Shepherd’s Lodge was the home of the Littlejohn family.
Littlejohn was born 24 August 1838 – the second recorded birth on the Colony.
The Littlejohn’s had a large family of twelve children although not all are recorded living on the hillside at any one time,
but the household also included grandchildren.
The 1851 census listed Alexander, Elizabeth, five of their own children, as well as four grand-children.
In 1861 the house is listed as having two windows, but by 1871 it states three windows which may indicate an extension had been built to cater for the ever-growing family.
Alexander Littlejohn was a Stone Dyker, his wife looked after the children and grandchildren.
Elizabeth died at Shepherd’s Lodge in 1866, aged 65.
Alexander Littlejohn lived on the hillside for about forty years.
With the Division of the Commonty in 1859, Alexander Littlejohn is given a one-year lease of Shepherds Lodge for an annual rent of £2 with entry on Whitsunday 1859.
The lease included the standard condition for the Colony crofts that the tenant must improve a half-acre of ground within his boundary each year.
In Summer 1878 the households of Alexander Littlejohn and James Littlejohn were evicted by the landowner Charles Stephen Leslie of Balquhain, for non-payment of rent.
Alexander died at Short Loanings (Rosemount), in Aberdeen, in 1879, age 86.