New Spalding Club > House of Gordon > Gordons under arms
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xvi HOUSE OF GORDON.
already been harvested by the present writer in gathering material
for the House of Gordon, and he had simply to hand over his numerous
notes for incorporation. The same type of material also governs the
Foreign Services and the Jacobite struggle.
The data of the Standing Army period are much more definitive,
officers being recorded not because they did anything worth remembering,
but simply because they held commissions. These are traced for the
early period by Mr. Dalton, and then by the official Navy and Army lists,
with increasing fullness, until we come to the issue of the quarterly lists,
a comparatively recent innovation, which co-ordinate their careers for
us. This has been the particular battle-field on which Mrs. Skelton has
had to concentrate most of her scouting ; and although it is much more
definitive, it is far more exhausting, precisely because of its copiousness.
The common ground of inclusion in Gordons under Arms is
the use of the surname of Gordon, either alone or in hyphened com-
bination with other surnames, by commissioned officers and warrant
officers in the Navy, and its Reserve, the Regular Army, the Militia, the
Volunteers, and the Territorial Forces, the troops of the Hon. East
India Company, and the Indian Army. No attempt has been made to
limit the legal possession of the name ; so that illegitimate sons bearing
it have been freely included. To discriminate would have been use-
less, for more than half of the Gordons in the North are descended
from the two natural sons of Sir John Gordon (died 1394), and the rest
are really Setons, the descendants of their cousin, Elizabeth, the heiress
who married Sir Alexander Seton. But history has always regarded
them as Gordons. Why then include the Jock-and-Tam group which
produced the Earls of Aberdeen, and not, say, the Gordons who come
from natural sons of the 3rd Earl of Aberdeen, just because they happen
to have been born nearer our own time ? It may be said that except
in cases already well known, the actual fact that an officer of modern
times was illegitimate has been left to inference ; but that has been done
in deference to the sense of stigma which still unfortunately remains —
though some feminists, like the Germans with their Mutterschutz move-
ment, are striving to remove it. Any such feeling was absent until last
century, as we see from the delightful story of Jane Maxwell who used
to describe her husband's natural son, Colonel George Gordon of Glen-
tromie (he gave five sons to the Army) as " the Duke's George," and
already been harvested by the present writer in gathering material
for the House of Gordon, and he had simply to hand over his numerous
notes for incorporation. The same type of material also governs the
Foreign Services and the Jacobite struggle.
The data of the Standing Army period are much more definitive,
officers being recorded not because they did anything worth remembering,
but simply because they held commissions. These are traced for the
early period by Mr. Dalton, and then by the official Navy and Army lists,
with increasing fullness, until we come to the issue of the quarterly lists,
a comparatively recent innovation, which co-ordinate their careers for
us. This has been the particular battle-field on which Mrs. Skelton has
had to concentrate most of her scouting ; and although it is much more
definitive, it is far more exhausting, precisely because of its copiousness.
The common ground of inclusion in Gordons under Arms is
the use of the surname of Gordon, either alone or in hyphened com-
bination with other surnames, by commissioned officers and warrant
officers in the Navy, and its Reserve, the Regular Army, the Militia, the
Volunteers, and the Territorial Forces, the troops of the Hon. East
India Company, and the Indian Army. No attempt has been made to
limit the legal possession of the name ; so that illegitimate sons bearing
it have been freely included. To discriminate would have been use-
less, for more than half of the Gordons in the North are descended
from the two natural sons of Sir John Gordon (died 1394), and the rest
are really Setons, the descendants of their cousin, Elizabeth, the heiress
who married Sir Alexander Seton. But history has always regarded
them as Gordons. Why then include the Jock-and-Tam group which
produced the Earls of Aberdeen, and not, say, the Gordons who come
from natural sons of the 3rd Earl of Aberdeen, just because they happen
to have been born nearer our own time ? It may be said that except
in cases already well known, the actual fact that an officer of modern
times was illegitimate has been left to inference ; but that has been done
in deference to the sense of stigma which still unfortunately remains —
though some feminists, like the Germans with their Mutterschutz move-
ment, are striving to remove it. Any such feeling was absent until last
century, as we see from the delightful story of Jane Maxwell who used
to describe her husband's natural son, Colonel George Gordon of Glen-
tromie (he gave five sons to the Army) as " the Duke's George," and
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Publications by Scottish clubs > New Spalding Club > House of Gordon > Gordons under arms > (26) Page xvi |
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Description | Volumes 47-53 are uniform with but not part of the club's series. |
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