The origin of the
distinguished surname of Gordon is not clearly ascertained : "some,"
says Douglass, "derive the Gordons from a city of Macedonia, named
Gordonia; others from a manor in Normandy called Gordon, possessed by a
family of that name. The territory of Gordon in Berwickshire was,
according to another account, conferred by David the First upon an
Anglo-Norman settler, who assumed from it the name of Gordon.
William Gordon, sixth
Earl of Kenmure, was descended from a younger son of the ducal house of
Gordon; in 1633 Sir John Gordon of Lochinvar was created Viscount
Kenmure and Lord of Lochinvar; and the estates continued in an unbroken
line until they descended to William, the sixth Viscount, who was the
only Scottish peer in 1715 who suffered capital punishment.
This unfortunate nobleman
succeeded his father in 1698; and possessed, up to the period of his
taking the command of the army in the south, the estates belonging to
his family in the Stuartry of Kirkcudbright. Kenmure Castle, still
happily enjoyed by the family of Gordon, stands upon an eminence
overlooking the meadows, at that point where the river Ken expands into
a lake. The Castle was originally a single tower, to which various
additions have been made according to the taste of different owners. The
Castle Keep is now ruinous and unroofed, hat the body of the house is in
good repair. A fine prospect over the scenery of the Glenhens is
commanded by the eminence on which the castle stands. An ancient avenue
of lime-trees constitutes the approach to the fortress from the road.
In this abode dwelt the
Viscount Kenmure until the summons of Lord Mar called him from the
serene tenour of a course honoured by others, and peaceful from the
tranquillity of the unhappy nobleman's own disposition; for his was not
the restless ambition of Mai-, nor the blind devotion of the Duke of
Perth; nor the passion for fame and ascendancy which stimulated Lord
George Murray in his exertions. Lord Kenmure was, it is true, well
acquainted with public business, and an adept in the affairs of the
political world, in which he had obtained that insight which long
experience gives. His acquaintance with books and men was said to be
considerable; he is allowed, even by one who had deserted the party
which Lord Kenmure espoused, to be of a "very extraordinary knowledge."
Put his calm, reflective mind, his experience, his resources of
learning, rather mdisposed than inclined this nobleman from rising when
called upon to lend his aid to the perilous enterprise of James Stuart.
Beloved in private life, of a singularly good temper, calm, mild, of
simple habits, and plain in his attire, he was as it was generally
observed, the last man whom one might have expected to rush into the
schemes of the Jacobite party.
That one so skilled in
human affairs should venture, even in a subordinate degree, to espouse
so desperate a cause as that of James was generally reputed to be,
Slight seem to prove that even the wise were sanguine, or that they were
carried away by the enthusiasm of the hour. Neither of these
circumstances appear to bear any considerable weight in revolving the
conduct of Lord Kenmure.
A stronger influence,
perhaps, than that of loyalty operated on the conduct of Viscount
Kenmure. He was married: his wife, the spirited and energetic Mary
Dalzell, was the only sister of Robert, sixth Earl of Carnwath. Her
family were deeply imbued with the principles of hereditary right and of
passive obedience ; and Lady Kenmure cherished these sentiments, and
bestowed the energies of her active mind on the promotion of that cause
which she held sacred. The house of Dalzell had been sufferers in the
service of the Stuarts. By her mother's side, Lady Kenmure was connected
with Sir William Murray of Stanhope, and with his singular, and yet
accomplished son, Sir Alexander Murray of Stanhope, who was taken
prisoner at Preston, fighting for the Jacobites. The Earl of Carnwath,
Lady Kenmure's brother, was one of those men whose virtues and
acquirements successfully recommend a cause to all who are under the
influence of such a character. Having been educated at Cambridge, he had
imbibed an early affection for the liturgy of the Church of England; his
gentle manners, his talents, and his natural eloquence, established him
in the affections of his friends and acquaintance. This nobleman was,
like his sister, ready to sacrifice everything for conscience sake :
like her, he was a sufferer for that which he esteemed to be justice. He
was afterwards taken prisoner at Preston, impeached before the House of
Peers in 1716, and sentenced to bo executed as a traitor, and his estate
forfeited; but eventually he was respited and pardoned. He survived to
be four times married.
