Alexander Gordon, 4th Duke of Gordon

Alexander Gordon, 4th Duke of Gordon, 1764

Alexander Gordon, 4th Duke of Gordon (born June 18, 1743 at Gordon Castle , † June 17, 1827 in London ), was a British nobleman .

Life

He was the eldest son of Cosmo Gordon, 3rd Duke of Gordon (1720-1752), from his marriage to Lady Catherine Gordon (1718-1779), daughter of William Gordon, 2nd Earl of Aberdeen . As his father's apparent marriage , he had the courtesy title of Marquess of Huntly since birth . He was still a minor when he inherited his Scottish title of nobility as 4th Duke of Gordon and the dignity of Chief of Clan Gordon when his father died in August 1752 .

He was educated at Eton College . His mother had married Staats Long Morris (1728–1800) for a second time in 1756 . On the occasion of the Seven Years' War he recruited a new infantry regiment, the 89th (Highland) Regiment of Foot, from the lands of the Dukes . This was used in India and dissolved in 1765. The young Alexander Gordon also joined this regiment with the rank of captain , but immediately took leave to go on a grand tour .

From 1767 to 1784 he was a Scottish Representative Peer member of the British House of Lords . Around 1769 he had his family seat Gordon Castle remodeled by the architect John Baxter († 1798) from Edinburgh . In 1775 he was accepted as a Knight Companion in the Thistle Order .

Through his paternal great-grandmother, he was a great-great-grandson of Henry Howard, 6th Duke of Norfolk . After his title of Earl of Norwich had expired in 1777, Gordon were reassigned the titles of Earl of Norwich and Baron Gordon of Huntley in the Peerage of Great Britain in 1784 . This made him a member of the House of Lords for life. In parliament he was considered a supporter of the government of Prime Minister William Pitt .

From 1794 to 1806 he held the office of Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland and from 1794 to 1808 the office of Lord Lieutenant of Aberdeenshire .

On the occasion of the American War of Independence , he set up an infantry regiment, the Gordon Fencibles Regiment , at his own expense in 1778 , which he led as Colonel and which was disbanded after the war in 1783. On the occasion of the First Coalition War , he set up the Gordon Fencibles Regiment again in 1793 and became its colonel. While the regiment was stationed in Kent in 1794 , it was controlled by King George III. Invited to London and inspected there by him in Hyde Park - it was the first Highland regiment in London since the inspection of the Black Watch in 1743. In 1799 the regiment was disbanded.

In 1819 he inherited the childless death of his second cousin Mary Mordaunt, 11th Baroness Mordaunt , whose title of nobility created in the Peerage of England in 1532 as 12th Baron Mordaunt .

The duke was a passionate hunter . He kept hunting falcons and raised deerhounds and setters . He also wrote the song "Cauld Kail in Aberdeen".

Marriage and offspring

His first marriage was in 1767 with Jane Maxwell (1748-1812), daughter of Sir William Maxwell, 3rd Baronet. With her he had two sons and five daughters:

• Lady Charlotte Gordon (1768–1842), ⚭ 1789 Charles Lennox, 4th Duke of Richmond ;
• George Gordon, 5th Duke of Gordon (1770-1836), British Army general;
• Lady Madelina Gordon (1772-1849), ⚭ (1) 1789 Sir Robert Sinclair, 7th Baronet, ⚭ (2) 1805 Charles Fysche Palmer, of Luckley Park († 1843);
• Lady Susan Gordon (1774–1828), ⚭ 1793 William Montagu, 5th Duke of Manchester ;
• Lady Louisa Gordon (1776–1850), ⚭ 1795 Charles Cornwallis, 2nd Marquess Cornwallis ;
• Lady Georgiana Gordon (1781-1853), ⚭ 1803 John Russell, 6th Duke of Bedford ;
• Lord Alexander Gordon (1785–1808), Major in the British Army.

In his second marriage in 1820 he married his mistress Jane Christie († 1824), with whom he already had four illegitimate children.

His eldest son and heir, George Gordon, Marquess of Huntly, inherited the title (2nd) Baron Gordon of Huntley prematurely through Writ of Acceleration in 1807 and thereby became a member of the House of Lords during his father's lifetime. When his father died in 1827, he also inherited the remaining titles as 5th Duke.

Literature and web links

• Henry Manners Chichester:  Gordon, Alexander (1745? –1827) . In: Dictionary of National Biography . Volume 22, New York City / London 1890, p. 167 (English).
• Alexander Gordon, 4th Duke of Gordon on thepeerage.com
• Gordon, Duke of (S, 1684-1836) at Cracroft's Peerage

predecessor	Office	successor
Cosmo Gordon	Duke of Gordon 1752-1827	George Gordon
New title created	Earl of Norwich 1784-1827	George Gordon
New title created	Baron Gordon of Huntley 1784-1807	George Gordon (through Writ of Acceleration)
Mary Mordaunt	Baron Mordaunt 1819–1827	George Gordon