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THE Gordons of
METHLIC AND HADDO, now ennobled under the title of Earl of
Aberdeen, trace their pedigree to SIR WILLIAM GORDON of
Coldingknows, in Berwickshire, younger son of Sir Thomas de
Gordon, grandson of the founder of the family in Scotland. The
Gordons of Huntly, as we have seen, represent the house through an
heir female, Elizabeth Gordon, who, in 1449, married Alexander de
Seton, while the Aberdeen branch have preserved an unbroken male
descent. Owing, however, to the loss of many of the family papers
when Kelly, their residence, was taken and plundered by the
Marquis of Argyll, in 1644, and at a later period, when the house
in which the Earl lived in Aberdeen was burned, their descent from
Sir William Gordon cannot be traced with certainty. Sir William’s
son is said to have accompanied his cousin, Sir Adam Gordon, to
the north, in the time of King Robert Bruce, and to have married
the heiress of Methlic. His descendant, PATRICK GORDON of Methlic,
was killed at the battle of Brechin (May 18th, 1452), in which the
Tiger Earl of Crawford was defeated by the Earl of Huntly. JAMES
GORDON, Sir Patrick’s son, received from the King a gift of the
barony of Kelly, a part of Crawford’s forfeited estate. His
great-grandson, GEORGE GORDON, though he signed, in 1567, the bond
of association for the defence of the infant sovereign, James VI.,
became a staunch supporter of the cause of Queen Mary, under the
banner of the Earl of Huntly, her lieutenant in the north. The
head of the family during the Great Civil War was George Gordon’s
great-grandson, SIR JOHN GORDON of Haddo, who succeeded to the
family estates in 1624. When the Covenanters took up arms against
their sovereign, King Charles appointed Sir John Gordon second in
command to the Marquis of Huntly, his lieutenant in the north. He
took part in the skirmish called ‘The Trot of Turriff,’ 14th May,
1639, when blood was first shed in that lamentable contest. In
1642 he was created a baronet by the King, but the honour thus
conferred upon him no doubt helped to make him obnoxious to the
Covenanting Convention, who issued letters of intercommuning
against him, and granted a warrant for his apprehension. When the
Marquis of Huntly took up arms on behalf of the King, in 1644, he
was joined by Sir John Gordon, and a sentence of excommunication
was pronounced against them both, by order of the General
Assembly. When Huntly disbanded his forces and retreated into
Strathnairn, in Sutherlandshire, Sir John attempted to defend his
castle of Kelly against the Marquis of Argyll, who had been
despatched to the north at the head of a strong force to quell the
insurrection. Earl Marischal, Sir John’s cousin, who was in
Argyll’s army, earnestly recommended him to surrender, assuring
him that he would obtain safe and honourable terms. He accordingly
capitulated, on the 8th of May. The greater part of the garrison
was dismissed, but Sir John, Captain Logie, and four or five
others, were detained as prisoners. The author of the history of
the Gordon family asserts that Argyll ‘destroyed and plundered
everything that was in the house, carried away out of the garners
180 chalders victual, killed and drove away all the horse, nolt,
and sheep that belonged to Sir John and his tenants round about,’
and that this ‘barbarous usage touched Marischal in the most
sensible part; he took it as an open affront to himself,’ being a
violation of the terms of surrender.
Sir John was
conveyed to Edinburgh, and was imprisoned in the western division
of St. Giles’s Church, which in consequence acquired, and long
retained, the name of Haddo’s Hole. He was brought to trial before
the Estates on a charge of high treason, on the ground that he had
taken up arms against the Convention, and had taken part in the
battle at Turriff. He pleaded that all these alleged offences had
been indemnified by the ‘Act of Pacification,’ and produced the
royal commission under which he had acted. He was also indicted
for garrisoning his house against the Estates—a charge on which it
appears they mainly relied for obtaining a conviction. He urged in
his defence that 'there were many Acts of Parliament making these
things treason when done against the King, but none yet extant
making them treason when done against the Estates.’ l-le was of
course found guilty, and along with Captain Logie, was beheaded at
the Cross of Edinburgh, on the 10th of July, 1644. On the scaffold
he said in an audible voice to the crowd of spectators, in reply
to one of the ministers who desired him to make a full confession
of his sins; ‘I confess myself to be a great sinner before God,
but never transgressed against the country, or any in it but such
as were in open rebellion against the King; and what I did in that
case I thought it good service, and bound to it as my duty by the
laws of God and the land.’ William Gordon says that ‘Sir John had
got a very liberal education, and was a gentleman of excellent
parts, both natural and acquired, but above all was eminent for
his courage and valour.’
