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The Gordons are one of the great families of the north-east of Scotland, and their surname has many suggested meanings, although the family were almost certainly of Anglo-Norman descent. There is also a tale which makes the first of the family the savior of a Scottish king, in this case from a wild boar. This is said to explain the boars heads which appear on the Gordon arms.
The first certain record of the name places the family in the Borders during the reigns of Malcolm IV and William the Lion. Richard de Gordon appears in numerous charters, and probably died around d1200. Sir Adam de Gordon was one of the wardens of the marches in 1300, he became a staunch supporter of Robert the Bruce, and was one of the ambassadors sent to Rome to petition the pope to remove the excommunication which had been placed on Bruce after his murder of John Comyn. For his services the king granted to Gordon the lands of Strathbogie, which had been confiscated from the Earl of Atholl for treason.
The Castle of Strathbogie was to be renamed Huntly after a portion of the Gordon lands in Berwichshire. In 1436 Sir Alexander Gordon was created Lord Gordon, and his son was raised to the title of Earl of Huntly. The family became embroiled in the deadly battle for power between the king and Douglases. Huntly was for the king, but when he moved his forces south, the Earl of Moray, kinsman and ally of the Douglases, devastated the Gordon lands and burned Huntly Castle.
The Gordons were recalled and soon defeated their enemies. After the fall of the Douglases, the power of the Gordons grew unchallenged. Their control over their lands was almost regal, and the chiefs are to this day fondly referred to as "Clock o' the North".
The grand new castle at Huntly rose from the ruins of the old, and it soon rivaled any of the great houses of the realm. In 1496 Huntly Castle hosted the marriage of the pretender, Perkin Warbeck, believed at the time to be one of the missing sons of Edward IV (the 'princes in the tower'), to Lady Catherine Gordon. George, fourth Earl of Huntly, became Chancellor of Scotland in 1547 and was a close confidant to the regent, Mary of Guise, the mother of Mary, Queen of Scots.
The Gordons paid scant attention to the Reformation, remaining firmly Catholic. However, they disagreed with the young queen; Huntly died at Corricie, leading his men against the royal army, and his son, Sir John Gordon, was later beheaded before Queen Mary at Aberdeen. The Gordons eventually made peace with the Crown, and in 1599 the chief was created Marquess of Huntly.
The second Marquess was a fierce supporter of the royalist cause in the civil war, and his followers have passed into history as the Gordon Horse, which figured so prominently in the campaigns of the great Marquess of Montrose. Huntly was captured in Strathdon in December 1647 and was taken to Edinburgh, where he languished until March 1649, when he was beheaded. Lord Louis Gordon was restored to the family estates and titles in 1651, and was raised to the highest rank of peerage as Duke of Gordon in 1684.
The Gordon's fought on both sides during the Jacobite risings in 1715 and 1745. The second Duke of Gordon followed the standard of the "Old Pretender" at the Battle of Sheriffmuir in 1715. He later surrendered, but although he was imprisoned for a short period, no further proceedings were taken against him. The third Duke remained loyal to the Hanoverians when Prince Charles Edward Stuart reasserted his father's claim in 1745, but his brother, Lord Louis Gordon, promptly raised a regiment of two battalions. After Culloden he escaped to France, where he died in 1754. George, fifth Duke of Gordon, was a general in the army and for a time governor of Edinburgh Castle. He died without issue, and the dukedom became extinct. The marquisate passed to a kinsman, from who the present chief descends.
Another branch of the clan were created Earls of Aberdeen in 1682. The fourth Earl was a Prime Minister in the mid nineteenth century. This branch, too, were advanced to the dignity of Marquess, and established their seat at Haddo House near Aberdeen.
William Gordon:
The Bachelor of Leith, Alexander Ramage, Master bound to Wilmington N.C. from Caithness and Sutherland in Scotland is forced by distress of weather to put into Scotland. Taking advantage of this situation the officers at the Port of Lerwick interview several passengers and learn the genuine causes of many emigrants leaving Scotland, and going to America.
William Gordon saith that he is aged 60 and upwards, by trade a farmer, married, hath six children who emigrate with him with the wives and children of his two sons, John and Alexander Gordon. Resided last at Wymore in the Parish of Clyde in the Country of Sutherland, upon lands belonging to William Baillie of Rosehall. That having two sons already settled in Carolina, who wrote him encouraging him to come there, and finding the rents of lands raised in so much that a possession in which his grandfather paid eight merck scots, he himself at last paid sixty. He was introduced to emigrate for the greater benefit of his children being himself an old man and lame so that it was indifferent to him in what country he died. That his circumstances were greatly reduced not only by the rise of rent prices but by the loss of cattle, particularly in the sever winter of 1771. That the land on which he lived has often changed masters, and the rents have been raised on every change; and when Mr. Baillie bought them they were farmed with the rest of his purchase to one tacksman, (a middleman who leased a large piece of land from the owner and sublet it in small farms) at very high rent, who must also have his profits out of them. All these things occurring introduced him to leave his own country in hopes that his children would earn their bread more comfortably elsewhere. That one of his sons is a weaver and another a shoemaker, and he hopes that they may get bread for themselves and be a help to support him.
Children
Second Generation
(2): William Gordon (1.William1) born abt 1755, married Unknown Gordon. 1790 Stokes Co., N.C. census, Salisbury District, shows 4 sons under 16, his wife and 3 daughters.
Third Generation
(3): John Gordon (2.William2, 1.William1) born 1788, Stokes Co., N.C., occupation Farmer, married 23 Nov 1834, in Stokes Co., N.C., Mary Tuttle, born 22 Sept 1792, Germanton, Stokes Co., N.C., (daughter of John Tuttle and Anna Barbara Elizabeth Frey). Pg. 4 Polk Co. 1840 census
Fourth Generation
(4): Joshua Gordon
Updated June 27, 1998