Earls of Aboyne

interesting to note the first appearance of a
Christian name in a family. Just as "Theodore"
seems to have been introduced among the Gor-
dons from Russia, via the family of Gordon of
Auchleuchries; and as "Cosmo" came to the
Gordons 'from the Medici family, so "Charles'"
was introduced from that devotion to the Stuarts
(coupled with the fact that the 2nd Marquis was
educated at Court with Prince Charles), which
had brought the house to such a pass when Lord
Aboyne was born. The misfortunes of Lord
Charles's family might be summarised thus: —
1638.— His mother died.
1639. — His father, the 2nd Marquis, was made
prisoner.
1644. — His father was excommunicated.
1645. — His brother, Lord Gordon, was killed at
the battle of Alfcrd.
1649. — His brother James died of a broken
heart in France.
1649. — His father, the Marquis, was executed in
Edinburgh.
1650. — His sister Henrietta, Lady Traquair,
died.
1653. — His brother, the third Marquis, died.
1655. — His sister Jean, Lady Haddington, died,
1656. — His sister Anne, Lady Perth, died.
His younger brother who entered the service
of Poland, and his youngest sister Catherine, who
married Count Morsztyn, and became the great-
grandmother of the last King of Poland, were all
in hiding, and all had to fly to France, and as
his mother was dead, little Lord Charles was
left alone with his old grandmother the Dowager
Countess, 'who <was a daughter of Esme Stewart,
Duke of Lennox. Thus Lord Charles began life
in ruin and in anguish : which 'was lucky, however,
for posterity, as it gives us one of the very rare
peeps into the boyhood of other days.
In June 1641, his grandmother, who died in
September of the following year, was driven
from her home in Edinburgh ; so she left Lord
Charles, " being >bot ane barne," with Robert
Gordon, baillie of Enzie, to be "intertynnit be
him, when scho wtmi fra the Bo'g." She sent
Lord Charles's sister, Lady Mary, to the Countess
of Perth (Spalding's "Troubles," id. 54).
In December 1642, his father sent Lord Charles
to King's College "to leirne gramar. He got
Doctor Leslie (the last deposit principally his
chalmer (who bad steill keipit the samen for
his recreation whill this tynie) for his sone and