At the Restoration,
the forfeited estates of the family were restored to Sir John’s
eldest son, who died without male issue in 1665, and was
succeeded by his brother—
SIR GEORGE GORDON,
third Baronet and first Earl of Aberdeen, who was born in 1637. He
was educated at Marischal College, Aberdeen, and for some time
held the office of Professor in that institution. On resigning his
chair he went to the Continent to study civil law, and was
residing there when the death of his brother put him in possession
of the family estates. On his return to Scotland he was admitted
to the Bar, in the beginning of 1668, and speedily obtained a high
reputation for his ability and legal knowledge. Crawford, in his
‘History of the Officers of State,’ mentions that during all the
time he was at the Bar he never took fees as an advocate, though
he had abundance of clients, and many of them persons of the first
rank. He represented the county of Aberdeen, in the Parliaments of
1670 and 1673, was made a member of the Privy Council in 1678, was
appointed one of the Senators of the College of Justice in 1680,
and was nominated President of the Court of Session in 1681. In
the following year he was elevated to the office of Lord
Chancellor of Scotland. He was in London at the time this
promotion was conferred upon him, and a few days after he embarked
for Scotland, along with the Duke of York, in the Gloucester
frigate, which on the 5th of May struck on the sandbank called
the Lemon and Ore, near Yarmouth. With the exception of the Duke,
Sir George Gordon, whom he insisted on taking with him, the Earl
of Wintoun, and two gentlemen of the Duke’s bedchamber, all on
board perished. It had hitherto been the custom to appoint none
but peers to the Chancellorship, and as the nomination of a
Commoner gave great offence to many of the nobility, Sir George
Gordon was created, November 30th, 1682, Earl of Aberdeen,
Viscount Formartine, Lord Haddo, Methlic, Tarves, and Kellie. In
the preamble of the patent conferring that honour upon him,
mention is made in detail of the loyalty and important services of
his ancestors, especially of the memorable fidelity and integrity
of his father, and of his strenuous efforts during the Great Civil
War to uphold the royal cause, for which he sacrificed his life
and fortune.
Lord Aberdeen held
the office of Chancellor for two years, and resigned it for a
reason highly honourable to him—his opposition to the proposal of
the Duke of Queensberry, that husbands should be fined for the
non-attendance of their wives at church. King James decided in
favour of Queensberry, and Lord Aberdeen immediately resigned his
office of Chancellor, which was conferred upon the Romish pervert,
the Earl of Perth.
The accounts of the
Earl, which are still preserved among the manuscripts in Haddo
House, throw interesting light both on the Chancellor’s personal
habits and on the manners of the times. His lordship had evidently
been fond of such sports as hunting, hawking, and horse-racing.
There are frequent entries of payments made to the men who brought
hawks, for hoods and bells, and for a hawk glove, and hawks’ meat.
A certain Patrick Logan receives £32 (Scots) for ‘goeing north
with hauks;’ on one occasion, ‘my Lord goeing to the hauking,’
receives 5s 16s.; on another, £12 14s. At that time there were
horse-races at Leith, which continued to be kept up till a
comparatively recent period. They had evidently been patronised by
the Chancellor, for in his accounts there appear such items as
these—’To my Lord goeing to Leith to his race, £8 8s.;’ ‘for
weighing the men att Leith that rade, £1 8s.;’ ‘to the man that
ran the night before the race, 18s.;’ ‘item, to the two grooms,
drink money att winning the race at Leith, £8 8s.;’ ‘item, to the
Edinburgh officers with the cup, £14;’ ‘item, to the Smith boy
plaitt the running horse feet, 14s.’
It would appear
that numerous presents were sent to the Lord Chancellor by his
friends—no doubt with a view to conciliate the good-will of the
powerful minister and judge. The most frequent present seems to
have been deer. Lords Doune, Huntly, Menteith, and Sir Patrick
Hume send deer; Lord Kinnaird, a goose; Lord Crawford, ‘sparrow
grasse;’ the Marquis of Douglas, a Solan goose, doubtless from the
Bass, which was in vicinity of his lordship’s castle of Tantallon;
Lord Strathmore, English hounds; Lord Oxford, a dog; the minister
of Currie also sends an English hound; Gordon of Glenbucket, dogs;
the Captain of Clan Ranald and Macleod of Macleod, a hawk; Lord
Errol, ‘a torsel off falcon;’ Lord Lithgow, eels, peaches, and
partridges; Lord Wintoun and Lady Errol, pears; Lord Dunfermline,
fruit. Douceurs are given to each of the servants bringing these
presents, varying from 7s. to £2 18s. (Scots).
