New Spalding Club > House of Gordon > Gordons under arms

464 HOUSE OF GORDON.
Admiralty for entertainments and anniversaries of victories the sum of 1000 roubles, namely
on January 2 and ry at the rate of S3 roubles 31^ of a copeck ; and for chancery expenses out
of 300 roubles from January i to March iS there must be expended 229 roubles 175 copecks,
and there should be a balance of 1070 roubles 82 J copeck.
1 741, Sep. 2, in a report submitted by the Admiralty to the Household it
was announced {ibid.) : —
There is at the Crown Exchequer salary for his rank 770 roubles 74J copecks and
now that the said Admiral Gordon has been in the Russian service since 1717 and his surviving
children now proceed to their mother country and are demanding the salary due to their
father, in consideration of this the Admiralty begs to know whether it will be allowed that
the balance remaining out of the sum given to Admiral Gordon for entertainments and for
expenses in connexion with the service of the said Admiral shall not be demanded, but shall
remain for the benefit of his children and the amount of the salary due to the day oi his death
shall be paid to the children.
On the strength of this report, the balance of the above-mentioned sums which were
given to Admiral Gordon for entertainments and for chancery expenses amounting to 1070
roubles 82 kopecks were not to be claimed, and the salary due to the day of death was to be
paid in full.
There is much doubt about Gordon's origin. Dr. Posselt, editor of Pat-
rick Gordon's Tagebucli, (as cited by Joseph Robertson in the Diaty, xxiv.),
says he is described in the Russian archives as the son of William, a
merchant, but this seems to refer to Thomas, 1818, who was in the army. Sir
William Fraser (Stirlings uf Keir, 121) says he was the son of Dr. Thomas
Gordon and Jean Hay, suggests 1658 as the date of his birth, and states that
he owned property in Aberdeen ; of which town he was made honorarj-
burgess, 1736, Jun. 30 : —
To all and sundry to whose notice the present letters shall come, greeting from Hugh
Hyde Park, Esq., councillor of the famous city of Aberdeen in the northern part of Great
Britain called Scotland. . . .
Considering that the most illustrious gentleman, Thomas Gordon, Knight, Admiral in
the Fleet of the Most Serene Empress of Russia, is a man of noble birth in this our kingdom of
Scotland, being honorably descended from the ancient race of Gordons whose present chief is
the most powerful Duke of Gordon ; that he was from his early years a most worthy citizen
of this city of Aberdeen ; that this same brave man, when in the British navy, strenuously de-
fended the commerce and ships of this city from pirates and enemies of every kind ; and that
he, being on account of his great valour deservedly promoted to the highest honours by the
Empress of Russia, still befriends this city ; we, in token of our gratitude and esteem, do ap-
prove and confirm the aforesaid most illustrious gentleman, Thomas Gordon, as a burgess of
this burgh, with all the rights and privileges of a guild brother. Given under the private seal
of this our city and signed in our name and by our appointment by Walter Cochran.
Joseph Robertson (Patrick Gordon's Diary, xxiv) calls him " a nephew
of Patrick Iwanowitsch," 1795- He began his career in the mercantile marine,
probably in the Holland trade, for in a letter to General Ross, of Balnagowan,