Historial notes on House of Leask
The lands of Leask in the parish of Slains, Aberdeenshire were held by the Leask family for some thirteen generations. The first written records show that in about 1345 William Leask was granted a charter of confirmation by King David II (son of Robert Bruce) of hisownership of the lands of Leskgoroune or Leskgaronne.
In her pamphlet “THE LEASKS, Historical Notes on the Aberdeenshire, Orkney and Shetland families” Madam Anne Leask of Leask describes what is known of these generations, their allegiances and feuds (mostly with members of the Gordon family).
In June 1698, Alexander Leask and his son Gilbert borrowed money on the estate from Robert Cuming of Birness (probably an uncle or cousin, Since Alexander's mother was Anna Cuming). August 1698 was the closing date for the lists of participants in the ill-fated Darien Scheme in which so many Scotsmen lost their fortunes and/or their lives, and it is thought that Alexander put the money into this venture. Unable to repay the loan, Alexander Leask of that Ilk, thirteenth and last known Chief in the unbroken line, was obliged to leave Leask together with his sons Gilbert, William and Alexander. He disappeared, and in 1720 the Manor of Leask became the residence of Robert Cuming, his wife and five daughters.
The early 18th century House of Leask was renamed Gordon Lodge when Barbara Cuming married Dr Alexander Gordon of Hilton and Straloch, a descendant of the Gordons of Pitlurg in Banffshire. In 1790 this family sold off their estate of Pitlurg near Huntly to pay off debts incurred by “high living in Paris and unwise investments”. The name of Pitlurg was transferred to the estate of Leask in memory of their ancestral lands.
Alexander and Barbara’s son John Godon-Cuming of Pitlurg succeeded in right of his mother to the entailed estates of Birnes and Leask and added Cuming to his paternal surname.
In 1815 his son John Gordon-Cuming of Pitlurg and Birness inherited the estate of his relative Skene of Dyse and assumed the name of Skene in conformity with a deed of entail.
In about 1826 Gordon lodge was demolished and a new house built to the designs of Archibald Simpson. All that remains of the old house is the dovecot. Notable for its height and spare, square plan, the dovecot is single chambered with a segmentally-arched window, alighting ledge/string course close to the eaves below a row of flight holes. The dovecot was re-roofed and newly finialled in the 19th century, at which time the roof was conical and the slating banded. It was restored again in 1981 by Madam Anne Leask of Leask. The roof is still ball-finialled and slated but is now pended.
In 1825 William Gordon-Cuming-Skene of Pitlurg and Dyse commissioned Archibald Simpson to build a new house to an Italianate design, returning it to the original name of House of Leask.
The listing for the house describes it as:
Archibald Simpson, 1826-7. 2-storey mansion house comprising main block and lower service wing. Burnt 1927 and roofless ruin 1989. Granite rubble, formerly harled, finely dressed base and string courses, rendered dressings to windows.
South elevation: 5-bay main frontage with central door and extravagantly tall flanking windows. 5-small 1st floor windows. Wide recessed lower bay to right links to 2-bay gable end of service wing.
West elevation: with bold 2-storey 3-window bow and 2 flanking windows. East elevation: canted angles to main block, windowless. East front to service wing wide 2-bay.
North elevation: 3 bays at West to main block stepped back to left of centre to stair (all now gone) and West-facing front of service wing.
Originally with deep eaves to piended slate roof.
In 1825 Archibald Simpson advertised in the Aberdeen Journal for a contractor to build the new house suggesting that the plans were then complete. Unfortunately within a few months his offices were completely destroyed by fire as reported in the Aberdeen Jounal:
DESTRUCTIVE FIRE — On Saturday night, about half past ten, an alarming fire broke out in the shop floor of a new and elegant house, the property of Messrs. Clerihew, situated at the corner of Belmont and Union Streets, Aberdeen. It is understood to have originated in the back part of the shop occupied by Mr. Cooper, grocer, in which were deposited a quantity of spirits, oil, sugar, and other combustible goods. For some little time the fire was entirely confined to the back shop and, before it reached the kitchen over it, means had been used to introduce the pipes of two fire engines into this apartment, where, had there been a sufficient supply of water, there is every probability of the fire having been checked before ascending farther; the quantity procured, however, was too intermitting to be of service and the firemen were soon compelled to abandon their task. The aspect of the fire was now most terrible – volumes of flames issued from numerous windows of the building; and the falling in of the roof, which took place before twelve o’clock, completed the devastation. The house consisted of three floors above the shops, occupied by three separate families; and it is painful to add, that of the valuable furniture, plate &c. contained in these, not one item could by any possibility be saved. The loss sustained by one gentleman, Mr. Archibald Simpson, who’s talents and good taste have added so materially to the architectural beauties of our city and county, is much to be regretted, comprising the whole of his valuable collection of Drawings, Designs, and Books of Architecture and Science as well as numerous plans, &c. of public and private edifices, now in progress – a loss which can not be replaced without great labour and expense. The total property destroyed will amount to from £5000 to £6000, of which little more than £2000 is insured.
