A History Of The Gordons E-Book

Kenn Gordon

• Herausgeber: BookRix
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

This book will take an academic look at those who are of the Gordon name and clan. There are already quite a few books about the Gordons but they either skip over the lineage or romanticise battles and positions held. There are defining traits within the Gordon DNA that much is true, however that does not always make us ‘good people’. We strive to be the absolute best, in our chosen fields. That could be taking the fore in battles or being the best musician, you can be. There are amazing acts of bravery that have been carried out by the Gordons along with substantial acts of cowardice. If that sounds like an oxymoron then you would be right, as we occupy both ends of the moral and social scales. The Gordons have fought for and against the Papacy. We fought on both sides of the Jacobite rebellion. We stood for and against England. The Gordons even as individuals have fought on both sides in World War 1 and 2. There were Gordons on either side of communism. We have been great scientists and doctors. I have one son who is a great Chef, and the other is a Quantum Physicist, whilst I am a Musician and Writer. So, we all do have a personal choice, but it is what and how you act upon us that will mark our places in the history of the Gordon name. I wrote this book in the year 2020 when the world was facing a global pandemic. Not only were our doctors and nurses fighting an invisible enemy (Covid 19) but worse was happening on the streets around the world. Racism seems to raise its ugly head when mankind is at its lowest ebb. ‘Black Lives Matter’ was a new movement. To an old problem. I feel that ‘ALL’ Lives matter. There are Gordons who are African, Indian, European, Australian, Asian, North American and South American. Those Gordons have every shade of skin colour that comes within the human range. We also follow every faith and no faith at all. If you go back far enough in any clan or race you will find some element of slavery. We Gordons have also been on both sides of that evil. We have been Slaves, Slave Owners and even Slave Traders. Slaves would normally keep their own first name but would also adopt the surname of the slave owner, hence not all Gordons are Celtic. Being involved in slavery is not a matter of pride to most Gordons, it is just a matter of historical fact. Tearing down statues or defacing buildings that bear the name of historical people, to me is pointless. It would be like tearing down the Auschwitz Museum. There was a holocaust and Auschwitz is testament to that horror and by it being there, it tells us not to forget. When people tried to tear down the statue of William Wallace saying that he was a racist. His statue is there because he fought for Scotland and its people. There were 12 presidents of the USA that owned slaves., Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, James K. Polk, Zachary Taylor, Andrew Johnson, and Ulysses S Grant. You would have to tear down America and start building all over again, starting with Washington DC and the White House. We remember our history, the good along with the bad in order to learn from our mistakes.                                           Consequently, in this book you will find all the great moments in the Gordon history since 66BC all the way up to 2020. You will also find the truth and the facts that point to unspeakable acts carried out sometimes in the name of the Gordon families, other times just out of coincidence to them bearing the name of Gordon. One such example would be the Highland clearances carried out by the Duke of Sutherland whose wife was Countess Elizabeth Gordon. He committed an act of ethnic cleansing in the north of Scotland. This is not something that gives me pride, it is though part of my history and if you are a Gordon then it is part of your history, especially if you can trace your roots back, to that period in America, Canada, Newfoundland and Australia. These were the predominant areas that the crofters from the north of Scotland were forced to flee too. Gordons fought on both sides of the American Civil War. The Gordons fought during the crusades, it is even said that it was a Gordon that was responsible for the death of Richard The Lionheart.             This book is not a romanticised novel where facts are cherry picked. I have written this as a non-fiction, work and as a starting point for any genealogical work you wish to embark upon. I have taken information for many sources in order to complete this and I give thanks to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Wikipedia, Ancestry online, The Gordon Highlanders, UK Census, as well as reading many books on Scottish History and land ownership. Long and Short of this book is that it is written by a Gordon, for all, Gordons. 