Payments for books
show that the Lord Chancellor was not neglecting his legal
studies. ‘To Sir Jo. Dalrymple’s man with
Stair’s Decisions’ £2
18s. was paid; ‘Sir James Turner’s man
with a book, £1 9s.’ ‘to my Lord Glendoyick’s man, for Acts of
Parliament, £1 9s.;’ ‘for Grotius,
De Jure Belli et Pacis, £2
18s.’
The entries
relating to the Lord Chancellor’s dress are not the least curious
and interesting part of the accounts. ‘Gloves to my Lord’ cost £2
18s.; ‘a pock to my Lord’s hatt,’ 7s. 10d. A cobbler received 14s.
for ‘dressing my Lord’s boots.’ His lordship’s expenses in London
were on a much larger scale. ‘Two fyne shirts and a poynt gravat’
were charged £10 15s. sterling (Scots money was unknown in the
Great Metropolis); ‘a castor hatt to my Lord’ cost £1;
‘a fyne pine wig, £5 5s.’ Five shillings was paid to
‘Dunfermling’s man to trim my Lord.’ ‘Takeing a coatch over water
to Windsor’ was charged 1s.; ‘a hackney chair to my Lord, five
days, 17s. 6d.;’ and the same sum was paid ‘for my Lord’s lodgeing
five nights att Windsor.’ The Chancellor’s travelling expenses
‘comeing up to London’ amounted to £10. The footmen of the King,
Queen, and Duke of York received from him in gratuities the sum of
£3 4s. 6d. The total expenses incurred in his journey to London
and back, and remaining a fortnight in the metropolis, amounted to
£150
17s. 4d.
The Earl’s
travelling expenses even at home were by no means light, as
appears from such entries as—’To my Lord himself goeing to
Cranstoun, £17 8s.;’ ‘to my Lord goeing to Lauderdale’s funeral,
£9 16s.;’ for ‘drink and accommodation in Mrs. Bennett’s
‘—doubtless an inn—£35 9s. 8d. was paid, and the same sum, bating
the shillings and pence, for ‘five horses post from Burntisland to
Aberdeen,’ and ‘for our lawing [reckoning] in Aberdeen at night,
£67 1s;’ for ‘lime and sack there in the morning, £3.’ Falstaff’s
complaint that lime had been put in his sack, shows the common
usage at that time. But the travelling expenses appear to have
been greatly exceeded by the gratuities which the Lord Chancellor
had to give to footmen, trumpeters, ‘musitioners,’
fiddlers, pipers, drummers, porters, and retainers of every sort.
The heaviest item of all was for ‘drink money.’ On one occasion
"13 (Scots) was paid for drink money at Abbotshall; on another,
£11 12s. for drink money at Cupar. On a journey to Gordon
Castle there was paid for ‘drink money at Craig of Boyne, £8
14s.;’ ‘for drink money at the Booge, £17 8s.;’ and ‘to the two
footmen to drink by the way, 7s.’ On a journey from Kellie to
Edinburgh, £8 14s. was paid for drink money to the drummers of
Aberdeen; £2 18s. for drink money to ‘Widow Burnet, tapster;’ and
£1 9s. for drink money to fiddlers.
The Earl was
evidently open-handed, and wherever he went gave liberally, not
only to servants but to the poor and needy. A ‘poor body at
Athroes’ got 9s.; a poor scholar, 14s.; ‘one Johnston, a poet,’ £5
16s.; a poor seaman, £1 9s.; ‘ane distracted wyfe, called
Johnston,’ 14s.; ‘a poor gentlewoman,’ £1 9s. ‘to the poor at
Dundee,’ 10s.; ‘to the poor at Glammis,’ 12s.; ‘to the poor at
Cullen of Boyne,’ 7s. ‘When his lordship attended church he did
not neglect ‘the collection,’ as is shown by the entry, ‘To my
Lord goeing to church,’ £1 9s. The church officers were not
forgotten. ‘The beddels that keips my Lady’s seatt’ received a
gratuity of £2 18s.; ‘the beddels of the Abay church’ got
£1 9s. Another entry—’ Item, to the clerk and beddels quhen
Katherin was baptised’—shows that at that early period the custom
existed, which has come down to our own day, of giving a gratuity
to the beadle in attendance at baptisms. Finally, ‘My Lady’s
receipts for house furnishing from the 15th of January to the 4th
of June, 1683,’ amounted to
£1,946 17s. 4d.
