The Gordons are an ancient and distinguished
family, originally from Normandy, where their ancestors are said to have had large
possessions. From the great antiquity of the race, many fabulous accounts have been given
of the descent of the Gordons. Some derive them from a city of Macedonia, called Gordonia,
whence they went to Gaul; others find their origin in Spain, Flanders, &C. Some
writers suppose Bertrand de Gourden who, in 1199, wounded Richard the Lion-heart mortally
with an arrow before the castle of Chalus in the Limoges, to have been the great ancestor
of the Gordons, but there does not seem to be any other foundation for such a conjecture
than that there was a manor in Normandy called Gourden. It is probable that the first
persons of the name in this island came over with William the Conqueror in 1066. According
to Chalmers, the founder of this great family came from England in the reign of David the
First (1124-53), and obtained from that prince the lands of Gordon (anciently Gordun, or
Gordyn, from, as Chalmers supposes, the Gaelic Gordin, "on the hill"). He left
two sons, Richard, and Adam, who, though the younger son, had a portion of the territory
of Gordon, with the lands of Fanys on the southern side of it.
The elder son, Richard de Gordon, granted, between 1150 and 1160, certain lands to the
monks of Kelso, and died in 1200. His son, Sir Thomas de Gordon. confirmed by charter
these donations, and his son and successor, also named Thomas, made additional grants to
the same monks, as well as to the religious of Coldstream. He died in 1285, without male
issue, and his only daughter, Alicia, marrying her cousin Adam de Gordon, the son of Adam,
younger brother of Richard above mentioned, the two branches of the family this became
united.
His grandson, Sir Adam de Gordon, Lord of Gordon, one of the most eminent men of his time,
was the progenitor of most of the great families of the name in Scotland. In reward for
his faithful services, Bruce granted to him and his heirs the noble lordship of
Strathbolgie (now Strathbogie), in Aberdeenshire, then in the Crown, by the forfeiture of
David de Strathbogie, Earl of Athole, which grant was afterwards confirmed to his family
by several charters under the great seal. Sir Adam fixed his residence there, and gave
these lands and lordship the name of Huntly, from a village of that name in the western
extremity of Gordon parish, in the Merse, the site of which is now said to be marked only
by a solitary tree. From their northern domain, the family afterwards acquire the titles
of Lord, Earl, and Marquis of Huntly, and the latter is now their chief title. Sir Adam
was slain, fighting bravely in the vanguard of the Scotch army at the battle of
Halidonhill, July 12, 1333. By Annabella, his wife, supposed to have been a daughter of
David de Strathbolgie above mentioned, he had four sons and a daughter. The eldest son,
Sir Alexander, succeeded him. The second son, William, was ancestor of the Viscounts of
Kenmure.
Sir John Gordon, his great-grandson, got a new charter from King Robert the Second of the
lands of Strathbogie, dated 13th June 1376. He was slain at the battle of Otterbourne in
1388. His son, Sir Adam, lord of Gordon, fell at the battle of Homildon, 14th September
1402. By his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Keith, great mareschal of Scotland,
he had an only child, Elizabeth Gordon, who succeeded to the whole family estates, and
having married Alexander Seton, second son of Sir William Seton of Seton, ancestor of the
Earls of Winton, that gentleman was styled lord of Gordon and Huntly. He left two sons,
the younger of whom became ancestor of the Setons of Meldrum.
Alexander, the elder, was, in 1449, created Earl of Huntly, with limitation to his heirs
male, by Elizabeth Crichton, his third wife, they being obliged to bear the name and arms
of Gordon. George, the sixth earl, was created Marquis of Huntly, by King James, in 1599.
George, the fourth marquis, was made Duke of Gordon in 1684. George, fifth duke, died
without issue on 28th Mary 1836. At his death the title of Duke of Gordon became extinct,
as well as tha of Earl of Norwich in th British peerage, and the Marquisate of Huntly
devolved on George Earl of Aboyne, descended from Charles, fourth son of George, second
Marquis of Huntly, while the Duke of Richmond and Lennox, son of his eldest sister,
succeeded to Gordon castle, Banffshire, and other estates in Aberdeenshire and
Inverness-shire.
