New Spalding Club > House of Gordon > Gordons under arms

450 HOUSE OF GORDON.
1782- Karol. Col., Polish army ; commander of the free town of
Cracow (Zychiinski's Zlota Ksiega, 1879, pp. 75-7).
Son of Peter, and grandson of John James, " Marquis of Huntly," 1776 ;
d. s.p. 1820 (ibid.). Brother of Franciszek, 1704, and Joseph FeH.x von, 1779.
1783- Michael. 1587, Jan. 26, Gentilhomme de la Compagnie, Scots
Brigade in Holland, got £\c^ (Ferguson's Scots Brigade, i. 52).
1784- Count de Mirabelle de. Engineer, France. 1746, Jan. 1, got the
following commission dated Glasgow (offered for sale 1910, May, by William
Brown, Edinburgh, for £35) : —
Charles, Prince of Wales etc., Regent of Scotland, England, France and Ireland and the
Dominions thereunto belonging. To the Count de Mirabel de Gordon, Engineer sent by the
King of France to Scotland for our service greeting. From the character we have received
of your experience and from the trust and confidence we repose in your conduct and loyaltj' to
us, we hereby constitute and appoint you Commander General of our Artillery. You are
therefore carefully and dilligently to discharge the office aforsd ; and we hereby require all the
officers and soldiers of our army to observe and obey you as Commander aforesaid. And
yourself to follow and obey all such orders, directions and commands as from time to time you
shall receive from us or our Commanders-in-chief for the time being.
1746, Jan. 6, arrived at Stirling to help the Jacobites to besiege the Castle
in which Gen. Blakeney commanded a strong garrison. The Chevalier
Johnstone {History of the Rebellion, Winchester's ed., i. 70, 71, 81, 83) heaps
abuse on him. The "requisites of his genius were very limited and he had
not the shadow of judgment, discernment or good sense ; his figure being as
ridiculous as his spirits ". The Highlanders called him always M. Admirable.
The siege of Stirling Castle was made hopeless by his " rashness and ignor-
ance ". Lord Elcho {Affairs of Scotland, p. 382) says that " Mons." de Mira-
belle was much blamed for the insufficiency of his battery and for beginning
to play upon the castle with only three cannon, when, if he had waited a day
longer he might have had seven mounted ; " people did not hesitate to say he
had been bribed". The Marchese Vitelleschi {A Court in Exile, p. 212) says
" he was entirely wanting in the talents and capacities to which he laid claim ".
Lord Macleod in his narrative says he was always drunk (p. 384). Lord
George Murray says {Jacobite Memoirs, edited by Robert Chambers, p. 96)
" he was so volatile that he could not be depended upon ". He is apparently
the "Mons. de Mirabell, now a French prisoner at Carlisle," but on parole at
Perth, for whose exchange the Duke of Richmond wrote Newcastle in an
undated letter {S.P. Dom. Geo. II., P.R.O., bundle 91, p. 173).
John Gordon, writing 1756, Aug. 5 (to Lord Kenmure ?), says he " pretends
to come of the Gordons of Quercy " in Cahors. YAcho {Affairs of Scotland,
p. 371) calls him " Le Comte Mirabel de Gourdon, knight of St. Lewis".