Alexander, 4th Duke of Gordon

EPISTLE DEDICATORY To His Grace the Duke of Richmond and Gordon, K.G.

My Lord Duke,

If the Epistle Dedicatory has fallen into desuetude, the grim business of battle is so far from being in abeyance that we have been compelled to turn the ocean of Peace with which the centenary of the Treaties of Paris and of Ghent was to have been celebrated into the pursuit of the greatest War the world has ever seen. And in the event, this book has been unconsciously transformed from a mere historical excursus into a practical demonstration of what our ancestors did to meet the national crisis of a hundred years and more ago.

That crisis has found Your Grace in the active ranks of recruiters, precisely as the menaces of 1759-1814. found your forefathers. You have spent your energy in summoning the youth of your Northern home to the colours. You have sent all your three sons to the front, losing the youngest of them almost within hail of Quatre Bras, to the field of which Wellington and his officers hurried from your great-grandmother's famous ball in Brussels. The gallant Regiment of Highlanders which your great-great-grandfather, the 4th Duke of Gordon, with the help of his incomparable consort, raised, has fought and bled on the fields of France and Flanders, as its predecessor fought at Quatre Bras and Waterloo; and your domains are sending more men and still more to fill up the gaps in its decimated ranks.

But Your Grace needed no such impetus as actual War to help you to carry on the traditions inherited from the Gay Gordons as well as from the line of Lennox. You yourself became an officer in the Guards just fifty years ago: yon saw service in South Africa in command of the 3rd Royal Sussex: for years, as President of the Territorial Associations of Banff and of Elgin, you have been closely identified with our measures for defence: and by rearranging and inventorying the unique collection of weapons, battle trophies, and colours at Gordon Castle which have been handed down to you from your ancestors, you have put students of military history under a debt of gratitude to you.

As for myself, I shall not readily forget the sympathetic courtesy which prompted Your Grace to allow me to examine in my limited leisure the great array of documents from your archives bearing on the history of the four regiments which your ancestor, the ph Duke of Gordon, raised between the years 1759 and 1794. That invaluable material, which was not at the disposal of any other historian of those regiments, is the foundatio7i of the present volume; and it has proved the main inspiration to carry my investigations, chiefly at the Public Record Office, to all the military forces raised in the counties of Aberdeen and Banff.

And so, by reason of the military achievements of your House— Gordon and Lennox alike—and in virtue of your own and your sons’ work in the War of 1914, this account of what the North did in the War which ended in 1814, falls most naturally to be inscribed to Your Grace by your obedient servant,

JOHN MALCOLM BULLOCH.
123 Pall Mall, S. W.,
December the First,
MDCCCCXIV.

CLASSIFIED CONTENTS OF THIS BOOK

General Survey of the Subject (1759-1814)
The introduction shows generally why we needed troops, and how they were raised in the North East of Scotland.

Note: The balance of this book is available here as a pdf file

Regular Regiments of the Line (1759-94)

42nd—Black Watch : Huntly’s Company (1790-1)
Contains a Muster Roll of 101 Names

71st—Fraser’s Highlanders (1775-83)
Contains a Muster Roll of the 80 Men in the Company of Captain Maxwell raised by his brother- in-law the 4th Duke of Gordon

75th, now ist Gordon Highlanders
Deals with Bibliography and Iconographia only.

77th—Atholl Highlanders (1777-83)
This chapter deals with the mutiny in the regiment when it was commanded by Col. William Gordon of Farskane.

87th—Keith’s Highlanders (1759-63)

89th—Raised by 4TH Duke of Gordon (1759-65)
Commanded by Staats Long Morris. Fought in India.

92nd—Gordon Highlanders (Raised 1794)
Roll of 940 First Recruits
Quatre Bras and Waterloo Casualties
Height of Recruits in 1794
Allied Regiment—48th (Toronto) Highlanders
Bibliography
Iconographia

97th—Inverness-shire Foot (1794-5)
Raised by Sir James Grant of Grant; soon drafted.