After his
resignation of his office, Lord Aberdeen devoted his attention to
the management and improvement of his estates. At the Revolution
he remained in the country for some time, in order to avoid giving
his adherence to the new sovereigns, and he was repeatedly fined
for his absence from Parliament. On the accession of Queen Anne,
however, he took the oath of allegiance, and attended one or two
sessions of her Parliament. He died at Kelly, on the 20th of
April, 1720, in the eighty-third year of his age. By his wife,
daughter and heiress of George Lockhart of Torbrecks, the Earl
had, with four daughters, two sons; George, Lord Haddo, who
predeceased him, and—
WILLIAM, second
Earl, who was chosen one of the representative peers of Scotland.
He died in 1746, in his seventieth year. He was three times
married. Alexander Gordon, his third son by his third wife, a
daughter of the second Duke of Gordon, was appointed one of the
Senators of the Court of Session, with the title of Lord
Rockville.
GEORGE,
third Earl, eldest son of the second
Earl, like his father, was one of the sixteen representative
peers. He died in 1801. He had four daughters and two sons, the
elder of whom, George, Lord Haddo, predeceased him, having died in
1791, in consequence of injuries received by a fall from his
horse. He left six sons and one daughter. His second and sixth
sons entered the navy, and each attained the rank of vice-admiral.
Sir Alexander Gordon, his third son, was a lieutenant-colonel in
the army, and aide-de-camp, first to his uncle, Sir David Baird,
and afterwards to the Duke of Wellington. He was mortally wounded
at the battle of Waterloo, and died on the following day. The
Duke, in a letter communicating the sad intelligence to the Earl
of Aberdeen, Sir Alexander’s brother, says, ‘He had served me most
zealously and usefully for many years, and on many trying
occasions; but he had never rendered himself more useful and had
never distinguished himself more than in our late actions. He
received the wound which occasioned his death when rallying one of
the Brunswick battalions which was shaking a little; and he lived
long enough to be informed by myself of the glorious result of our
actions, to which he had so much contributed by his active and
zealous assistance.’
Sir Robert Gordon,
G.C.B., fifth son of Lord Haddo, attained high rank and
distinction in the diplomatic service of the country. The eldest
son —
GEORGE HAMILTON
GORDON, born in 1784, became fourth Earl of Aberdeen on the death
of his grandfather in 1801. He was educated at Harrow, and at St.
John’s College, Cambridge, where he took the degree of M.A. in
1804. After completing his studies, he travelled for some time in
Italy and Greece, and, on his return, was one of the founders of
the Athenian Society, whose members are restricted to persons who
have visited Athens. Hence the Earl was termed by Lord Byron, in
his ‘English Bards and Scotch Reviewers ‘—
‘The travell’d
thane, Athenian Aberdeen.’
Lord Aberdeen
entered Parliament in 1806 as one of the Scottish representative
peers, was chosen a second time in 1807, and in 1813, when barely
twenty-nine years of age, he was sent on a special mission to
Vienna for the purpose of inducing the Emperor of Austria to join
the alliance against his son-in-law, the Emperor Napoleon. He
performed this delicate and difficult task with great success, and
signed at Toplitz the preliminary treaty in which Austria united
with Great Britain and Russia against France. The Earl was present
at Lutzen and Bautzen, and other great battles in the campaigns of
1813-14, and rode over the field of Leipsic, in company with
Humboldt, after the three days’ sanguinary conflict. It was he who
persuaded Murat, King of Naples, to abandon the cause of his
imperial brother-in-law, and he subsequently took part in the
negotiations rendered necessary by the return of Napoleon from
Elba. In 1814, he was created Viscount Gordon of Aberdeen, in the
peerage of the United Kingdom. He was a steady supporter of Lord
Liverpool’s Government, and the Tory party; in January, 1828, he
became Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and shortly after, on
the resignation of the Canningites, he was appointed Secretary of
State for Foreign Affairs in the administration of the Duke of
Wellington—a position which he held for nearly three years. On the
overthrow of the Duke’s Ministry, the Earl of course retired from
office, and with the exception of a few months in 1834-1835, when
he filled the post of Colonial Secretary in the short-lived
administration of Sir Robert Peel, he remained in Opposition until
1841, when Peel became once more Prime Minister, and Lord Aberdeen
was reinstalled in the Foreign Office. He loyally supported his
chief against the fierce attacks of the Protectionists on the
abolition of the Corn Laws, and in all his Free Trade policy. His
own administration of foreign affairs was cautious and pacific,
yet firm and dignified; and in the dispute with the Government of
the United States on the Oregon question he steadily upheld the
honour and interests of the country, while he contrived to avert
the evils of war, which at one time seemed imminent.
