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| He is first mentioned in January 1309-10 as getting a sum of 20 merks, bestowed on his father by King Edward II. The charter of Stichel, on 28 June 1315, was granted to him as fiar, and he was the ancestor of the Gordons of Lochinvar, Viscounts Kenmure.8 |
| He is named as the son of Sir Adam Gordon, knight, of Scotland, in an entry relating to a gift of twenty merks by King Edward II to Sir Adam, 23-28 January 1309-10, and he was the fiar under a charter granted by Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray, in favour of Sir Adam and him, of the lands and tenement of Stitchill, in the county of Roxburgh, confirmed by King Robert the Bruce at Perth 28 June 1315. These lands had been originally acquired by Sir Adam Gordon under King Edward's grant of 4 March 1308-9.9 |
| William Gordon also came into possession of the half of the lands of Glenkens, a name still given to the district comprising the parishes of Dairy, Kells, Balmaclellan, and Carsphairn, in the stewartry of Kirkcudbright, including Lochinvar and Kenmure, which lands were acquired by Sir Adam Gordon from John de Maxwell about 1297, and had been derived from John Comyn, Earl of Buclian and Constable of Scotland. On 9 May 1354 a remission, signed at Cumnock, was granted to William and his followers in Galloway, by William, Lord Douglas, receiving them into the peace of the King, restoring them to their heritages, and discharging them of all transgressions committed since the battle of Durham, 17 October 1346. He obtained from Robert, Earl of Strathearn, afterwards King Robert II, a charter dated at Edinburgh, 8 April 1358, of the keeping of the new Forest of the Glenkens, in as ample a manner as the granter had got it from his uncle, King David II. William Gordon also obtained from the last-named King a grant of the lands of Balmonth in Fife,10 |
| There is no direct statement of an early date as to William Gordon's place in the family of his father, but from the fact that the land he got from him was of the latter's 'conquest' and not of his inheritance it has been inferred that William was the second son — an inference which has not at all times commanded the ready assent of his descendants.11 |
| certainly | The information is supported by primary sources. |
| probably | The information is supported by secondary sources which is most likely based on primary sources. |
| possibly | It is unclear if the secondary source cited is based on primary sources, or the information is an assumption well supported by other evidence. |
| likely | The information is only found in secondary sources with questioned quality, or there is a reason to suspect the information is wrong. Or the information is a likely assumption based on other evidence. |
| apparently | The information is doubtful and poorly documented, but still most likely correct. |
| perhaps | The information might be correct or it might be wrong. It is not supported by any trustworthy sources. It might me an assumption. |
| disproved | The information is proven to be wrong. |