George Gordon, 5th Duke of Gordon
Encyclopedia
George Gordon, 5th Duke of Gordon GCB
, PC
(2 February 1770 – 28 May 1836), styled Marquess of Huntly until 1827, was a Scottish
nobleman, soldier and politician and the last of his illustrious line.
on 2 February 1770 the eldest son of Alexander Gordon, 4th Duke of Gordon
and his wife, the celebrated Jane Maxwell. He was educated at Eton. He became a professional soldier and rose to the rank of General. As Marquess of Huntly
, he served with the Guards in Flanders
from 1793–4. He raised the 92nd Highlanders and commanded the regiment in Spain
, Corsica
, Ireland
and the Netherlands
from 1795 to 1799, where he was badly wounded. He commanded a division in the Walcheren Expedition of 1809.
He was a freemason and was Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Scotland
from 1792 to 1794. He was Member of Parliament
for Eye
from 1806
to 1807
. On 11 April 1807, at the age of 37, he was summoned to the House of Lords in one of the minor peerages of his father (Baron Gordon of Huntley, co. Gloucester). He was appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1830 and was Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland from 1828 to 1830, a post that his father had held until 1827.
. Elizabeth Grant described her thus: "His bride was young, and good, and rich, but neither clever nor handsome. She made him very happy and paid his most pressing debts, that is her father did, old Mr Brodie of the Burn, brother to Brodie of Brodie...He made a really large fortune; he gave with his daughter, his only child, £100,000 down, and left her more than another at his death. Really to her husband her large fortune was the least part of her value; she possessed upright principles, good sense, and she turned out a first-rate woman of business. In her later years she got into the cant of the Methodists."
However, at the time of his marriage and, in fact until he inherited the Dukedom, George found himself in almost constant financial difficulties. It was said that "Lord Huntly now in the decline of his rackety life, overwhelmed with debts, sated with pleasure, tired of fashion, the last heir male of the Gordon line" At least his marriage remedied some of these problems. It did not, however, supply the much sought-after heir.
Like his father, George acquired many of the positions which the Gordon family could expect almost as of right. These included Lord Lieutenant of Aberdeenshire
, Chancellor of Marischal College, Aberdeen and Lord High Constable
of Scotland. He held the latter post of Lord High Constable for the Coronation of King George the Fourth
in 1820.
By the time of his succession as Duke, he had established a reputation as an extreme reactionary. He steadfastly opposed the Great Reform Bill and when the majority of Tory Peers opted to abstain, he remained one of the twenty-two "Stalwarts" who voted against the Third Reading of the Bill in the House of Lords
on 4 June 1832.
Throughout much of this period Elizabeth served Queen Adelaide
, the wife of William the Fourth
, at Court. Indeed, Elizabeth was given the Queen's Coronation robe which is now to be found with many other Gordon memorabilia at Brodie Castle
.
Nathaniel Parker Willis, the American journalist, has left us with an interesting account of life at Gordon Castle in the twilight years of the 5th Duke's life. He described the "canonically fat porter" at the lodges who admitted him to a "rich private world peopled by ladies cantering sidesaddle on palfreys, ladies driving nowhere in particular in phaetons, gentlemen with guns, keepers with hounds and terrier at heel, and everywhere a profusion of fallow deer, hares and pheasants. At the castle a dozen lounging and powered menials." Willis continued: "I never realised so forcibily the splendid results of wealth and primogeniture." Just before dinner the Duke called at his room, "an affable white-haired gentleman of noble physiognomy, but singularly cordial address, wearing a broad red ribbon across his breast, and led him through files of servants to a dining room ablaze with gold plate."
.
Elizabeth Brodie, the last Duchess of Gordon, retired to Huntly Castle Lodge where she became even more fervently religious than she had been previously and conducted the rest of her life with good grace and Christian dignity until her own death on 31 January 1864, when the last trace of the original Dukedom of Gordon was also extinguished.