Another of Lady Kenmure's
brothers, John Dalzell, was, it is true, a captain in the army upon the
breaking out of the Rebellion in 1715; but, at the summons of him whom
he esteemed his lawful Sovereign, he threw up his commission, and
engaged n the service of James.
When Lord Kenmure
received a commission from the Earl of Mar to head the friends of the
Chevalier in the South, he had tics which perhaps were among some of the
considerations which led him to hesitate and to accept the proffered
honour unwillingly. On his trial he referred to his wife and "four small
children," as a plea for mercy. But Lady Kenmure, sanguine and resolute,
did not view these little dependent beings as obstacles to a
participation in the insurrection If she might be considered to
transgress her duty as a mother, in thus risking the fortunes of her
children she afterwards compensated by her energy and self-denial for
her early error of judgment.
It had been arranged that
the insurrection in Dumfriesshire was to break out in conjunction with
that headed in Northumberland by Mr. Forster. To effect this end,
numbers of disaffected, or, as the Jacobite writers call them,
well-affected noblemen and gentlemen assembled in parties at the houses
of their friends, moving about from place to place, in order to prepare
for the event.
It was on the twelfth of
October, 1715, that Viscount Kenmure set out in the intention of joining
the Earl of Wintoun. who was on his road to Moffat, and who was
accompanied by a party of Lothian gentlemen and their servants. It is
said by the descendants of Viscount Kenmure. on hearsay, that his
Lordship's horse three times refused to go forward on that eventful
morning; nor could he be impelled to do so, until Lady Kenmure taking
off her apron, and throwing it over the horse's eyes, the animal was led
forward. The Earl of Carnwath had joined with Lord Kenmure, and rode
forwards with him to the rencontre with Lord Wintoun. Lord Kenmure took
with him three hundred men to the field.*
At the siege of Preston,
in which those who fell dead upon the field were less to be
compassionated than the survivors, Lord Kenmure was taken prisoner. His
brother-in-law, the Earl of Carnwath, shared the same fate. They were
sent with the prin-cipal state prisoners to London. The same
circumstances, the same indignities, attended the removal of Lord
Kenmure to his last earthly abode, as those which have been already
related as disgracing the humanity of Englishmen, when the Earl of
Derwentwater was carried to the Tower.
The subsequent sufferings
of these brave men were aggravated by the abuses which then existed in
the state prisons of England. The condition of these receptacles of woe,
at that period, beggars all description. Corruption and extortion gave
every advantage to those who could command money enough to purchase
luxuries at an enormous cost. Oppression and an utter carelessness of
the well-being of the captive, pressed hardly upon those who were poor.
No annals can convey a more heartrending description of the sufferings
of the prisoners confined in county gaols, than their own touching and
heartfelt appeals, some of which are to be found in the State Paper
Office.
In the Tower, especially,
it appears from a diary kept by a gentleman who was confined there, that
the greatest extortion was openly practised. Mr. Forster and a Mr.
Anderton, who were allowed to live in the Governor's house, were charged
the sum of five pounds a-week for their lodging and diet,—a demand
which, more than a century ago, was deemed enormous. Several of the
Highland chiefs, and among them the celebrated Brigadier Mackintosh,
were "clapped up in places of less accommodation, for which,
nevertheless, they were charged as much as would have almost paid the
rent of the best houses in St. James's Square and Piccadilly." Mr.
Forster, it must be added, was obliged to pay sixty guineas for his
privilege of living in the governor's house and Mr. Anderton to give a
bribe of twenty-five guineas for having his irons off. A similar tax was
made upon every one who entered, and who could pay, and they were
thankful to proffer the sum of twenty guineas, the usual demand, to be
free from irons. It was, indeed, not the mere freedom from chains for
which they paid, but for the power of effecting their escape. Upon every
one who uid not choose to be turned over to the common side, a demand
was made of ten guineas fee, besides two guineas weekly for lodging,
although in some rooms men lay four in a bed. Presents were also given
privately, so that in three or four months' time, three or four thousand
pounds were paid by the prisoners to their jailers.
Many of the prisoners
being men of fortune, their tables were of the most luxurious
description; forty shillings was often paid for a dish of peas and
beans, and thirty shillings for a dish of fish ; and this fare, so
unlike that of imprisonment, was accompanied by the richest French
wines. The vicious excesses and indecorums which went on in the Tower,
among the state prisoners, are said to have scandalized the graver
lookers on. The subsequent distress and misery which ensued may, of
course, be traced, in part, to this cause.