The clan Gordon was at one period of the most powerful and numerous in the north. Although
the chiefs were not originally of Celtic origin, as already shown, they yet gave their
name to the clan, the distinctive badge of which was the rock ivy. The clan feuds and
battles were frequent, especially with the Mackintoshes, the Camerons, the Murrays and the
Forbes.
The Duke of Gordon, who was the chief of the clan, was usually styled "The Cock of
the North". His most ancient title was the "Gudeman of the Bog", from the
Bog-of-Gight, a morass in the parish of Bellie, Banffshire, in the centre of which the
former stronghold of this family was placed, and which forms the site of Gordon castle,
considered the most magnificent edifice in the north of Scotland. The Marquis of Huntly is
now the chief of the clan Gordon. Of the name Gordon, there are many ancient families
belonging to Aberdeenshire, Banffshire and the north of Scotland.
Another Account of the Clan
BADGE: Eidhean na
craige (hedera helix) rock ivy.
SLOGAN: A Gordon! a
Gordon!
PIBR0CH: Failte, and
Spaidsearachd nan Gordonich.
THOUGH
the origin of the name
and family of Gordon has often been
debated, the weight of evidence favours the assumption
that the ancestor of the house came from the manor
of Gourdon in Normandy about the time of the Norman Conquest, and that
he or a descendant was one of the feudal settlers encouraged to come to
Scotland in the days of Malcolm Canmore and his
sons. Early in the twelfth century, at any rate,
according to Chalmers’ Caledonia, the ancestor of the race is
found settled on the lands of Gordon in
Berwickshire. A tradition runs that the first of
the name to cross the Tweed was a valiant knight, a favourite of Malcolm
Canmore, who, having killed a wild boar which seriously distressed that
district of the Border, obtained from the King a grant of these lands,
to which he gave his own surname, and, settling there, assumed the boar’s
head for his armorial bearing in commemoration of
his exploit. For three centuries at least the heads of the house were
most closely associated with Border history, and when at last they
removed their chief seat to the North of Scotland they left scions of
the race, like the Gordons of Lochinvar,
afterwards Viscounts Kenmure, and Gordon of Earlston, to carry on the
traditions of the name in the south. In the Berwickshire parish, a
little north of the village of West Gordon, a rising ground now covered
with plantation, but still called "the Castles," and showing
the remains of fortification, is pointed out as the early seat of the
family. The original Huntly was a village now vanished in the western
border of Gordon parish, where two farms are still known respectively as
Huntly and Huntly-wood.
In 1270 Adam
de Gordon took part in the Crusade organised by Louis XI. of France.
From this fact the Adam family are said to derive their crest and motto.
In 1309 Sir
Adam de Gordon, in return for giving up certain temporal claims,
obtained from the monks of Kelso leave
to possess a private chapel with its oblations here. It was this Sir
Adam de Gordon who along with Sir Edward Mabuisson was sent to Rome by
King Robert the Bruce in 1320 as the bearer of the famous letter to the
Pope drawn up at Arbroath by the Scottish barons, to declare the real
temper and rights of the Scottish people as against the claims of the
English Edwards. And it was this same Sir Adam who, in recognition of
his services, appears to have received from Bruce a grant of the lands
of Strathbogie in Aberdeenshire, which had previously belonged to that
king’s enemies. Strathbogie was one of the five ancient lordships or
thanages which comprised Aberdeenshire, and covered an area of a hundred
and twenty square miles. Sir Adam fell at the battle of Halidon Hill in
1333. In 1357 Sir Adam’s grandson, Sir John de Gordon, obtained a
confirmation from David II. of King Robert’s grant of these lands, and
he or his successor obtained another confirmation from Robert II. in
1376.