When the
controversy arose in the Established Church of Scotland,
respecting the Veto Law, and the right of the people to reject an
unacceptable presentee, Lord Aberdeen, who took a warm interest in
the affairs of the Church in which he was an office-bearer,
undertook to prepare a Bill which he expected would have the
effect of healing those dissensions that were threatening to rend
the Church in pieces. His lordship had publicly expressed his
conviction that ‘the will of the people had always formed an
essential ingredient in the election to the pastoral office,’ and
the professed object of the measure which he prepared, was to
prevent the intrusion of a presentee on a congregation who refused
to receive him as their minister. But when the Bill was introduced
into the House of Lords, it was found to be essentially at
variance with the principles of the Non-Intrusion party. They
insisted that the Church courts should have power to reject a
presentee simply on the ground that he was unacceptable to the
people. But Lord Aberdeen proposed to give effect to the
objections of the parishioners to the presentee only when these
were sufficient, in the judgment of the Presbytery, to warrant his
rejection. On this and some other similar grounds, Lord Aberdeen’s
Bill was condemned by the General Assembly of May, 1841, by a
great majority, and was abandoned at the time by its author. A
painful controversy in consequence ensued between Lord Aberdeen
and Dr. Chalmers. There seem to have been misunderstandings on
both sides respecting the precise nature and extent of the powers
which the Earl intended to confer upon the Church courts; but
there can be little doubt that he had been induced to quit the
ground which he originally took up, by the urgent representations
of some of the leaders of the Moderate party, and especially of
Mr. John Hope, the Dean of Faculty, who, more than any other
person, was instrumental in bringing about the disruption of the
Scottish Church.
After the
catastrophe had taken place, Lord Aberdeen’s despised and rejected
Bill was passed into a law. It had no effect in repairing the
breach that had been made in the Church, and the results, as Lord
Cockburn remarked, were ‘great discontent among the people, great
caprice and tyranny in the Church courts, great grumbling among
patrons, yet no regular or effective check on the exercise of
patronage.’ It had ultimately to be repealed, having been
productive of nothing but mischief and universal dissatisfaction.
Lord Aberdeen was surprised and deeply grieved at the disruption
of the Established Church, having been made to believe that only a
small number of ministers and people would secede, and he
repeatedly expressed his great regret that he had unwittingly
contributed to bring about this catastrophe.
Lord Aberdeen
retired from office in 1846, when the Protectionists, in revenge,
broke up Sir Robert Peel’s Government. On the death of that
distinguished statesman, his lordship became the virtual head of
his party, and during the ministerial crisis of 1851 he was
requested by the Queen to form a Ministry, in conjunction with Sir
James Graham, but was obliged to decline the responsible and
difficult task. When the short-lived administration of Lord Derby
was overthrown in the following year, a coalition was formed
between the Whigs and the Peelites, and Lord Aberdeen was placed
at the head of the Government, which combined almost all the men
of talent and experience in the House of Commons. They carried out
a number of important reforms in home affairs, especially in
financial arrangements. The nation seemed to be entering on a
period of great prosperity and progress when this fair prospect
was suddenly overcast by the war between Russia and Turkey, in
which Great Britain and France were reluctantly involved. Lord
Aberdeen had long before penetrated the designs of Russia upon
Turkey, and had in his despatches denounced in decided terms the
ambition and faithlessness of the Czar Nicholas. He felt strongly,
he said, the dishonourable unfairness of the Russians. They
presumed on his being Premier, and thought he would not go to war.
Lord Aberdeen had, indeed, an undisguised horror of war, which he
justly regarded as one of the greatest evils, and strove to
maintain peace after the voice of the nation had unequivocally
declared for an armed resistance to the unprincipled designs of
Russia. The country thus ‘drifted into war,’ for which no adequate
preparation had been made. When the Crimean disasters took place,
Lord John Russell, who had long been impatient under the
Premiership of Lord Aberdeen, whom he expected to have made way
for his own elevation to the chief place in the Cabinet, suddenly
resigned his office, and the administration was in consequence
broken up, but not until it had carried several important measures
for the reform of the law, the government of India, the opening of
the University of Oxford, the improvement of the condition of the
people, and the extension of the principles of free trade.
