Family:Archibald Farquharson and Christian Spring (1)

Archibald Farquharson was a merchant in Campbeltown and late in life when he became the 7th laird of Finzean (after the brief tenure of his father, who unexpectedly inherited when his cousin the 5th laird died without an heir). When he was near 60, a young lass in Aberdeen caught his eye, Christian Spring, the daughter of a gardener in Udny. They were married in 1792, in the Birse parish church, and lived at Finzean House in that parish. (Much of Birse parish, as well as much of Lumphanan parish, were part of the Finzean estate.) The Spring family were so honored at their sister marrying so well that Spring descendants for several generations were named Archibald or Christian and/or had Farquharson as a middle name.

The year after they married, Archibald and Christian had a son, Archibald the younger. The elder laird died only a few years later, leaving behind a young widow and 2-1/2-year-old son on a 16,000 acre estate.

1. ↑ Church of Scotland. Parish Church of Birse. Old Parish Registers, Parish of Birse (1758-1854). (Birse, Aberdeenshire, Scotland).

   Church of Scotland, Old Parish Registers, Parish of Birse (1758-1854). "Archibald Farquharson Esq. of Finzean was married to Christian Spring at Finzean the twenty-seventh day of February one thousand seven hundred and ninety two years. The money for the proclamation of his banns of marriage was lodged in the hands of a member of the church session along with the usual sum consigned as pledges, agreeable to the forms of the parish, at same time the session clerks herquested(?) for engrossing his marriage in the session record were paid."