The chief interests of the
family, however, were still on the Border, and in the following year the
Earl of March, with whom was Sir John de Gordon, having burned the town of
Roxburgh, and the English Borderers having retaliated on Sir John de
Gordon’s lands, the latter crossed the Border, carried off a great
booty; and, when intercepted by a force twice the strength of his own, in
a desperate affray overthrew Sir John de Lilburn at Carham. In the
following year, after another fierce conflict, Sir John had a chief hand
in defeating and taking captive Sir Thomas de Musgrave, the English
Governor of Berwick. Finally, he was one of the knights who took part with
the young Earl of Douglas in the famous encounter with the forces of the
Earl of Northumberland on the moonlit field of Otterbourne in 1388, and
there he fell.
In that famous encounter,
as the well-known ballad puts it,
The Gordons good, in
English blood
They steeped their
hose and shoon.
Fourteen years later, in
the days of King Robert III., took place the great battle of Homildon
Hill, in which again the leaders on the two sides were an Earl of Douglas
and Hotspur, son of the Earl of Northumberland. On this occasion occurred
a chivalric episode. Sir John Swinton, seeing the carnage made in the
close Scottish ranks by the English bowmen, couched his lance and was
about to charge. At that moment Sir Adam de Gordon, who had long been at
deadly feud with him, knelt at his feet, begged his forgiveness, and asked
the honour of being knighted by so brave a leader. Swinton gave him the
accolade and tenderly embraced him, then the two, at the head of their
followers, dashed upon the English. Alas! their bravery was not followed
up; they both fell, and the battle was lost.
Sir Adam, who was the son
of Sir John de Gordon mentioned above, was the last male of his line. By
his wife, daughter of Sir William de Keith, Marischal of Scotland, he had
an only daughter, Elizabeth. This lady married Alexander, second son of
William Seton of Seton, and from that day to this the heads of the great
house of Gordon have been Setons in the male line, these Setons being,
like the Gordons themselves, descended from one of the Norman settlers
planted in Scotland by King David I.
In right of his wife,
Alexander Seton was known as Lord of Gordon and Huntly, and his son,
another Alexander, assuming the name and arms of Gordon, and marrying a
daughter of Lord Crichton, Chancellor of Scotland, was created Earl of
Huntly by James II. in 1449 with limitation to his heirs male by Lord
Crichton’s daughter. The Earl had been twice previously married, first
to a granddaughter of the first Earl Marischal, by whom he acquired a
great estate, but had no children, and secondly to the heiress of Sir John
Hay of Tullibody, by whom he had a son, Sir Alexander Seton, who inherited
his mother’s estates and was ancestor of the Setons of Touch.
The Earl had in 1424 been
one of the hostages sent to England as security for the ransom of James
I., and his son George, the second Earl, married the Princess Joanna,
daughter of that King, from whom all the later heads of the house have the
royal Stewart blood in their veins. Earl George’s second son, Adam, Lord
of Aboyne, marrying Elizabeth, Countess of Sutherland, became Earl of
Sutherland in her right, and ancestor of the great Sutherland family,
while the third son, Sir William Gordon, became ancestor of the Gordons of
Gight, and so of George Gordon, Lord Byron, in the nineteenth century. The
eldest son, Alexander, the third Earl of Huntly, was he who before the
battle of Sauchieburn, counselled James III. to come to terms with his
rebellious nobles, but, his advice being overruled, retired like the Earl
Marischal and other nobles to his estate. Huntly nevertheless took part at
Sauchieburn. Two years later Huntly was appointed Lieutenant of James IV.
north of the Water of Esk, and from this time the Gordon family figures as
perhaps the most powerful in the north of Scotland.
Shortly afterwards occurred
the curious episode of Perkin Warbeck’s visit to Scotland. This
"Prince of England," as he was called, was received with royal
honours by James IV. as one of the sons of Edward IV., slain by Richard
III. in the Tower. The Scottish King addressed him as cousin, gave
tournaments and other courtly entertainments in his honour, and bestowed
upon him the hand of the Earl of Huntly’s daughter, the beautiful
Catherine Gordon, who was through her mother daughter of James I. of the
blood royal of Scotland. It is of interest in this connection to note that
when Perkin Warbeck was finally sent out of the kingdom, setting sail from
Ayr in the ship of Robert Barton, he was accompanied by his beautiful
wife, who remained faithfully by his side throughout all his future
reverses of fortunes. After his execution in 1498 she was kindly treated
by Henry VII., who placed her in charge of his queen and gave her a
pension. She was known by the English populace as the White Rose of
Scotland, and afterwards married Sir Matthew Craddock, ancestor of the
Earls of Pembroke. Her tomb is still to be seen in the old church at
Swansea.