Leseprobe

Kenn Gordon

A History Of The Gordons

The Clan and House of Gordon

As with all my books I dedicate it first to my long suffering wife and then to my sons who have always made me proud. To my father who really was the genius in our family. A true academical man who loved the written word. I am sure he would have made a much better job than I have done but he is no longer with us. My mother who like my father is long gone from the land of the living. Between her and my father they made this old fool.BookRix GmbH & Co. KG81371 Munich

The Gordons

Kenn Gordon

History of The Gordon Clan

Battles and Regiments

Notable Gordons

Compiled & Edited

by

Kenn Gordon

This book will take an academic look at those who are of the Gordon name and clan. There are already quite a few books about the Gordons but they either skip over the lineage or romanticise battles and positions held. There are defining traits within the Gordon DNA that much is true, however that does not always make us ‘good people’. We strive to be the absolute best, in our chosen fields. That could be taking the fore in battles or being the best musician, you can be. There are amazing acts of bravery that have been carried out by the Gordons along with substantial acts of cowardice. If that sounds like an oxymoron then you would be right, as we occupy both ends of the moral and social scales. The Gordons have fought for and against the Papacy. We fought on both sides of the Jacobite rebellion. We stood for and against England. The Gordons even as individuals have fought on both sides in World War 1 and 2. There were Gordons on either side of communism. We have been great scientists and doctors. I have one son who is a great Chef, and the other is a Quantum Physicalist, whilst I am a Musician and Writer. So, we all do have a personal choice, but it is what and how you act upon us that will mark our places in the history of the Gordon name. I wrote this book in the year 2020 when the world was facing a global pandemic. Not only were our doctors and nurses fighting an invisible enemy (Covid 19) but worse was happening on the streets around the world. Racism seems to raise its ugly head when mankind is at its lowest ebb. ‘Black Lives Matter’ was a new movement. To an old problem. I feel that ‘ALL’ Lives matter. There are Gordons who are African, Indian, European, Australian, Asian, North American and South American. Those Gordons have every shade of skin colour that comes within the human range. We also follow every faith and no faith at all. If you go back far enough in any clan or race you will find some element of slavery. We Gordons have also been on both sides of that evil. We have been Slaves, Slave Owners and even Slave Traders. Slaves would normally keep their own first name but would also adopt the surname of the slave owner, hence not all Gordons are Celtic. Being involved in slavery is not a matter of pride to most Gordons, it is just a matter of historical fact. Tearing down statues or defacing buildings that bear the name of historical people, to me is pointless. It would be like tearing down the Auschwitz Museum. There was a holocaust and Auschwitz is testament to that horror and by it being there, it tells us not to forget. When people tried to tear down the statue of William Wallace saying that he was a racist. His statue is there because he fought for Scotland and its people. There were 12 presidents of the USA that owned slaves., Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, James K. Polk, Zachary Taylor, Andrew Johnson, and Ulysses S Grant. You would have to tear down America and start building all over again, starting with Washington DC and the White House. We remember our history, the good along with the bad in order to learn from our mistakes.

Consequently, in this book you will find all the great moments in the Gordon history since 66BC all the way up to 2020. You will also find the truth and the facts that point to unspeakable acts carried out sometimes in the name of the Gordon families, other times just out of coincidence to them bearing the name of Gordon. One such example would be the Highland clearances carried out by the Duke of Sutherland whose wife was Countess Elizabeth Gordon. He committed an act of ethnic cleansing in the north of Scotland. This is not something that gives me pride, it is though part of my history and if you are a Gordon then it is part of your history, especially if you can trace your roots back, to that period in America, Canada, Newfoundland and Australia. These were the predominant areas that the crofters from the north of Scotland were forced to flee too. Gordons fought on both sides of the American Civil War. The Gordons fought during the crusades, it is even said that it was a Gordon that was responsible for the death of Richard The Lionheart.

This book is not a romanticised novel where facts are cherry picked. I have written this as a non-fiction, work and as a starting point for any genealogical work you wish to embark upon. I have taken information for many sources in order to complete this and I give thanks to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Wikipedia, Ancestry online, The Gordon Highlanders, UK Census, as well as reading many books on Scottish History and land ownership. Long and Short of this book is that it is written by a Gordon, for all, Gordons. I have no doubt that with many families around the world there will be Gordons who have died because of Covid 19. We must remember, not only our own immediate families but also those around us. Our family motto is BYDAND (Stand Fast) I hope if you are reading this that in some way it will answer questions that you may have about yourself. In the words of the great Irish Comedian Dave Allen. May your God go with you.

I was always taught when you want to know about something, you must go all the way back to the beginning and work your way forward. There are many books written on clan history and most will gloss over things that they really should look at in historical depth. So to that end after having paid for and read four differing books on my clan, I have decided to set the record straight and hopefully fill in the gaps.