Lord Derwentwater, ever
decorous and elevated in his deportment, was shocked at the wayward and
reckless conduct of some of the Jacobites on their road to London, told
one of the King's officers at Barnet, that these prisoners "were only
lit for Bedlam." To this it was remarked, that they were only fit for
Bridewell. Whilst hopes of life continued, this rebuke still applied.
The prisoners were aided in their excesses by the enthusiasm of the fair
sex. The following extract from another obscure work, " The History of
the Tress-yard," is too curious to be omitted. " That while thej [the
prisoners] flattered themselves with hopes of life, which they were made
to believe were the necessary consequences of a surrender at discretion,
they (lid, without any retrospect to the crimes they were committed for,
live in so profuse a manner, and fared so voluptuously, through the
means of daily visitants and helps from abroad, that money circulated
very plentifully; and while it was difficult to change a guinea almost
at any house in the street, nothing was more easy than to have silver
for gold to any quantity, and gold for silver, in the prison,— those of
the fair sex, from persons of the first rank to tradesmen's wives and
daughters, making a sacrifice of their husbands' and parents' rings, and
other precious moveables, for the use of those prisoners ; so that, till
the trial of the condemned lords was over, and that the Earl of
Derwentwater and Viscount
Kenmure were beheaded,
there was scarce anything to be seen amongst them but flaunting apparel,
venison pasties, hams, chickens, and other costly meats, with plenty of
wine.
Meantime the trial of the
attainted lords took place, and checked, like the sudden appearance of a
ghostly apparition, this horrible merriment, — with which, however, few
names which one desires to cherish and to respect are connected. The
same forms that attended the impeachment and trial of his companions,
were carried on at the trial of Lord Kenmure. The unhappy nobleman
replied in few and touching words, and, in a voice which could not be
heard, pleaded guilty; an inconsistency, to express it in the mildest
terms, of which he afterwards sincerely repented.
At the end of the trial,
to the question "What have you to say for yourself why judgment should
not be passed upon you according to law? "My lords," replied Lord
Kenmure, "I am truly sensible of my crime, and want words to express my
repentance. God knows I never had any personal prejudice against his
Majesty, nor was I ever accessory to any previous design against him. I
humbly beg my noble Peers and the honourable House of Commons to
intercede with the King for mercy to me, that I may 'ive to show myself
the dutifullest of his subjects, and to be the means to keep my wife and
four small children from starving ; the thoughts of which, with my
crime, makes me the most unfortunate of all gentlemen."
After the trial, great
intercessions were made fur mercy, but without any avail, as far as Lord
Derwentwater and Lord Kenmure were concerned. They were ordered for
execution on the 24th of February, 1 71(5.
The intelligence of the
condemnation of these two lords, produced the greatest dismay among
their fellow sufferers in the Tower; and the notion of escape, a project
which was singularly successful in some instances, was resorted to, n
the despair and anguish of the moment, by those who dreaded a cruel and
ignominious death.
Lord Kenmure, meantime,
prepared for death. A very short interval was, indeed, allowed for those
momentous considerations which his situation induced, lie was sentenced
on the ninth of February, and in a fortnight afterwards was to suffer.
Yet the execution of that sentence was, it seems, scarcely expected by
the sufferer, even when the fatal day arrived.
The night before his
execution, Lord Kenmure wrote a long and affecting letter to a nobleman
who had visited him in prison a few days previously. There is something
deeply mournful in the fate of one who had slowly and unwillingly taken
up the command which had ensured to him the severest penalties of the
law. There is an inexpressibly painful sentiment of compassion and
regret, excited by the yearning to live— the allusion to a reprieve—the
allusion to the case of Lord Carnwath as affording more of hope than his
own—lastly, to what he cautiously calls "an act of indiscretion," the
plea of guilty, which was wrung from this conscientious, hut sorrowing
man, by a fond value for life and for the living, So little did Lord
Kenmure anticipate his doom, that, when he was summoned to the scaffold
the following day, he had not even prepared a black suit,—-a
circumstance which he much regretted, since he "might be said to have
died with more decency."
The following is the
letter which he wrote, and which he addressed to a certain nobleman.
