Patrick Matthew was born 20 October 1790 at Rome, a farm held by his father John Matthew near Scone Palace, in Perthshire. His mother was Agnes Duncan, a relative of Adam Duncan, 1st Viscount Duncan.Melville L. (1939) The fair land of Gowrie, William Culross & Son, Coupar Angus. Reprints 1975, 1984—Patrick Matthew took over the management of Gourdiehill Estate and began in earnest to plant his orchards that would eventually grow to over 10,000 apple and pear trees and would become some of the finest in the entire British Empire . In 1807 after coming of legal age and through the close relationship of his Mother Agnes Duncan Gourdiehill was inherited by Patrick Matthew from Agnes Duncan's close relative... Admiral Adam Duncan the first Viscount Duncan of Camperdown who died in 1804. Admiral Duncan inherited Gourdiehill, Auchmuir and Seaside estates upon the death of his older brother Alexander Duncan who previously inherited these 3 estates near the small village of Errol from his parents Helan Haldane of Gleneagles and Alexander Duncan, Laird of Lundie, Provost of Dundee and in whose family it had been...including his second oldest son Admiral Adam Duncan... for more than two hundred years. -->He was educated at Perth Academy and the University of Edinburgh, but did not graduate, as on his father's death and while only seventeen, he had to take over the responsibilities of managing and running the affairs of a property estate at Gourdiehill near Errol, Perth and Kinross in the Carse of Gowrie, between Perth and Dundee. Over the years he successfully nurtured, cultivated, and transformed much of the estate's farmland and pastures into several large orchards of apple and pear trees, numbering over 10,000. He became an avid proponent as well as interested researcher of both silviculture and horticulture, both of which influenced his growing awareness of the forces of nature. This awareness, along with his own experiences acquired from years of working his own modest estate would later frame a strong base of reference to form his own opinions and theories.Calman, WT (1912) "Patrick Matthew of Gourdiehill, Naturalist", Handbook and Guide to Dundee and District, AW Paton and AH Millar (Eds), the British Association for the Advancement of Science, pp. 451-7 (see The Patrick Matthew Project » More On Matthew
