| He is said to have been the first of the Gordons who actually settled in Galloway, and he was designed of Stitchill and of Lochinvar in the parish of Dairy, his infeftment in the latter being dated 6 June 1450. Though Lochinvar continued to be the designation of the successive heads of the family from this period till it was ennobled nearly two centuries afterwards, and the loch, manor-place, and messuage of Lochinvar, with fortalices, etc., are set forth in certain of the title-deeds, there is a lack of evidence of any of the Gordons having had a habitable house on that property. It seems not improbable that Kenmure Castle, in the parish of Kells, described later as ' pleasantly situated on a mount, having a wood of great overgrowne oakes on the one side ... and on the other side pleasant meadows lying on the river of Kenn, which here begins to run in a deep loch for the space of seaven or eight miles', was the earliest, as it has remained the latest, residence of the Gordons in the stewartry of Kirkcudbright. Continuing to acquire territory and jurisdictions, some of which proved fertile sources of contention, the family became one of the most important in the south-west of Scotland, and had for a time, as will be seen, in addition to Kenmure, the houses of Rusco in the parish of Anwoth, and Greenlaw in the parish of Crossmichael.8 |