"My very good Lord,
"Your Lordship has
interested yourself so far m mine, and the lords, my fellow prisoners'
behalf, that I should be the greatest criminal now breathing, should I,
whether the result of your generous intercession be life or death, be
neglectful of paying my acknowledgments for that act of compassion.
"We have already
discoursed of the motives that induced me to take arms against the
Prince now in possession of the throne, when you did me the honour of a
visit three days since in my prison here ; I shall therefore wave that
point, and lament my unhappiness for joining in the rest of the lords in
pleading guilty, in the hopes of that mercy, which the Generals Wills
and Carpenter will do us the justice to say was promised us by both of
them. Mr. Piggot and Mr. Eyres, the two lawyers employed by us, advised
us to this plea, the avoiding of which might have given us further time,
for looking after the concerns of another life, though it had ended in
the same sentence of losing vol. ii. u this which we now lie under.
Thanks be to the Divine Majesty, to whose infinite mercy as King of
Kings, I recommend myself in hopes of forgiveness, tho' it shall be my
fate to foil of it here on earth. Had the House of Commons thought fit
to have received our petition with the same candour as yours has done,
and recommended us to the Prince, we might have entertained some hopes
of life; but the answer from St. James's is such as to make us have
little or no thoughts of it.
"Under these dismal
apprehensions, then, of approaching dissolution, which, I thank my God
for his holy guidance, I have made due preparation for, give me leave to
tell you, that howsoever I have been censured on account of the family
of the Gordons, which 1 am an unhappy branch of, that I have ever lived
and will die in the profession of the Protestant religion, and that I
abhor all king-kiliing doctrines that are taught by the church of Rome
as dangerous and absurd. And though 1 have joined with some that have
taken arms, of that persuasion, no other motive but that of exercising
to the person called the Pretender, whom 1 firmly believe to be the son
of the late King James the Second, and in defence of whose title I am
now going to be a sacrifice, has induced me to ;t. Your Lordship will
remember tho papers I have left with you, and deliver them to my son.
They may be of use to his future conduct in1 life, when these eyes of
mine are closed m death, which 1 could have wished might have stolen
upon me in the ordinary course of nature, and not by the hand of the
executioner But as inv blessed Saviour and Redeemer suffered an
ignominious and cruel death, and the Son of God, made flesh, did not
disdain to have his feet nailed to the Cross for the sins of the world ;
so may I, poor miserable sinner, as far as human nature will allow,
patiently bear with the hands of violence, that I expect suddenly to be
stretched out against me.
"Your Lordship will also,
provided there is no hopes of a reprieve this night, make me acquainted
with it as soon as possible, that I may meet that fate with readiness
which, in a state of uncertainty, J expect with uneasiness. I must also
be pressing with your Lordship that if, in case of death, any paper
under my name should come out as pretended to have been written by me,
in the manner or form of a speech, you will not believe it to be
genuine; for I, that am heartily sorry for disowning my principles in
one spoken before your Lordship and the rest of my peers, will never add
to that act of indiscretion by saying anything on the scaffold but my
prayers for the forgiveness of my poor self and those that have brought
me to be a spectacle to men and angels, especially since T must speak in
my last moments according to the dictates of my conscience, and not
prevaricate as I did before the Lords, for which I take shame to myself.
And such a method of proceeding might do injury to my brother Carnwath,
who, 1 am told, is in a much fairer way than I am of not being excluded
from grace. I have nothing farther than to implore your Lordships to
charge your memory with the recommendations I gave you to my wife and
children, beseeching God that he will so sanctify their afflictions,
that after the pains and terrors of this mortal life they may with me be
translated to the regions of everlasting joy and happiness, to which
blessed state of immortality your Lordship shall also, while I am
living, be recommended in the prayers of, my very good Lord, your most
affectionate kinsman, Kenmure."
"From my prison, in the
Tower of Loudon, Feb. 23, 1715."