The Duke and Duchess of Gordon established Gordon Chapel (Scottish Episcopal Church
) in Fochabers
and it contains a memorial tablet to the 5th and last Duke.
Order of the Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
, PC
Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign in the United Kingdom...
(2 February 1770 – 28 May 1836), styled Marquess of Huntly until 1827, was a Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
nobleman, soldier and politician and the last of his illustrious line.
Early life
George was born at EdinburghEdinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
on 2 February 1770 the eldest son of Alexander Gordon, 4th Duke of Gordon
Alexander Gordon, 4th Duke of Gordon
Alexander Gordon, 4th Duke of Gordon KT , styled Marquess of Huntly until 1752, was a Scottish nobleman, described by Kaimes as the "greatest subject in Britain", and was also known as the Cock o' the North, the traditional epithet attached to the chief of the Gordon clan.-Early life:Alexander...
and his wife, the celebrated Jane Maxwell. He was educated at Eton. He became a professional soldier and rose to the rank of General. As Marquess of Huntly
Marquess of Huntly
Marquess of Huntly is a title in the Peerage of Scotland created on 17 April 1599 for George Gordon, 6th Earl of Huntly. It is the oldest existing marquessate in Scotland, and the second-oldest in the British Isles, only the English marquessate of Winchester being older...
, he served with the Guards in Flanders
Flanders
Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...
from 1793–4. He raised the 92nd Highlanders and commanded the regiment in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, Corsica
Corsica
Corsica is an island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is located west of Italy, southeast of the French mainland, and north of the island of Sardinia....
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
and the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
from 1795 to 1799, where he was badly wounded. He commanded a division in the Walcheren Expedition of 1809.
He was a freemason and was Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Scotland
Grand Lodge of Scotland
The Grand Lodge of Antient, Free and Accepted Masons of Scotland was founded in 1736 – although only a third of all lodges were represented at the foundation meeting of the Grand Lodge....
from 1792 to 1794. He was Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for Eye
Eye (UK Parliament constituency)
Eye was a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected two Members of Parliament by the bloc vote system of election...
from 1806
United Kingdom general election, 1806
The United Kingdom general election, 1806 was the election of members to the 3rd Parliament of the United Kingdom. This was the second general election to be held after the Union of Great Britain and Ireland....
to 1807
United Kingdom general election, 1807
The election to the 4th Parliament of the United Kingdom in 1807 was the third general election to be held after the Union of Great Britain and Ireland....
. On 11 April 1807, at the age of 37, he was summoned to the House of Lords in one of the minor peerages of his father (Baron Gordon of Huntley, co. Gloucester). He was appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1830 and was Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland from 1828 to 1830, a post that his father had held until 1827.
Marriage
He married at Bath, on 11 December 1813, Elizabeth Brodie, who was twenty-four years his junior. Elizabeth was the daughter of Alexander Brodie of Arnhall in KincardineshireKincardineshire
The County of Kincardine, also known as Kincardineshire or The Mearns was a local government county on the coast of northeast Scotland...
. Elizabeth Grant described her thus: "His bride was young, and good, and rich, but neither clever nor handsome. She made him very happy and paid his most pressing debts, that is her father did, old Mr Brodie of the Burn, brother to Brodie of Brodie...He made a really large fortune; he gave with his daughter, his only child, £100,000 down, and left her more than another at his death. Really to her husband her large fortune was the least part of her value; she possessed upright principles, good sense, and she turned out a first-rate woman of business. In her later years she got into the cant of the Methodists."
However, at the time of his marriage and, in fact until he inherited the Dukedom, George found himself in almost constant financial difficulties. It was said that "Lord Huntly now in the decline of his rackety life, overwhelmed with debts, sated with pleasure, tired of fashion, the last heir male of the Gordon line" At least his marriage remedied some of these problems. It did not, however, supply the much sought-after heir.