On the retirement
of Lord Aberdeen from the office of First Lord of the Treasury, he
was made a Knight of the Garter, and the Queen, as a rare and
signal token of royal favour, commanded him to retain also the
Order of the Thistle, of which his lordship was the senior knight,
having received the green ribbon as far back as the year 1808.
From that period onward Lord Aberdeen did not take any prominent
part in public affairs, though his administrative ability and high
character gave him great weight in the legislature.
Lord Aberdeen
belonged to the solid, not to the showy, class of statesmen. He
had a clear head, a sound judgment, a liberal disposition, vast
experience, and unblemished integrity. Notwithstanding his long
connection with the Tory party, he was thoroughly Liberal in his
policy, both foreign and domestic. He was of a somewhat reserved
temperament and studious habits, and was distinguished for his
refined taste in all matters connected with the fine arts. He was
the author of an ‘Introduction’ to ‘Wilkins’ Translation of
Vitruvius’ Civil Architecture,’ which he published in an extended
form as a distinct work in 1822, under the title of ‘An Inquiry
into the Principles of Beauty in Grecian Architecture.’
There are a number
of interesting references to the Earl scattered through the diary
and the letters of Bishop Wilberforce. Sir James Graham told him
that, when Lord Melbourne went out of office, he said to the
Queen, ‘Madam, you will not like Peel, but you will like Aberdeen.
He is a gentleman.’ Sir James added, ’He has a great tenderness
for the sex; a most entirely good man, very affectionate and
true.’ The Bishop, writing from Buchanness, October 15th, 1856,
says: ‘It is delightful to walk and converse with the good old
Earl. He is full of history, manners, and men. All his judgments
are fair, and candid, and true, in the highest possible degree,
but at the same time there is a slight tinge of humour in his
judgment of men, and a clear discernment of character, which is
delightful.’ In his diary, under the date of February 7th, 1855,
the Bishop says: ‘Lord Aberdeen, natural, simple, good, and honest
as ever.’ The Earl must have had a very conciliatory and
persuasive manner. George IV. was always partial to him, and when
the Earl was sent by his colleagues to that Sybarite he used to
say to him, ‘What —— thing have I got to yield to now, that they
have sent you to break it to me?’
Lord Aberdeen was a
skilful and enterprising agricultural improver. When he came into
possession of his estate at Haddo, there were only the limes and a
few Scottish firs on it. He planted about fourteen millions of
trees, and lived to see whole forests which he had planted rise
into maturity and beauty.
The Earl was
Chancellor of King’s College and University, Aberdeen, President
of the British Institution, a Governor of Harrow and of the
Charterhouse, and Lord-Lieutenant of Aberdeenshire. He died at
Stanmore, on December 74th, 1860, in the seventy-seventh year of
his age. Bishop Wilberforce, who officiated, says, ‘Lord
Aberdeen’s funeral was most striking. The vault was in an old
ivy-grown corner of the old church, now demolished, just
under the old tower. The heavy tread of the bearers crushed the
snow, the great flakes falling heavily through the whole service;
the form, in particular, amongst the pall-bearers, of Sir James
Graham, with his massive figure and large bald head, bare, with
the snow falling on it; Arthur Gordon’s sorrow; Gladstone with his
face speaking; Newcastle; the light from within
the vault: a most impressive sight, engraven on my memory for
ever.’
GEORGE JOHN JAMES,
Lord Haddo, succeeded his
father as fifth Earl of Aberdeen. He was born in 1816, and died in
1864, leaving by his wife, a daughter of Mr. Baillie of Jerviswood,
and sister of the tenth Earl of Haddington, three sons and three
daughters.
GEORGE HAMILTON,
sixth Earl, his eldest son,
born in 1841, from his earliest years displayed a strong liking
for a seafaring life. When a mere child he used to go out with the
herring boats at Boddom, and remain with the fishermen all night.
Shortly after his accession to the earldom he resolved to gratify
this passion for a sailor’s life, and in January, 1866, he sailed
from Liverpool in a large sailing vessel, called the Pomona,
bound to St. John’s, New Brunswick. After a protracted voyage
the vessel reached its destination, and the Earl spent the month
of April with his uncle, Sir Arthur Gordon, who was at that time
Governor of New Brunswick. He then proceeded to Boston, where he
stayed some weeks in a hotel, and dropping his title, assumed the
name of ‘George H. Osborne.’ Under that designation he embarked,
in the month of June, in a vessel bound for Palmas, in the
Canaries. One of the sailors, with whom he appears to have become
somewhat intimate, says, ‘He was not dressed as a sailor, and I
was surprised to find he had shipped as one. His hands were
tender, and they soon got blistered; mine were then in a similar
state, and we joked about it. But he was always active, willing,
and energetic, and took a fair share of all the work. He made
himself most popular with officers and crew. . . . He told me
Osborne was an assumed name, and that his real name was Gordon;
but, he said, I must not mention it on board ship.’
