New Spalding Club > House of Gordon > Gordons under arms

GORDONS UNDER ARMS — CONTINENT. 459
I, p. 4, says Oct. 5] he put an end to his life with a pistol, being no longer able to endure the
disgrace he conceived he had fallen into with both parties. He was buried privately, but his
corpse was attended to the grave by near forty English officers."
Son of Jacob, 1732 I b. in Guelderland (G.M., vol. 66, pt. i, p. 442). He
was " handsome in his person, elegant in his manners, upwards of six feet
high ; thin, but muscular, strong, active, and capable of enduring great
fatigue ; and of a dark complexion ''. His villa, on a hill a few miles out of
Cape Town, " commanding a most pleasant and extensive view by sea and
land," was for long "the hospitable rendezvous of all distinguished strangers
in the Colony," and Captain Parker {Voyage ruiind the World, pp. 129, 133, 137,
141) speaks of the " good Colonel " with enthusiasm. The G.M., which says
he spoke Dutch, French, German and English fluently, refers to it as " the
seat of hospitality," which "at once exhibited the learning of the man, the
dignity of the chief, and the felicity of the husband and father". Kaye calls him
" a man remarkable for his humanity and his philanthropy. He was a traveller,
an antiquarian, and a natural philosopher. Botany was latterly his favourite
study. He travelled farther inland from the Cape than any Englishman had
ever done. As he committed his observations on every subject to paper, his
manuscripts, which are in his widow's possession, are probably valuable ".
Some of his drawings were handed for collection to John Pinkerton, the anti-
quary, who, 1806, advised the Govt, to buy them from Mrs. Gordon, as of
" great importance to this commercial country and to the interests of our
oriental colonies " (G. M. Theal's Records of Cape Colony, v. 420). The
G.M. says he was " possessed of too little subtlety and of too impatient a
mind" for a colony "where despotism and peculation were uncontrollable
and where self-interest was universally prevalent ", He in. " a very amiable
and sensible woman, native of Pays de Vaud in Switzerland," who after his
death returned to Switzerland with her four sons, the eldest of whom, aged
seventeen when his father died, bore a commission in his father's reg. at the
time of the surrender (G..l/.,ljvol. 66, pt. i, p. 442). Father of Robert, 1808 (?)
1811- Rudolf von. 1882-92, officer in the Grand Duke of Hesse's Inf.
(Life Guards) Reg., No. 115 at Darmstadt. 1897-9, '" 'he 5th Grand Duke
of Hesse's Reg., No. 168, at Offenbach.
Elder son of Oskar Iwan von, 1786 ; b. 1863, May 4, at Este near Padua ;
now an official in the Revenue department, Berlin ; iit. 1900, Oct. 14, Alex-
andra Biittel, Frankfort-on-Main (Information from himself).
1812- Salomon. " Commisaris ter monstering over de regiment Zwit-
sers " (inspector of examination in the Swiss Reg.) in Holland (Biographisch
Woordeuboek der Nedcrlanden, vii. 293).