New Spalding Club > House of Gordon > Gordons under arms

5o8 HOUSE OF GORDON.
(For a summary of the dubious part he played in the Jacobite struggle see
J. M. Bulloch's The 2nd Duke of Gordon and the part he played at the battle
of Sheriffmuir, Huntly, 191 1; in the Ross-shire Jonr., 191 1, Jan. 20, 27; in
the Strathspey Herald, 1910, Dec. 15, 22 ; 191 1, Jan. 5, 12, Feb. 2, Mar. 2 ;
in the Banffshire Advertiser, 1911, Feb. 15; in the Aberdeen Weekly Free
Press, 191 1, May 19, 26. The Stuart Papers are full of him, vol. v. being
specially concerned in a criticism and a defence of his conduct and his quarrel
with Lord Seaforth.)
Only son of George, ist Duke of Gordon, 481. 1712; b- about 1682 ; ni.
(contract 1706, Oct. 7, 1707, Feb. 5) Lady Henrietta Mordaunt, dau. of Charles,
3rd Earl of Peterborough, and had five sons and seven daus., including Cosmo,
3rd Duke, Lord Adam, 92, Lord Charles, 300, Lord Lewis, 1090, 2134.
2054- Alexander. 17 11, left the Russian army (see 1658)- 1715, Jun.
7, asked by Lord Huntly to dine at Gordon Castle " to concert methods what
they are to do afterwards " {Stuart Papers, Hist. MSS. Com., i. 367) ; Aug.
25, attended Lord Mar's hunting match at Braemar ; Sep. 3, at a meeting
at Aboyne ; Sep. 6, standard raised at Braemar ; sent off to raise men in the
Western Highlands and mustered 4000 men ; attacked Fort William unsuc-
cessfully ; marched to Inverary to give the Argyllshire Jacobites a chance of
rising, which ended in Lord Islay's inducing him to abandon Argyllshire
{Townshend Papers, Hist. MSS. Com., 164); marched into Perthshire, join-
ing Mar, Nov. 10; Nov. 11, at Kinbuck, near Dunblane (Patten's Rebellion,
165) ; Nov. 13, at Sheriffmuir, commanded the centre of the first line, which
defeated the Government troops; Nov. 15, left at Dupplin by Mar. 1716,
Feb. 4, saw the Chevalier off at Montrose, counselling secrecy with the
troops [Stuart Papers, 11. 57, 81), and got a commission from the King to
command in chief, with power to treat with the enemy ; the king wrote at
the same time a paper containing his reasons for leaving the kingdom, and,
along with it, he delivered to Gordon all the money in his possession, excepting
a small sum (which he reserved for defraying the expenses of himself and
suite), with instructions to apply the residue after paying the army in in-
demnifying the inhabitants of the villages which had been burned ; the Cheva-
lier also put a letter to the Duke of Argyll into the hands of Gordon respecting
the appropriation of the money so left. This letter was accompanied by a
note to General Gordon written in the Chevalier's own hand (reproduced in
facsimile in Prof. Terry's Chevalier de St. George, p. 368) : —
General Gordon is hereby impower'd as soon as he has no other further occasion for
the money left in his hands for the subsistence of the troops to forward, if he thinl<s fjtt, the
inclosed letter to the Duke of Argil, and to fill upp the blanks of my letter with the name of
the town where he shall leave the money and the summe he shall leave.