The following paper, the
original of which is still m the hands of his descendants, was written
by Lord Kenmure the night before his execution :—
"It having pleased the
Almighty God to call me now to suffer a violent death, I adore the
Divine Majesty, and cheerfully resign my soul and body to Ilis hands,
whose mercy is over all His works. It is my very great comfort that He
has enabled me to hope, through the merits and by the blood of Jesus
Christ, He will so purifie me how that I perish not eternally. I die a
Protestant of the Church of England, and do from my heart forgive all my
enemies. I thank God I cannot accuse myselfe of the sin of rebellion,
however some people may by a mistaken notion think me guilty of it for
all I did upon a laite occasione; and my only desire ever was to
contribute my small endeavour towards the re-establishing my rightfull
Sovereigne and the constitutione of my countrie to ther divine rights
and loyall setlinent; and by pleading guilty I meant nu more then ane
acknowledgment of my having heen >n armes, and (not being bred to the
law) had no notion of my therby giving my assent to any other thing
contained in that charge. I take God to wittnes, before whom I am very
soon to apear, that I never had any desire to favour or to introduce
ropery, and I have been all along fully satisfied that the King has
given all the inorall security for the Church of England that is
possible for lnm in his circumstances. I owne I submitted my-selfe to
the Duck of Brunswick, justly expect ing that humantity would have
induced him to give me my life, which if he had done I was resolved for
the future to have lived peaceably, and to have; still reteaned a
great-full remembrance of so greatt a favour, and I am satisfied the
King would never have desired me to have been in action for hhn after;
but the caice is otherways. I pray God forgive those who thirst after
blood. Had we been all putt to the sword immediatly upon our surrender,
that might have born the construction of being don in the heatt and fury
of passion ; but now I am to die in cold blood, I pray God it be not
imputed to them. May Almighty God restore injured right, and peace, and
truth, and may He in mercy receave my soull Kei'mure."
It was decreed that the
Earl of Derwentwater and the Viscount Kenmure should suffer on the same
day On the morning of the twenty-fourth of February. at ten o'clock,
these noblemen were conducted to the Transport Office on Tower Hill,
where they had separate rooms for their private devotions, and where
such friends as desired to be admitted to them could take a last
farewell. It had been settled that the Earl of Nithisdale should also
suffer at the same time, but during the previous night he had escaped
Whether the condemned lords, who were so soon to exchange life for
immortality, were made aware of that event or not, has not transpired.
"What must have been their emotions, supposing that they were conscious
that one who had shared their prison, was likely to be restored to his
liberty and to his family!
Lord Kenmure conducted
himself with a manly composure and courage during this last trial of his
submission and fortitude. His reserve, however, on the scaffold was
remarkable. It proceeded from a fear, incidental to a conscientious
mind, of saying anything inconsistent with his loyalty and principles ;
and from an apprehension, natural in the dying bus-band and father, of
injuring the welfare of those whom he was to leave at the mercy of
Government.
Lord Derwentwater
suffered first: his last ejaculation, "Sweet Jesus be merciful unto me!"
was cut short by the executioner severing his head from his body. Then,
after the body and the head had been carried away, the scaffold was
decently cleared, and fresh baize laid upon the block, and saw-dust
strewed, that none of the blood might appear to shock the unhappy man
who was to succeed the young and gallant Derwentwater in that tragic
scene.
Lord Kenmure then
advanced. He was formally delivered from the hands of one sheriff to
those of the other, who had continued on the stage on which the scaffold
was erected all the time, and who then addressed the condemned man. The
first question related to the presence of clergy, and of other friends;
and Lord Kenmure stated, in reply, that he had the assistance of two
clergymen, and desired the presence of some friends who were below.
These persons were then called up, and Lord Kenmure retired with his
friends and the two clergymen to the south side of the stage, where they
joined in penitential prayers, some of them written for the occasion,
and others out of a printed book, not improbably the Book of Common
Prayer, since Lord Kenmure was a Protestant and an Episcopalian. Lord
Kenmure employed himself for some time in private supplications ; and
afterwards a clergyman, in a prayer, recommended the dying man to the
mercy of God. A requiem completed the devotions of the unfortunate
Kenmure.
Sir John Fryer, one of
the sheriffs, then inquired if his Lordship had had sufficient time ;
and expressed his willingness to wait as long as Lord Kenmure washed. He
also requested to know if Lord Ken-inure had anything to say in private
; to these questions a negative was returned.