When insurrection broke out
in the Western Isles in 1505, the Earl of Huntly was sent to quell the
northern area, and he stormed and took Torquil MacLeod’s stronghold of
Stornoway. Lastly, on Flodden’s fatal field, Huntly, along with the Earl
of Home, led the Scottish vanguard, and opened the battle with the furious
charge which routed the English van, the only part of the action in which
the Scots were successful. Sir William, the Earl’s younger brother, fell
in the battle, but Lord Huntly himself survived till 1528. His
eldest son John, Lord Gordon, who died in 1517, married Margaret, natural
daughter of James IV., and it was his elder son, George, who succeeded as
fourth Earl.
This nobleman took an
active part in the affairs of Scotland in the times of King James V., Mary
of Lorraine, and Mary Queen of Scots. He was made Chancellor of the
kingdom in 1546. He also, two years later, obtained a grant of the
earldom of Moray, but the acquisition led to an act which has left a stain
upon his name, and it ultimately for a time brought about the complete
eclipse of his house. Among other things, the new earldom made him feudal
superior of the Clan Mackintosh lands in Nairnshire, in addition to those
he already controlled in Badenoch.
Huntly appears to have endeavoured to secure complete control of his
feudal vassal by getting him to sign a bond of manrent, but the chief,
William Mackintosh, refused to bind himself. The Earl then proceeded to
deprive Mackintosh of his office of Deputy Lieutenant. Presently a certain
Lachlan Malcolmson, who owed Mackintosh a grudge, saw in the difference
between him and the Earl a means of possible profit and revenge. He
accordingly brought a charge against the chief of conspiring to take
Huntly’s life. Mackintosh was accordingly seized, and thrown into a
dungeon at Bog of Gight. Thence Huntly carried him to Aberdeen, tried him
there in a court packed with his own followers, and had him condemned to
forfeiture and execution. The provost, it is said, convened the town in
arms to prevent the execution, and accordingly Huntly carried his victim
to his own castle of Strathbogie. There, it is said, he left him to his
lady to deal with, and that lady—Elizabeth, daughter of Robert, Lord
Keith—promptly had him beheaded. This was in 1550. Sir Walter Scott and
Skene in his Highlanders of Scotland give a highly picturesque
account of this incident, but the fact as above stated appears to be
authentic. Nemesis came to Huntly later. He was looked upon as the main
champion of the Catholic faith. In this character his interests were
opposed to those of the Queen’s brother, James, and when Mary conferred
upon the latter the northern earldoms, first of Mar and then of Moray,
Huntly felt compelled to support his own interest by force of arms. His
grandfather had been made hereditary keeper of the castle of Inverness in
1495, and when Queen Mary went thither in the course of the royal progress
which she undertook to establish her brother in his earldom, she found the
gates of the castle closed in her face by Huntly’s castelan. In the
upshot the castle was taken and the castelan hanged, and Mary, marching
eastward through Huntly’s country, encountered him with her army on the
slopes of Corrichie on Deeside. The struggle ended disastrously for the
Gordons. The Earl, a stout and full-blooded man, having been taken
prisoner, was set upon a horse before his captor, when he was suddenly
seized with apoplexy and fell to the ground dead. His body, produced in
Parliament in a mean sackcloth dress, was condemned to forfeiture of
titles and estates. His son, Sir John Gordon, was butchered by a bungling
executioner at the Cross of Aberdeen, while Mary was compelled by her
brother to look on at the horrid end of the man whom, it is said, she had
once dearly loved. At the same
time George, the eldest surviving son, sentenced in the barbarous fashion
of the time to be hanged, drawn, and quartered, only escaped by the
special clemency of the Queen, who, however, appointed him Chancellor in
1565. and reversed the sentence of forfeiture against his house.
This fifth Earl married Ann
Hamilton, daughter of the Regent Earl of Arran, herself a descendant of
King James II., and so established still another connection with the royal
house of Stewart.