Like his father, George acquired many of the positions which the Gordon family could expect almost as of right. These included Lord Lieutenant of Aberdeenshire
Lord Lieutenant of Aberdeenshire
The Lord Lieutenant of Aberdeenshire, is the British monarch's personal representative in an area consisting of the county of Aberdeen as it existed immediately prior to abolition for local government purposes by the Local Government Act 1973 except that part within Aberdeen City.The office was...
, Chancellor of Marischal College, Aberdeen and Lord High Constable
Lord High Constable
There are two current and one former royal offices in the United Kingdom of Lord High Constable:* The Lord High Constable of England, the seventh of the Great Officers of State, ranking beneath the Lord Great Chamberlain and above the Earl Marshal...
of Scotland. He held the latter post of Lord High Constable for the Coronation of King George the Fourth
George IV of the United Kingdom
George IV was the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and also of Hanover from the death of his father, George III, on 29 January 1820 until his own death ten years later...
in 1820.
By the time of his succession as Duke, he had established a reputation as an extreme reactionary. He steadfastly opposed the Great Reform Bill and when the majority of Tory Peers opted to abstain, he remained one of the twenty-two "Stalwarts" who voted against the Third Reading of the Bill in the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
on 4 June 1832.
Throughout much of this period Elizabeth served Queen Adelaide
Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen
Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen was the queen consort of the United Kingdom and of Hanover as spouse of William IV of the United Kingdom. Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia, is named after her.-Early life:Adelaide was born on 13 August 1792 at Meiningen, Thuringia, Germany...
, the wife of William the Fourth
William IV of the United Kingdom
William IV was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death...
, at Court. Indeed, Elizabeth was given the Queen's Coronation robe which is now to be found with many other Gordon memorabilia at Brodie Castle
Brodie Castle
Brodie Castle is a castle near Forres in the Moray region of Scotland.- The Brodie Family :The original Z-plan castle was built in 1567 by Clan Brodie but destroyed by fire in 1645 by Lewis Gordon of Clan Gordon, the 3rd Marquess of Huntly...
.
Nathaniel Parker Willis, the American journalist, has left us with an interesting account of life at Gordon Castle in the twilight years of the 5th Duke's life. He described the "canonically fat porter" at the lodges who admitted him to a "rich private world peopled by ladies cantering sidesaddle on palfreys, ladies driving nowhere in particular in phaetons, gentlemen with guns, keepers with hounds and terrier at heel, and everywhere a profusion of fallow deer, hares and pheasants. At the castle a dozen lounging and powered menials." Willis continued: "I never realised so forcibily the splendid results of wealth and primogeniture." Just before dinner the Duke called at his room, "an affable white-haired gentleman of noble physiognomy, but singularly cordial address, wearing a broad red ribbon across his breast, and led him through files of servants to a dining room ablaze with gold plate."
Legacy
The Duke died at Belgrave Square on 28 May 1836, aged 66. The Dukedom of Gordon became extinct but the Marquessate of Huntly (created in 1599) passed to his distant cousin the Earl of Aboyne. The Gordon estates passed to his nephew, Charles Lennox, 5th Duke of Richmond. The Gordon moveable property was left by the Duchess to the Brodies of BrodieClan Brodie
Clan Brodie is a Scottish clan whose origins are uncertain. The first known Brodie chiefs were the Thanes of Brodie and Dyke in Morayshire. The Brodies were present in several clan conflicts, and during the civil war were ardent covenanters...
.
The Duke and Duchess of Gordon established Gordon Chapel (Scottish Episcopal Church
Scottish Episcopal Church
The Scottish Episcopal Church is a Christian church in Scotland, consisting of seven dioceses. Since the 17th century, it has had an identity distinct from the presbyterian Church of Scotland....
) in Fochabers
Fochabers
Fochabers is a village in the Parish of Bellie, in Moray, Scotland, not far from the cathedral city of Elgin and located on the east bank of the River Spey. Around 2,000 people live in the village, which enjoys a rich musical and cultural history...
and it contains a memorial tablet to the 5th and last Duke.