Sydney
• 16.7.1861 Agnes at Lanark - Married J. Niblit in Sydney
• 3.8.1863 Elizabeth at Kelton - married William Horn in Sydney
• 21.11.1866 Robert Gordon at Argyle married Mary McPhee in Sydney
• 15.9.1868 Sarah Frances at Sydney - married James N. Stewart in

Sydney Margaret arrived in Sydney on Davenport in July 1868. What a nightmare trip that must have been - three months to get here with six children and pregnant with the seventh. The weather was unfavorable as well - how did Margaret cope with the seasickness? I am sure our indomitable Maggie would not have succumbed to such weakness. There were school lessons each day on the ship and the teacher/s report said all the Kirgans were satisfactory. Margaret's mother, Margaret Gordon (nee Vernon had already made the voyage on the S.S. Wanata on 3rd September 1864 bringing with her two of her sons, Samuel and Robert to join three of her children already here. The first to arrive had been her daughter Jessie who had migrated with her husband Duncan McFarlane, and Margaret's sons, John and Wallace who had arrived on Northern Light on 9th May 1858. Unhappily John Gordon lost his life on 28th March 1865 when a massive explosion occurred at Balmain while he was working as an engineer. He left a widow, Mary Ann (Temperley), and two sons, Edward, born 1862 and Wallace born 1863. It is understood that they returned to Durham after the tragedy. When Sarah was three years old, Margaret married a man from Switzerland named Jean Francois Guidoux, on 21st July 1871. Jean wrote to his family back home and told them he had met this lovely widow with seven children and they were going to be married and he would renounce his claim to his inheritance. Jean and Margaret had three children: John (1872 - 1932, Jessie Jeanette (1875) Married Mr. Lippiat, and Samuel Louis (1878 -). They owned Market Gardens at Rosedale, which was the old name for Croydon Park, and were also Fruit and Vegetable Merchants. The home they lived in was owned by Jessie Gordon. Jean died in 1881 and in 1883 Margaret remarried. On her Marriage Certificate, she is described as a Firewood Merchant and her new husband, Thomas Herbert Campbell as a Bricklayer. Both resided at Rosedale at the time of the marriage. Thomas Campbell also pre-deceased Margaret and she moved to Urunga and settled at Fernmount where she had a Fruit shop and operated a punt across the Bellinger River. She died in Bellingen on 3rd September 1906 and is buried at Nambucca Heads close to her brother, Robert Gordon. When her daughter, Sarah was born, she took another baby, reputed to have been the illegitimate grandson of her midwife, and reared him as Sarah's twin - his name was Joseph. When he was approaching adulthood, one of his sisters told him he was not related to them and he moved out. Feel free to delete when you are finished with the information .