Amid the feuds between the
houses of the north at that time a striking incident stands out, and forms
the subject of a well-known ballad, "Edom o’ Gordon." Details
of this incident and its sequel will be found in the account of Clan
Forbes on a previous page.
The rivalry, however,
between the houses of Huntly and Moray was not over, and at the hands of
George Gordon, the sixth Earl, it culminated in a deed which has left a
vivid record in ballad and tradition. The Regent Moray’s only daughter
had married James Stewart, a descendant of that Murdoch, Duke of Albany,
executed by James I. on Stirling heading hill, and in right of his wife
Stewart had assumed the title of Earl of Moray. From his handsome
appearance he is remembered as the Bonnie Earl o’ Moray. Popular
tradition, enshrined in the ballad, asserts that James VI. was jealous of
his Queen’s admiration for the Bonnie Earl, and that Huntly was afforded
facilities for accomplishing his family revenge. The subject was dealt
with by the late Andrew Lang in an interesting paper. The upshot was that
while Moray was staying at his house of Donibristle near Culross on the
Forth, it was suddenly assailed by Huntly. Moray escaped, but as he fled
along the shore his long yellow hair caught the light of the burning
mansion, and betrayed him. After he was struck down Huntly reached the
spot, and being called upon by his followers to take an active part in the
slaughter, slashed Moray across the face; whereupon the latter is said to
have exclaimed bitterly, "You have spoilt a better face than your
own." Colour is lent to the popular tradition of the King’s concern
in the act by the circumstance that, eight years later, in 1599, Huntly
was created Marquess, as well as Earl of Enzie, Viscount Inverness, and
baron of seven other lordships.
In 1594 Huntly had been
accused, along with the Earls of Angus and Errol, of conspiring with the
King of Spain for the restoration of the Roman Catholic religion in
Scotland. The young Earl of Argyll was sent against him with four or five thousand men, but on
his way towards Strathbogie, on the confines of Glenlivet, he was
confronted by Huntly and Errol at the head of a force of fifteen hundred.
Argyll took up a good position on the side of Benrinnes, but he proved an
indifferent leader, and in the end himself carried the tidings of his
defeat to the king at Dundee. As a result the King himself was forced by
the Protestant nobles to lead an army into the north, where he demolished
Errol’s castle of Slaines, and Huntly’s stronghold of Strathbogie,
said to have been the finest house of the time in Scotland. It was not
long, however, as we have seen, till Huntly received the ample amends of
the King. Perhaps one of the reasons for the favour shown him was the fact
that he married Lady Henrietta Stewart, eldest daughter of the King’s
favourite, Esme, Duke of Lennox.
His son George, second Marquess, was a staunch adherent
of Charles I. In early life he commanded a company of gens d’annes in
France, and in 1632, during
his father’s lifetime, was created Viscount Aboyne. He refused to
subscribe the National Covenant in 1638, and in consequence was driven
from Strathbogie by the Marquess of Montrose, then a general on the
Covenant side. For two days at that time the Marquess’s second son,
James, held the Bridge of Dee at Aberdeen against Montrose, but in the end
the latter succeeded by stratagem. He sent his cavalry up the river bank,
as if to cross at a higher point, and the Gordons on their side rode up to
oppose the crossing. While doing so they were cut to pieces by the cannon
of Montrose, and as a result the bridge was lost and Aberdeen captured by
the Covenanters. A Covenanting ballad, "Bonnie John Seton," which
celebrates the occasion, refers curiously to the effect of the
unaccustomed cannon fire upon
the Highlanders of that time.
The Highland men
are
clever men
At handling sword and gun;
But yet are they too naked men
To bear the cannon’s rung.
For the cannon’s roar in a summer night
Is like thunder in the air;
There’s not a man in
Highland dress
Can face the cannon’s rair.
Huntly was captured and carried to Edinburgh, and
afterwards outlawed and excommunicated, but, along with Montrose, who by
this time had taken the King’s side, he stormed
Aberdeen in 1645. After the defeat of Montrose at Philiphaugh in that year
he raised forces for Charles I. in the north, but was captured by Colonel
Menzies at Delnabo, and though his wife was a sister of the Marquess of
Argyll, then head of the Scottish Government, he was beheaded at Edinburgh
by the Covenanters in 1649.