In July, 1866, the
Earl was at Palmas, on the coast of Africa, whence he wrote an
interesting letter to his mother. He was discovered to have
served, in 1867, on board the schooner Arthur Burton, bound
for Vera Cruz, with a cargo of corn. At that time the Mexican War
was going on, and Vera Cruz was being bombarded, and a cannon-ball
struck a house close to which he was standing. He immediately
placed his head in the hole the ball had made, and remained in
that position till the cannonading ceased. ‘I thought it
unlikely,’ he said in a letter to his mother, ‘that another shot
would come just to that same spot; but while I was there seven
people were killed in the same square.’
In February, 1867,
he resided for some time in Boston, assiduously studying
navigation at the Nautical College there, and obtained from the
college authorities a certificate of his possessing the requisite
skill and judgment for the first officer of any ship in the
merchant service. Early in that year he sailed from New York to
Galveston, Texas, with ‘a good Boston captain,’ named John Wilson,
who was a Baptist and a teetotaller. On the 12th of August he
wrote from New York to his mother, mentioning that he had just
arrived from Mexico, and giving a vivid description of the
imminent danger to which his vessel had been exposed, ‘a whole
night and part of a day bumping on a sandbank, in a sea full of
sharks, on an inhospitable and dangerous coast, where sand-flies,
horse-flies, and mosquitos abound, and where at night can be heard
the savage roar of the tigers and wild animals which inhabit the
impervious tropical jungle which lines the coast and comes right
down to the beach.’ He made another narrow escape in the Gulf
Stream on New Year’s Eve, described in a letter to his mother
dated 10th February, 1868. Another letter to Lady Aberdeen, dated
1st December, 1868, gives an account of his deliverance from a
still more imminent danger.
‘Not many weeks
ago,’ he says, ‘I thought my last hour was come. I was in a small
vessel, deep loaded, and very leaky. A furious gale came on right
on shore. The water gained on us—we could not keep her free. As
morning dawned the gale increased, if possible, in violence. To
windward there was nothing but rain and wind, and the ever-rising
white-capped billows. To leeward was the low quicksand, with
roaring billows, on to which we were slowly but surely drifting.
We carried an awful press of sail, but the poor water-logged
steamer lay over on her beam-ends, and made two miles to leeward
for every one ahead. We were toiling at the pumps and throwing
overboard our deck load; but already there was five foot of water
in the hold, and nothing could have saved us but a miracle, or a
change of wind. At 10 A.M. God in his mercy sent a sudden change
of wind all in a moment, right off the shore, with perfect floods
of rain, which beat down the sea, and in half an hour the wind
moderated. After toiling seventeen hours we got a suck on the
pumps, and took heart of grace, and eat a little food. Next day we
made the harbour of New York, where I now am. To-morrow we start
for a coast famed for its tales of piracy, wrecking, and
murder—the coast of Florida. But those times are past, and now it
is only dangerous on account of its numerous shoals and sunken
rocks. Give my love to all dear ones, and believe in the
never-dying love of your affectionate son,
GEORGE.’
There is abundant
evidence that Lord Aberdeen, while keeping up the accomplishments
which he had cultivated at home, had acquired a thorough knowledge
of the profession which for a time he had chosen to follow. ‘He
was a first-rate navigator,’ said one who knew him only as a
sailor, ‘and no calculation ever puzzled him.’ An American
carpenter, named Green, with whom he seems to have been on
intimate terms, says, ‘He drew beautifully. He was an excellent
seaman and navigator. He was very fond of reading and music. He
used to play very often on a piano in my house. He was very good
to children. My wife had a little sister who was often in the
house, and George used to take a great deal of notice of her, and
often buy her little presents: she was four or five years old. I
remember George had a revolver on board the Walton, and I
have often seen him at sea throw a corked bottle overboard and
break it with a shot from his revolver. He was a first-rate shot
both with pistol and rifle. I have seen him snuff a candle with a
pistol-bullet at five or six yards.’