Aberdeen Journal, 17th February 1826
General William Gordon-Cuming-Skene and his son John Gordon-Cuming-Skene both appear to have had their main residence or seat at the House of Leask and to have enjoyed and improved the property as recorded by J. Delgarno in his “Antiquarian Notes on Leask, Parish of Slains”.
In about 1845 the family appear to have moved their principal residence to Parkhill, Dyce a part of their Skene estates and the House of Leask was rented to tenants. The first recorded tenant was Sir William Coote Seton of Pitmedden.
The New Statistical Account of Scotland describes the house in 1845 as "Mansion House-The only modern building is the House of Leask built by the late William Cumming Skene Gordon of Parkhill about thirteen years ago. It is a substantial and elegant residence, and is at present let to Sir William Seton of Pitmedden, Bart."
Sir William Coote Seton, succeeded his grandfather as 7th baronet of Pitmedden. Born 19thDecember 1808, he passed advocate in 1831. He married Eliza-Henrietta, 2nd daughter of Henry Lumsden, Esq. of Cushnie, Aberdeenshire, and widow of Captain Wilson, East India Company’s service. They had 5 sons and 3 daughters.
In 1807 Pitmedden House had suffered a major fire which destroyed most of the house and contents. Sir William had the ruin replaced by a new Pitmedden House, incorporating remnants of the old house, in 1853.
The next recorded tenant was John Gordon of Cairnbulg a brother of the Laird of Ellon and an advocate who seems to have sold his seat at Mormond House, Rathen as recorded in “A Topographical Dictionary of Scotland (1846)”:
“RATHEN, a parish, in the district of Deer, county of Aberdeen, 4 miles (S.) from Fraserburgh; containing, with the villages of Cairnbulg, Charleston, and Inverallochy. The principal seats are, Mormond House, a handsome mansion, erected within the last thirty years by Mr. Gordon, of Cairnbulg, and now the property of Miss Strachan, and Auchiries House, a neat building, the property of William C. Hunter, Esq.”
We are very fortunate to have a record of this period from 1850-1853 in the story of the early years of William Presslie who from a young farm servant became a school master and minister and was for 42 years Rector of S. Drostane's, Lochlee. Our thanks to Ian Platt, his great grandson, for access to these papers.
William gives us a vivid account of his time at Leask and describes in detail the household and its occupants.
“About the middle of the day he came to my father's house with Mr Gordon of Cairnbulg. The estate of Cairnbulg is close to Fraserburgh, but Mr Gordon, the proprietor, was living in Slains at the House of Pitlurg or Leask, because there was only the uninhabitable ruins of an old castle on his own estate. He and Mr Gordon of Ellon were both sons of the late Hon. William Gordon.
There were two men-servants at Pitlurg House, but they were often in the condition of those who serve two masters from Mr and Mrs Gordon giving contradictory orders, or both wishing their services at the same time. Therefore Mr Gordon wanted a boy for himself alone, to carry the game bags when he was shooting, and just do anything that he might wish done about the place.
Mr Black introduced me to him, saying he thought I was just the person he wanted. He candidly said I was not so active as he sometimes wished me to be, but that I had no other fault. Mr Gordon asked if I were obedient, and, on receiving a very strong affirmative, he said that was the kind of activity he liked best. I engaged with him there and then, and if I did not get as I anticipated to be servant to the laird, at all events I got to be servant to his brother. This was the last time I hired myself in a feeing market.
I am now entering upon what I look back to as the happiest period of my life. Pitlurg or Leask is about five miles east from Ellon, and I went there about the 26th or 27th of November, I850. My work here was of such a miscellaneous kind that I find it hard to give a mere outline of it, and harder still to describe it in any regular sort of methodical order.”
On the character of John Gordon of Cairnbulg we have the following observations:
“One day Mr Gordon had been wondering what I could be doing, and had searched for me in every place he could think of. At last he found me in the flower garden, and said he had been looking more than an hour for me. I said I was sorry at being out of his way, and asked what he wished me to do. He said "oh, nothing in particular", but he inquired who set me to work there. I told him it was Mrs Gordon. He said "you seem to understand gardening, just go on”. From me he went to the house, and fell out upon Mrs Gordon, scolding her for interfering with "his boy". Next day Mrs Gordon came to me and said I was "doing very nicely". Having opened my heart with a silver key, or in plain English, having given me half-a-crown, she said Mr Gordon had been raging at her yesterday on my account, and had made her so ill that she was unable to come out. She said that with a little tact we might contrive that the like should not happen again. She then told me that if Mr Gordon ever asked me who employed me to do anything I was not exactly to tell a lie, but to answer him in such a way as if I meant him to understand I was doing it of my own accord, for, she said, he would not scold me half so much as he did her.