The first of our clan to be officially recorded was Richard Of Gordon and that was recounted as far back as 1200, but if you look back just a little further to around the year 1150 we find Richard De Gordon. Richard de Gordon was granted lands in ‘The Merse’ by King Malcolm III, this was after he had slain ‘a great monster’.

History is a bit vague on what kind of monster it was, however looking at the time it was probably a large wild boar which he is said to have gored down, again this can be seen on the Gordon coat of arms with its three boar heads.

King Malcolm III (1031-1093) reigned over the Scots from 1058-1093. King Malcolm III was also known as ‘The Great Chief’

Richard Of Gordon was previously of Swinton, which was Anglo Saxon in origin. They were most likely to have been part and parcel of The Kingdom of Northumbria. This is probably where the Three boars heads were added on to the Gordon coat of arms. The Northumbrian coat of arms, came from clearing the area of the many wild boars that covered the region. Most people living in the UK have a fairly good idea as to the whereabouts of Northumbria, but not many will have heard of ‘The Merse’ which is located around Berwickshire. Richard de Gordon was Lord of The Barony Gordon in the Merse region. Even though it seems that Richard de Gordon was not the first Gordon on record as I have managed to track back to his father Adam Gordon, which is strangely befitting for the first of his kind, although it is not known who his mother was. Clan chiefs and leaders if they were unmarried, would quite often take a concubine just to keep the lineage going. The bastard sons would still take precedence over a full blood female child. Adam Gordon was the 1st Laird of the Gordon Clan, he was born approximately in the year 1100. It was said that he was a great warrior, even though he died in 1138 at The Battle of the Standard, quite often referred to as The Battle of Northallerton. The battle took place on the 22nd of August 1138 between the forces of King Steven of England. His forces were led by William of Aumale and the Scottish Army, which was led by King David of Scotland.

Adam Gordon was mortally wounded during the battle, which the unfortunately the Scots lost. Adam was carried back to Scotland by fellow Knights. He was to die shortly afterwards from his wounds. Richard de Gordon was then to become his natural heir, over his younger brother Adam. The provable history of the clan starts with Richard, it is only right though that we should investigate the derivatives of the Gordon name and where they came from.

It is possible and even probable that the name came from the Gorduni Tribe who came from Flanders. The name Gorduni is mentioned in Roman Conquests as far back as 66BC. So unfortunately a lot of lost history. Back to provable facts.

In the year of 1113, David 1st invited the Benedictine monks from Tiron Abbey in northern France to establish a house at Selkirk. By 1128 the monks had relocated to Kelso, close to David’s new castle at Roxburgh across the River Tweed. In about 1150 Richard de Gordon, gave lands at Kelso to the Monks, which again would support the link to Flanders along with the Roman Catholic faith that was followed by Richard de Gordon and the Clan. Richard’s brother, Sir Adam of Gordon was a supporter of Robert the Bruce and travelled to Rome to ask the Pope to reverse Bruce’s excommunication from the Holy Roman Catholic Church, served after Bruce rebelled against the English king. Some say Bruce was killed at Comyn in a church. Others though said it was suicide caused by shame, or perhaps the black death.

There were the notable Gordon’s from this time include Bertram de Gordon who wounded King Richard of England with a crossbow arrow at Châlons Chabrol. The Bertram’s bolt hitting the king in the left shoulder near the neck. The wounded Richard went to his tent, where he tried, but failed, to pull the bolt out. A butchering surgeon eventually managed to remove it, but “carelessly mangled” the king’s arm in the process. The wound quickly became gangrenous. When the castle they were trying to take, fell, the stricken Richard had the crossbowman brought before him. He turned out to be little more than a boy. (Probably Bertram De Gordon’s squire) The boy claimed that Richard had killed his father and two brothers, so he had sworn to kill Richard in revenge. The boy expected to be swiftly executed, but Richard, as a last act of mercy, forgave him, saying, “Live on, and by my bounty behold the light of day,” before ordering the boy to be freed and sent away with 100 shillings. The 42 year-old king lingered on until the 6th of April 1199, then died in his mother’s arms. The boy was rearrested, flayed alive and hanged.

Richard de Gordon is thought to have died in around 1200. He was surpassed by his son Thomas.

Alicia Gordon, 4th of the Gordon family was the heiress who married her cousin, Adam Gordon. Adam Gordon was a soldier who King Alexander III of Scotland, sent with King Louis of France to Palestine, this was known as the 7th Crusade.  led by Louis IX of France from 1248 to 1254.