All who came into
familiar intercourse with George Osborne bear testimony to his
sincere but unostentatious piety, as might have been expected from
his training by pious parents. His daily perusal of the Holy
Scriptures is frequently mentioned by his companions, and his
regular attendance at church while on shore. The testimony is not
less strong to his strict moral conduct, and his earnest efforts
to promote the spiritual interests of the sailors with whom he
came in contact. He lived on his wages as a seaman, and even saved
a little money from them. He was of a most obliging disposition,
and always ready to lend a helping hand to relieve distress. In
his boyhood he showed a taste for mechanics, frequently working
with the carpenter on his father’s estate; and his handiness,
along with his energy and activity, made him of great use on board
ship. His affection for his family, and especially for his mother,
was remarkably strong and tender. In a letter to her, dated New
York, 12th August, 1867, he says :—
‘My DEAREST
MAMMA,—I hope you are keeping well. I am now with a very good man.
It is good for me to be here; he is the same I went to Galveston
with, but I must leave him to-day. I hope you will get this
letter, and that it will cheer your heart; it tells you of my
undiminished love, though I have not heard of or from you for more
than a year.’
On the 1st of December, 1868, he
wrote to Lady Aberdeen :—
‘I must come and
see you soon, though it is so long since I have heard, that a sort
of vague dread fills my mind, and I seem to feel rather to go on
in doubt than to learn what would kill me, or drive me to worse—I
mean were I to return and not find you. How many times has this
thought come to me in the dark and cheerless night watches; but I
have to drive it from me as too dreadful to think of. I wonder
where you are now, and what you are doing. I know you are doing
something good, and a blessing to all around you.’
On the 15th of
March, 1867, the Earl wrote from Honiton, Texas, in a similar
strain to his younger brother, James Gordon:-
‘I have never seen
an approach to a double of you or of mamma. I know there cannot be
her double in the world. She has not an equal. . . . My best love
to dear mamma; I think of her only; she is always in my thoughts.’
One of the
incidents which helped to prove the identity of the Earl with
George Osborne was the fondness of the latter for a song which
used to be sung by Lady Aberdeen, and which he stated had been a
favourite song of his mother.
Although Lord
Aberdeen frequently expressed a great liking for America and the
Americans, he had no intention of remaining permanently absent
from Scotland. In several of his letters he intimated that he
meant to return home, but he was induced to prolong his seafaring
life from finding that the change of climate had improved his
health, which had been delicate in his own country. Several months
passed in 1869 without any letter from him, and the anxiety of the
family respecting him became so intense and painful that the Rev.
William Alexander, a Presbyterian clergyman, who had been his
lordship’s tutor, volunteered to go in search of him, in November,
1870. The difficulties he had to encounter in this enterprise were
very great, as even the name which the Earl had assumed was not
known. After long and laborious inquiries, Mr. Alexander at length
succeeded in finding the ‘good Boston captain,’ the Baptist and
teetotaller, with whom the Earl had sailed from New York to
Galveston, Texas, in 1867, and he, on being shown the photograph
of Lord Aberdeen, declared it to be the likeness of a young man
named George Osborne, who had been in his ship on the voyage
mentioned. Furnished with this clue, and assisted by the agent of
the present Earl, Mr. Alexander succeeded in tracing the career of
Osborne to its sad close. He had engaged himself as mate on board
a small vessel called the Hera, which sailed from Boston to
Melbourne on the 21st of January, 1870, with a crew of only eight
persons besides the captain, and on the night of the 27th he was
washed overboard in a state of the weather which rendered it
hopeless to rescue him. The identity of George Osborne with Lord
Aberdeen was clearly established by photographs, by handwriting,
and by a comparison of the various occurrences of Osborne’s career
during the years 1866—1870 with those which Lord Aberdeen’s
letters recorded as having happened to himself. There could
therefore be no doubt of the fate of this excellent young
nobleman, whose untimely death, in the flower of his youth, caused
great sorrow among his relations and the tenantry on his estates.
His brother James,
second son of the fifth Earl, predeceased him in 1868, and he was
succeeded by his youngest brother, JOHN CAMPBELL HAMILTON GORDON,
born in 1847. The Earl is Lord-Lieutenant of Aberdeenshire, was
for several years Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly
of the Established Church of Scotland, and in 1886 was appointed
Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. According to the ‘Doomsday Book,’ the
family estates comprehend 63,422 acres, with a rental of £40,765.
Memoir
of Lord Haddo
In his latter years, Fifth Earl of Aberdeen edited by the Rev.
E. B. Elliott, M.A. (sixth edition) (1866) (pdf) |