“I was very much surprised to hear a lady talking in this way about her husband, but when she concluded by saying "He's an old cross devil, and requires a deal of managing" I was perfectly astounded. I was as yet somewhat in the condition of poor simple uninitiated Luath and thought "great folk's life a life o'pleasure", but this speech and other subsequent ones dispelled the mist from my eyes, and showed me the fallacy of my opinions”.
In his defence, John Gordon appears to have been a kind master to William and gave him access to his library which, no doubt helped William in his future studies.
“Hitherto my reading had been checked by the want of books, but never since I went to Pitlurg have I known what it is to be without them. Mr Gordon had an excellent library, and when he accidentally heard that I had been borrowing books from the servants he kindly offered me the use of his own. As he had been bred to the profession of Advocate a great many of his books were in Latin and on Law: The one I could not read, the other I could not understand. But he had a pretty fair selection of books on ancient and modern history, natural science, and general English literature. there were also a number of biographical books; but as he was a real High Churchman, he had most of the standard works of the divines of the Church of England. These I prized very much, and I cannot express too strongly my feelings of thankfulness that they fell in my way, and that I had time and inclination to peruse them, for they have been specially useful to me ever since.”
William reluctantly decided to leave Leask to pursue his ambition to become a school master.
“There were some rumours of Mr Gordon taking a house in a town, and if that did take place he would have no work there for me. These and many other reflections induced me to resign my situation to Mr Gordon about two months before the term. When I did so he gave me no answer. He went to the house, and he and Mrs Gordon, I was told, had a long consultation about it.”
Other tenants of the estate included Gordon Furlong, a first cousin of the owner Alexander Gordon-Cuming-Skene, who lived at Leask between 1860-1866, and Alexander Forbes Nares around 1888
The last of the Gordon-Cuming-Skene’s was John Gordon-Cuming-Skene born on 4th February 1886 being the seventh generation of the family to own the estate.
In 1921 the estate farms were sold to the various tenant farmers. The mansion house and the Home Farm were sold to George Davie on 17th May 1922. George Davie, a self-made man, started as a plough boy and became a successful miller and partner in the local firm of seed merchants Gorrod & Davie. He bought the house as his retirement home and lived there with his two married daughters and their families until his death on 6th August 1924 at the age of 70. His daughters inherited the property but in 1927 the house was totally destroyed by fire.
There are many rumours concerning the cause of the fire but it is most likely that it was caused by a faulty boiler, a part of George Davie’s improvements to the property. The property appears to have not been insured at the time.
After a short stay at the cottage near the Chapel of Leask the family moved out of the district and the property was sold to William Clark and then, many years later to Mr & Mrs Law in 1949.
The New Statistical Account of 1952 for the Parish of Slains records that:
“The small estate of Pitlurg, formerly called Leask, and owned at one time by the Gordons of Pitlurg in Banffshire, was sold in lots some 50 years ago; the small mansion house, built in1828, was burned down in 1927”.
Mrs Law sent us a charming letter when she heard that we had bought the ruins and were planning to restore the house. In her letter she provided the following information:
1949 Mr and Mrs Law bought the home farm of Pitlurg which included the ruins
1954 sadly Mr Law died young and the eldest son inherited. He later sold the ruins to Madam Leask for £650 and the Mains of Leask was sold to Mr Jamieson.
There is speculation that the fire which destroyed the house was deliberate and that a lot of the furniture was saved.
The original staircase was of brass and the hall was white marble.
There was a pelican above the door which was the Gordon’s coat of arms.
As recorded in Mrs Law’s letter, her son sold the ruins of the house and the area of land immediately around it to Anne Leask-Helgesen on 27th July 1963 and she describes in her own words her recognition as Clan Chief.
“In 1963 a descendant of the Leasks was fortunate enough to succeed in her efforts to buy back the central port of the Leask lands and thus to re-establish the name and the family in the annals of Scotland. The next step was to try to trace the family history and to re-establish the line of Leask chiefs. The Lord Lvon King of Arms, considered Alexander Graham Leask of Orkney the most likely candidate, as being the representative of the longest male line of Leasks at present known. Mr. Leask, however, retired in favour of Madam Leask of Leask, and the Lord Lyon confirmed her Chief in 1968, with the support of other armigerous Leasks”.