The Marquess’s eldest
son, George, Lord Gordon, had joined Montrose and fallen at the battle of
Alford in 1645, and his second son, James, who had inherited his father’s
Viscounty of Aboyne, and had also joined Montrose in the interest of
Charles I., had fled to France and died of grief after the execution of
the king in 1649. It was therefore the third son, Lewis, who was restored
to the family honours and estate, as third Marquess, by Charles II.,
during that young monarch’s short reign in Scotland in 1651.
It was his only son George
who succeeded as fourth Marquess in 1653, when he was no more than ten
years old. After seeing military service with the French under Turenne at
the battle of Strasbourg and afterwards under the Prince of Orange, he
was, at the recommendation of Claverhouse, created Duke of Gordon in 1684.
James VII. appointed him a Privy Councillor and captain of Edinburgh
Castle, but at the Revolution in 1689 he surrendered the stronghold to the
Convention of Estates. His wife, a daughter of the Duke of Norfolk,
retired to a convent in Flanders, whereupon the Duke brought an action
against her for restitution of conjugal rights. It was she who in 1711
sent the Faculty of Advocates a medal bearing the head of the Chevalier,
with the motto "Reddite."
Naturally her son,
Alexander, the second Duke, was an ardent Jacobite. During the Rising of
1715, while Marquess of Huntly, he joined the forces of the Earl of Mar at
Perth with two thousand three hundred men, and he was present at the
battle of Sheriffmuir; but he received pardon and succeeded to the Dukedom
in 1716. He was on intimate terms with the King of Prussia and with Cosmo
di Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, after whom he named his eldest son, and
he received presents from Pope Clement XII.
It was his eldest son,
Cosmo George, who was head of the house during the critical period of the
Jacobite Rebellion of 1745. While the Duke himself did not join the rising
under Prince Charles Edward, his brother, Lord Lewis Gordon, did, and led
a strong contingent of the clansmen in the campaign which ended at
Culloden. The importance in popular estimation of the part he played is
commemorated in the well-known ballad, "Lord send Lewie Gordon Hame."
Another of the Duke’s brothers, Lord Adam Gordon, was afterwards M.P.
for Aberdeen-shire and Kincardineshire and Commander of the Forces in
Scotland. The Duke himself died in France in 1752.
His eldest son, Alexander,
the fourth Duke, was described by Kaimes as the greatest subject in
Britain. He was made a peer of the United Kingdom in 1784 and was a Knight
of the Thistle and Lord Keeper of Scotland. But he probably remains most
famous as the author of the well-known song, "Cauld Kail in
Aberdeen," and by reason of his wife, the "Gay Duchess of
Gordon," who was the chief figure in Edinburgh society at the close
of the 18th century. A daughter of Maxwell of Monreith, she is said to
have shown her high spirit as a girl by riding with her sister down the
High Street of Edinburgh on a sow’s back. When the Duke was raising his
regiments of Gordon Highlanders to take part in the American war, she is
said to have recruited a battalion in a single day by standing at the
cross of Aberdeen with the King’s shilling between her lips as a prize
for every lad bold enough to come and take it. And it was she who, when
Robert Burns paid his last momentous visit to Edinburgh in 1786, set the
seal upon his fame by her countenance and hospitality.
A strange contrast to Duke
Alexander was his third brother, that Lord George Gordon who, beginning
life in the Navy, and afterwards entering Parliament, acquired notoriety
as an agitator and leader of the No-Popery Riots of 1780, afterwards
becoming a Jew, and dying at last in Newgate Gaol.
The fifth Duke, George, a
general officer, Governor of Edinburgh Castle, and G.C.B., was the last of
his line. His statue as "The Last Duke of Gordon," erected by
his Duchess, stands at the cross at Aberdeen. As Marquess of Huntly he had
a distinguished military career, commanding the regiment now known as the Gordon
Highlanders, in Spain, Corsica, Ireland, and Holland, where he was
severely wounded, and commanding a division in the Waicheren expedition of
1809. At his death in 1836, the dukedom became extinct. Most of the
estates, including Gordon Castle near Fochabers, passed to his eldest
sister, Charlotte, wife of the fourth Duke of Richmond, whose son, a
distinguished statesman, was in 1876 created Duke of Gordon.
