MARQUESSES OF), probably in ; and his heirs became dukes of Gordon, George Gordon (c. 1650-1716), 4th marquess of Huntly, being created duke of Gordon in 1684. His son Alexan der, 2nd duke of Gordon (c. 1678-1728), joined the Old Pre tender, but gained the royal pardon after the surrender of Gordon castle in 1716. Of his children by his wife Henrietta Mordaunt, second daughter of Charles Mordaunt, earl of Peterborough, Cosmo George (c. 172o-1752) succeeded as 3rd duke; Lord Lewis Gordon (d. took an active part in the Jacobite rising of 1745; and General Lord Adam Gordon (c. 1726-1801) became commander of the forces in Scotland in 1782, and governor of Edinburgh Castle in 1786. Lord George Gordon (q.v.) was a younger son of the 3rd duke.
The title, with the earldom of Norwich and the barony of Gordon Huntly, became extinct on the death of George, 5th duke (177o-1836), a distinguished soldier who raised the corps now known as the 2nd battalion of the Gordon Highlanders. The marquessate of Huntly passed to his cousin and heir-male, George, 5th earl of Aboyne.
Lady Charlotte Gordon, sister of and co heiress with the 5th duke, married Charles Lennox, 4th duke of Richmond, whose son took the name of Gordon-Lennox. The dukedom of Gordon was revived in 1876 in favour of the 6th duke of Richmond, who thenceforward was styled duke of Richmond and Gordon. Adam Gordon of Aboyne (d. 1537) took the courtesy title of earl of Sutherland in right of his wife Elizabeth, countess of Sutherland in her own right, sister of the 9th earl. The lawless and turbulent Gordons of Gight were the maternal ancestors of Lord Byron.
Among the many soldiers of fortune bearing the name of Gor don was Colonel John Gordon, one of the murderers of Wallen stein. Patrick Gordon (1635-99) was born at Auchleuchries in Aberdeenshire, entered the service of Charles X. of Sweden in 165 i and served against the Poles. He changed sides more than once before he found his way to Moscow in 166i and took service under the tsar Alexis. He became general in 168 7 ; in 1688 he helped to secure Peter the Great's ascendancy; and later he crushed the revolt of the Streltzi. His diary was published in German (3 vols., 1849-53, Moscow and St. Petersburg), and selections from the English original by the Spalding Club (Aber deen, 1859).
The Gordons fill a considerable place in Scottish legend and ballad. "Captain Car," or "Edom (Adam) of Gordon" describes an incident in the struggle between the Forbeses, and Gordons in Aberdeenshire in 1 S 71; "The Duke of Gordon's Daughter" has apparently no foundation in fact, though "Geordie" of the ballad is sometimes said to have been George, 4th earl of Huntly; "The Fire of Frendraught" goes back to a feud (163o) between James Crichton of Frendraught and William Gordon of Rothie may ; the "Gallant Gordons Gay" figure in "Chevy Chase"; William Gordon of Earlston, the Covenanter, appears in "Both well Bridge," etc.
See William Gordon (of old Aberdeen), The History of the Ancient, Noble, and Illustrious House of Gordon (2 vols., Edinburgh, i726-27), of which A Concise History of the . . . House of Gordon, by C. A. Gordon (Aberdeen, 1754) is little more than an abridgment; The Records of Aboyne, 123o-168r, edited by Charles, i ith marquess of Huntly (New Spalding Club, Aberdeen, 1894) ; The Gordon Book, ed. J. M. Bulloch (19o2) ; The House of Gordon, ed. J. M. Bulloch (Aberdeen, vol. i., i9o3) ; and J. M. Bulloch, The First Duke of Gordon (19o9).