100th—First Number of 92ND (q.v.).

101st—Johnstone’s Highlanders (1760-3)
Deals with the Company raised by Peter Gordon of Knockespock.

109th—Aberdeenshire Regiment of Foot (1794-5)
Raised by Alexander Leith-Hay; contains a folding table of the naval and military achievements of the Leiths (facing page 254).

Fencible Regiments of Infantry (1778-1803)

Aberdeenshire: Princess of Wales’s (1794-1803)
Raised by James Leith, brother of Alexander Leith-Hay ; spent its career in Ireland.

Banffshire: Duke of York’s Own (1798-1802)
Raised by Andrew Hay of Montblairy; spent much of its time at Gibraltar.

Northern Fencibles (1778-83)
Raised by the 4th Duke of Gordon; contains a muster roll of 295 men.

Northern Fencibles (1793-9)
Raised by the 4th Duke of Gordon; contains a muster roll of 240 men

Strathspey Fencibles (1793-9)
Raised by Sir James Grant of Grant. A supplementary account of the mutiny is given.

Militia: Infantry (from 1798)

Aberdeenshire (raised 1798)
Now 3rd Battalion Gordon Highlanders.

Banffshire (raised 1798)

Volunteers (1794-1808)

(1) Aberdeenshire:—

Aberdeen Battery (1794-1802)
Aberdeen Light Infantry (1799-1802)
Loyal Aberdeen (Finlason’s Fencibles) (1803-8)
Royal Aberdeen (1794-1802)
Royal Aberdeen (1803-6)
Aberdeen Pikemen (1804-8)
Gilcomston Pikemen (1803-8)
Old Aberdeen (1798-1802)
Aberdeenshire Battalion (1804-8)
Aberdour (1803-8)
Belhelvie (1803-8)
Crimond and Lonmay (1803-8)
Cruden (1803-8)
Drumblade (1803-8)
Dyce, Newmachar, Fintray (1803-8)
Ellon (1803-8)
Foveran (1803-8)
Fraserburgh (1797-1802)
Fraserburgh (1803-8)
Garioch (1798-1802)
Gartly (1798-1802)
Huntly (1798-1802)
Huntly (1803-8)
Kintore and Inverurie (1803)
Leslie (1798-1802?)
Logie Buchan and Slains (1803-8)
Logie Durno (1803)
Meldrum (1803-8)
Methlick (1803-8)
Monquhitter (1803-8)
Monymusk and Kemnay (1803)
Old Meldrum (1799-1802)
Peterhead (1795-1802)
Peterhead (1803-8)
RATHEN (1803-8)
Rosehearty (1799-1802)
Rosehearty (1803-8)
St. Fergus and Longside (1803-8)
Strathbogie (see Huntly)
Strathdon (1798-1802)
Tarves (1803-8)
Tyrie and Strichen (1803-8)
Udny (1803-8)

(2) Banffshire

Aberlour and Boharm (1798-1802)
Alvah (1797-1802)
Balveny (1798-1802)
Banff—Town (1794-1802)
Banff—Town (1803-8)
Boyndie (1803-8)
Boyne (1797-1802)
Cullen (1797-1802)
Cullen (1803-8)
Enzie (1797-1802)
Forglen (1797-1802)
Grange (1797-1802)
Grange (1803-8)
Keith (1798-1802)
Macduff (1798-1802)
Marnoch (1803-8)
Newmill (1798-1802)
Portsoy (1798-1802)
Portsoy (1803-8)
Rothiemay (1797-1802?)
Rothiemay (1803-8)

Local Militia (1808-16)

Bibliography (to 1914)

75th Regiment (now ist Gordon Highlanders)
92nd Regiment (now 2nd Gordon Highlanders)
Volunteers

Iconographia (to 1914)

Index (by Miss Jean E. Kennedy)