In 1836 the Marquessate
passed to the late Duke of Gordon’s kinsman, George, fifth Earl of
Aboyne. This nobleman was descended from Lord Charles Gordon, fourth son
of the second Marquess, who, in consideration of his loyalty and service,
was created Earl of Aboyne by Charles II. at the Restoration in
1660. Aboyne Castle on Deeside, from which he took his title, had belonged
in early times to the Bissets, the Knights-Templar, and the Earl of Mar,
but had been in the possession of the Gordons since 1388. A popular
ballad, "The Earl of Aboyne," appears to refer to some incident
of the first Earl’s time at the Court of the Merry Monarch. It describes
the Earl’s return from London, and the great preoarations made by his
wife to receive him; but alas! he let slip a word of his too gay goings on
with some fair damsel in the south. The result is a quarrel, the Earl
rides away, and the lady’s pleadings are sent after him in vain. It is
only when these are followed by news of her death that he turns northward
again.
Mv nobles a’,
ye’ll turn your steeds
That that comely face I may see then:
Frae the horse to the bat a’ maun be black,
And mourn for bonnie Peggy Irvine!
It was the first Earl who
built the present castle of Aboyne. The Earl of Abovne, who succeeded as
ninth Marquess of Huntly, was K.T.. and
Colonel of the Aberdeen Militia. The present peer, who succeeded in 1863,
and who is his grandson, is the premier Marquess of Scotland. He was a
Lord-in-Waiting to Queen Victoria from 1870 to 1873, was appointed captain
of the Hon. Corps of Gentlemen at Arms in 1881, and was thrice chosen Lord
Rector of Aberdeen University. He is a Privy Councillor and LL.D., and
personally one of the best-liked personages of the north.
There are of course many
branches of the great house of Gordon throughout Scotland. Of these the
chief is that of the Gordons of Haddo, which has for its head the Marquess
of Aberdeen and Temair. This branch claims to represent the original house
of Gordon in the male line, by descent from Gordon of Coldingknowes,
celebrated in song. Its remote ancestor was Patrick Gordon of Methlic,
slain at the battle of Arbroath in 1445. His great-grandson, James Gordon
of Methlic and Haddo, was a warm supporter of his chief, the fifth Earl of
Huntly, in Queen Mary’s interest. His grandson again, Sir John Gordon of
Haddo, was made a baronet of Nova Scotia by Charles I., in whose service
he distinguished himself at the battle of Turriff. Captured at last
by the Covenanters, he was confined in a church in Edinburgh, known from
this fact as "Haddo’s Hole," and was executed at the Cross of
Edinburgh in 1644. His second son, Sir George Gordon of Haddo, was
President of the Court of Session and Lord Chancellor of Scotland, and was
made Earl of Aberdeen in 1682. George, the fourth Earl, was the
distinguished statesman who was Queen Victoria’s Prime Minister at the
time of the Crimean War; and the present head of the house, who is his
grandson, has also held many high offices, including those of
Governor-General of Canada and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. At the end of
his second tenure of this last high post he had the honour of the
Marquessate conferred upon him. His Lordship was High Commissioner to the
General Assembly from 1881 to 1885, and has been Lord Lieutenant of
Aberdeen-shire since 1880. For a considerable time his Lordship’s
succession to the Earldom was regarded as uncertain, till it was declared
proved that his elder brother, George, the sixth Earl, had been drowned
while voyaging as an ordinary seaman from Boston to Melbourne in 1870.
Of all the bearers of the
name of Gordon, however, perhaps the most romantic and tragic figure is
that of Charles George Gordon—"Chinese Gordon"—who, after
the most amazing and beneficent career of his time in many parts of the
world, was overwhelmed and slain on the steps of the Government House at
Khartoum, which he had defended alone against a siege by the Dervish
hordes for three hundred and seventeen days, just as the British
Expedition sent out too late for his relief came in sight fighting its way
up the Nile.