The executioner now came
forward. Lord Kenmure was accompanied by an undertaker, to whom the care
of his body was to be entrusted ; he was also attended by a surgeon, who
directed the executioner how to perform his office, by drawing his
finger over that i>art of the neck where the blow was to be given. Lord
Kenmure then kissed the officers and gentlemen on the scaffold, some of
them twice and thrice; and being again asked if he had anything to say,
answered, "No." He had specified the Chevalier St. George in his
prayers, and he now repeated Irs repentance for having pleaded guilty at
his trial. He turned to the executioner, who, according to the usual
form, asked forgiveness. "My Lord," said the man, "what I do, is to
serve the nation; do you forgive me?" "I do," replied Lord Kenmure; and
he placed the sum of eight guineas in the hands of the headsman. The
final preparations were instantly made. Lord Kenmure pulled off,
unassisted, his coat and waistcoat: one of Ins friends put a white linen
cap on his head; and the executioner turned down the collar of his
shirt, in order to avoid all obstacles to the fatal stroke. Then the
executioner said, "My Lord, will you be pleased to try the block?' Lord
Kenmure, in reply, laid down his head on the block, and spread forth his
hands. The headsman instantly performed his office. The usual words,
"This is the head of a traitor!" were heard as the executioner displayed
the streaming and ghastly sight to the multitude.
The body of Lord Kenmure,
after being first deposited at an undertaker's in Fleet Street, was
carried to Scotland, and there buried among his ancestors.
A letter was found in his
pocket addressed to the Chevalier, recommending to him the care of his
children; hut it was suppressed.
Thus died one of those
men, whose honour, had his life been spared, might have been trusted
never again to enter into any scheme injurious to the reigning
Government; and whose death inspires, perhaps, more unmitigated regret
than that of any of the Jacobite lords. Lord Kenmure's authority was
sullied by no act of cruelty; and his last hours were those of a pious,
resigned, courageous Christian. He was thrust into a situation as
commander in the South, peculiarly unfitted for his mild, reserved, and
modest disposition : and he was thus carried away from that private
sphere which he was calculated to adorn.
After her husband's
death, the energies of Lady Kenmure were directed to secure the estates
of Kenmure to her eldest son. She instantly posted down to Scotland, and
reached Kenmure Castle in time to secure the most valuable papers. When
the estates were put up for sale, she contrived, with the assistance of
her friends, to raise money enough to purchase them ; and lived so
carefully as to be able to deliver them over to her son, clear of all
debt, when he came of age. Four children were left dependent upon her
exertions and maternal protection. Of these Robert, the oldest, died :n
1741, unmarried, in his twenty-eighth year.
James also died
unmarried. Harriet, the only daughter, was married to her mother's
cousin-german. Captain James Dalzell, uncle of Robert Earl of Carnwath.
John Gordon, the second and only surviving son of Lord Kenmure, married,
in 1744, the Lady Frances Mackenzie, daughter of the Earl of Seaforth ;
and from this marriage is descended the present Viscount Kenmure, to
whom the estate was restored in 1824.
Lady Kenmure survived her
husband sixty-one years. In 1747, she appears to have resided in Paris,
where, after the commotions of 1745, she probably took refuge. Here,
aged as she must have been, the spirit of justice, and the love of
consistency were shewn in an anecdote related of her by Drummond of
Pochaldy, who was mingled up in the cabals of the melancholy Court of
St. Germains. It had become the fashion among Prince Charles's
sycophants and favourites, to declare that it was not for the interest
of the party that there should be any restoration while King James
lived; this idea was diligently circulated by Kelly, a man described by
Drummond as full of trick, falsehood, deceit, and imposition; and joined
to these, having qualities that make up a thorough sycophant.
It was Kelly's fashion to
toast the Prince in all companies first, and declare that the King could
not last long. At one of the entertainments, which he daily frequented,
at the house of Lady Redmond, the dinner, which usually took place at
noon, being later than usual, Lady Kenmure, in making an afternoon's
visit, came in before dinner was over, She was soon surprised and
shocked to hear the company drinking the Prince's health without
mentioning the King's. "Lady Kenmure" adds Drummond, "could not bear it,
and said it was new to her to see people forget the duty due to the
King." Kelly immediately answered, "Madam, you are old fashioned; these
fashions are out of date." She said that she really was old fashioned,
and hoped God would preserve her always sense and duty enough to
continue so ; on which she took a glass and said "God preserve our King,
and grant him long life, and a happy reign over us!
Lady Kenmure died on the
16th of August, 1776, at Terregles, in Dumfriesshire, the seat of the
Nithisdale family. |