In 1244, the Khwarezmians, recently displaced by the advance of the Mongols, took Jerusalem on their way to ally with the Egyptian Mamluks. This returned Jerusalem to Muslim control, but the fall of Jerusalem was no longer a crucial event to European Christians, who had seen the city pass from Christian to Muslim control numerous times in the past two centuries. This time, despite calls from the Pope, there was no popular enthusiasm for a new crusade. There were also many conflicts within Europe that kept its leaders from embarking on the Crusade.

Pope Innocent IV and Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor continued the papal-imperial struggle. Frederick had captured and imprisoned clerics on their way to the First Council of Lyon, and in 1245 he was formally deposed by Innocent IV. Pope Gregory IX had also earlier offered King Louis' brother, count Robert of Artois, the German throne, but Louis had refused. Thus, the Holy Roman Emperor was in no position to crusade. Béla IV of Hungary was rebuilding his kingdom from the ashes after the devastating Mongol invasion of 1241. Henry III of England was still struggling with Simon de Montfort and other problems in England. Henry and Louis were not on the best of terms, being engaged in the Capetian-Plantagenet struggle, and while Louis was away on crusade the English king signed a truce promising not to attack French lands. Louis IX had also invited King Haakon IV of Norway to crusade, sending the English chronicler Matthew Paris as an ambassador, but again was unsuccessful. The only king interested in beginning another crusade therefore was Louis IX, who declared his intent to go east in 1245. A much smaller force of Englishmen, led by William Longespée, also took the Cross. France was one of the strongest states in Europe at the time, as the Albigensian Crusade had brought Provence into Parisian control. Poitou was ruled by Louis IX's brother Alphonse of Poitiers, who joined him on his crusade in 1245. Another brother, Charles 1st of Anjou, also joined Louis. For the next three years Louis collected an ecclesiastical tenth (mostly from church tithes), and in 1248 he and his approximately 15,000-strong army that included 3,000 knights, and 5,000 crossbowmen sailed on 36 ships from the ports of Aigues-Mortes, which had been specifically built to prepare for the crusade, and Marseille. Louis IX's financial preparations for this expedition were comparatively well organized, and he was able to raise approximately 1,500,000 livres tournois. However, many nobles (including many Gordons) who joined Louis on the expedition had to borrow money from the royal treasury, and the crusade turned out to be awfully expensive. Whilst not many of the Gordons were names in these continuing battles to spread the word of Christ, albeit at the point of sword or spear. The Gordon the Roman Catholic faith. As such their noblemen would have joined the crusades. They sailed first to Cyprus and spent the winter on the island, negotiating with various other powers in the east. The Latin Empire, set up after the Fourth Crusade, asked for his help against the Byzantine, Empire of Nicaea, and the Principality of Antioch, and the Knights Templar wanted his help in Syria where the Muslims had recently captured Sidon Nonetheless, Egypt was the object of his crusade, and he landed in 1249 at Damietta on the Nile. Egypt would, Louis thought, provide a base from which to attack Jerusalem, and its wealth and supply of grain would keep the crusaders fed and equipped. On the 6th of June Damietta was taken with little resistance from the Egyptians, who withdrew further up the Nile. The flooding, of the Nile, had not been considered, however, and it soon grounded Louis and his army at Damietta for six months, where the knights sat back and enjoyed the spoils of war. Louis ignored the agreement made during the Fifth Crusade that Damietta should be given to the Kingdom of Jerusalem, now a rump state in Acre, but he did set up an archbishopric there (under the authority of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem) and used the city as a base to direct military operations against the Muslims of Syria. In November, Louis marched towards Cairo, and almost at the same time, the Ayyubid sultan of Egypt, as-Salih Ayyub, died. A force led by Robert of Artois, alongside the Templars and the English contingent led by William Longespée, attacked the Egyptian camp at Gideila and advanced to Al Mansurah where they were defeated at the Battle of Al Mansurah. Robert and William were killed, and only a small handful survived. Meanwhile, Louis' main force was attacked by the Mameluk Baibars, the commander of the army and a future sultan himself. Louis was defeated as well, but he did not withdraw to Damietta for months, preferring to besiege Mansourah, which ended not in the capitulation of those besieged but in the starvation and death of his own army. An agonized Templar knight