At
the height of their power, the Gordons ruled virtually an independant kingdom in the north
east of Scotland. They were famed for their championship of catholicism and their mastery
of horse-breeding. According to early records, the family was French in origin. Adam de
Gordon was with King Louis IX of France in the Crusades in 1270. Under Robert the Bruce,
Sir A dam, Lord of Gordon acquired the Lordship of Strathbogie in Banffshire. His
great-great grandaughter married Sir Alexan der Seton and their son was created 1st Earl
of Huntly in 1449. For the next century, the Gordons held autocratic sway over the
Highlands and filled many positions of power in Scotland. The 4th Earl known as "Cock
of the North" had aspirations to marry one of his sons to Mary, Queen of Scots and
through a series of misunderstandings there was a rebellion which brought about the
collapse of Gordon power after defeat at Corrichie in 1562. The 5th Earl also rebelled
against James VI in 1594 and much of Hun tly castle was destroyed. Three years later the
5th Earl succeeded in making peace with his monarch and became Marquis of Huntly. His son,
George served Charles I staunchly during the Wars of the Covenant and the famous Gordon
cavalry provided vital support to Montrose's ragged infantry. A few weeks after the
execution of Charles I, Huntly was also beheaded. The Restoration revived t he Gordon
fortunes with the creation of the Earldon of Aboyne in 1660. Although the Gordons followed
the Jacobite cause throughout the 1700's they suffered relatively mild reprisals when the
rising was put down. In 1794, the 4th Duchess of Gordon raised and recruited the 92nd
(Gordon) Highlanders which earned immortality by their famous charge at Waterloo and would
later take part in many battles through the centuries.
One holder of famous name GORDON played important role in the
Czech history. He fought in war conflict known as Thirty Years War as a colonel of
Emperor Ferdinand II. of Habsburg. GORDONs commandant was Czech
aristocrat, Generalissimus Duke Albrecht of Valdstejn (Waldstein, Wallenstein).
Valdstejn was very able but cruel man with lack of scruple. Emperor let him be killed for
his betrayal. Col. GORDON was one of the anti-Valdstejn conspirators. The next ones
were: Col. Butler, Col. Leslie, Cpt. Mac Daniel and Cpt. Walter Deveroux (this Irish
soldier stabed Valdstejn). Valdstejn was assassined at night 25 Feb 1634 , in the
town of Cheb (German name of this town was Eger).
Huntly Castle
Shrouded
by hills on one side and with beautiful countryside all around, the
small town of Huntly is steeped in the history of one of Scotland's
largest clans, the Gordons.
Huntly Castle, also known as 'The
Peel of Strathbogie' or 'Strathbogie Castle', stands on the south
bank of the River Deveron and close to the smaller River Bogie.
The castle consists of the motte and
bailey built for the Norman Barron Duncan ("of Strathbolgyn")
Earl of Fife in the 12th century, a mediaeval L-plan tower housing a
ground floor prison and the defence earthworks remaining from the
Civil War.
In 1320 King Robert granted title to
the lands to Sir Adam Gordon of Huntly.
The 4th Earl of Huntly (known as
'Cock of the North') rebuilt much of his grandfathers home but in
the 17th century it was changed again by the 1st Marquess of Huntly.
It welcomed renowned visitors such as
James IV in 1496 and Mary of Guise (Mary Queen of Scot's Mother) in
1556.
During a fight between the Douglases
and the King (whom the Gordon's were supporting) the lands of
Strathbogie were raised and the castle of Huntly burned.
Huntly Castle is famed for its
heraldic sculpture and inscribed stone friezes.
Tel:
01466 793191. Open Apr-Sept, daily 0930-1830. Oct-Mar, Mon-Wed
0930-1630, Thursday mornings only, closed Fri, Sat 0930-1630 Sun
1400-1630
Elizabeth, wife of The 4th Duke of
Gordon built a memorial to her husband. Gordon School, designed by
Archibald Simpson, is still in use today as the High School of
Huntly.
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