lamented. “Rage and sorrow are seated in my heart….so firmly that I scarce dare to stay alive. It seems that God wishes to support the Turks to our loss... ah, lord God... alas, the realm of the East has lost so much that it will never be able to rise again. They will make a Mosque of Holy Mary's convent, and since the theft pleases her Son, who should weep at this, we are forced to comply as well... Anyone who wishes to fight the Turks is mad, for Jesus Christ does not fight them anymore. They have conquered, they will conquer. For every day they drive us down, knowing that God, who was awake, sleeps now, and Muhammad waxes powerful.” In March 1250 Louis finally tried to return to Damietta, but he was taken captive at the Battle of Fariskur, where his army was annihilated. Louis fell ill with dysentery and was cured by an Arab physician. In May he was ransomed for 800,000 bezants, half of which was to be paid before the King left Egypt, with Damietta also being surrendered as a term in the agreement. Upon this, he immediately left Egypt for Acre, one of few remaining crusader possessions in Syria. Tradition dictated that from Adam's grandson, Sir Adam Gordon. All the Gordon’s in Scotland are descended in a direct line. This, Adam Gordon supported Sir William Wallace in 1297, to recapture the Castle of Wigtown, from the English. After which, Adam Gordon was installed as the Governor of Wigtown. However, things took a distinct turn during the Wars of Scottish Independence, Clan Gordon had initially backed William Wallace but subsequently switched sides to become steadfast supporters of King Robert the Bruce, along with his attempt to free Scotland from English rule. Sir Adam of Gordon’s commitment to Bruce’s campaign, earned Clan Gordon land at Strathbogie this being an area of lane in North West of Aberdeenshire, this included Huntly Castle along with the surrounding lands, which would become the clan’s ancestral home. There will be more on the lands and castles later in this book. Also during the Wars of Scottish Independence Sir Adam Gordon, who had supported William Wallace, renounced his subsequent acceptance of the claims of Edward 1st of England. Adam was killed leading the Clan Gordon at the Battle of Halidon Hill. The Battle of Halidon Hill was fought on the 19th of July 1333. This battle took place during the Second War of Scottish Independence. Scottish forces under Sir Archibald Douglas were heavily outnumbered and were defeated by the English forces of King Edward III of England. The battle also took place on what can only be classed as an unfavourable terrain, while the Scottish forces were at that time also trying to relieve Berwick-upon-Tweed. Sir Alexander Gordon escaped, and was the first Gordon to be designated "Gordon of Huntly". Later, the now Chief of the clan, Sir John Gordon was killed leading the Gordons at the Battle of Otterburn where the English were defeated in 1388. The Battle of Otterburn took place according to Scottish sources, on the 5th of August 1388, or the 19th of August according English, if they are to believed, as a portion of the continuing border fighting between the Scots and the English forces. Perhaps the best remaining record of the battle, is from Jean Froissart's account in which he claims to have had an audience with veterans from both the Scots and the English, just after the battle. His account though is regarded with some scepticism as information, such as the distance between Newcastle upon Tyne and Otterburn, which are wide of the mark and fallacious. The Scottish noble James 2nd Earl of Douglas, chose to lead an incursion, which was one of a continuing program on both sides of the border sometimes deep into English territory. The battle was timed to take advantage of disagreement on the English side, between Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland and Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland the man who had recently taken over defence of the border. The ballad of Otterburn is below

“It fell aboot the Lammas tide when the muir-men win their hay The doughty Douglas bound him ride into England to drive a prey He chose the Gordons and the Graemes, the Lindsays light and gay The Jardines wad not wi' him ride, they rue it to this day

And he has burned the dales of Tyne and part o' Bambrough-shire Three tall towers on Reidsware fells, he left them all on fire He marched up to Newcastle and rade it round about Saying, Wha's the lord o' this castle, and wha's the lady o't

Then up and spake proud Percy there, and Oh but he spake hie I am the lord o' this castle, my wife's the lady gay If thou art the lord o' this castle, sae weel it pleases me For ere I cross the Border fells the ane o' us shall dee

He took a lang spear in his hand shod wi' the metal free For to meet the Douglas there he rade right furiouslie But Oh how pale his lady looked frae aff the castle wa' When doon before the Scottish spear she saw proud Percy fa'”