GARDINER, Colonel JestEs, son of capt. Patrick Gardiner, was b. at Carriden, in Linlithgowshire, Jan. 11, 1688, and when only 14 2,-ears old, obtained a commission in a Scots regiment in the Dutch service. He afterwards entered the English army, and was severely wounded at the.battle of Ramifies in 1706. G. fought with great distinc tion in all the other battles of Marlborough. In 1714-15,• he was made eapt.lieut. in a regiment of dragoons. Seine time after, he gave a conspicuous proof of his courage, when, along with eleven other daring fellows (eight of whom were killed), he fired the barricades of the Highlanders at Preston. From an early period. G. was noted for his licentiousness, which was so marked, that ordinary officers, making no preten sions to religion, rather shunned his society, for fear of being corrupted; yet his consti tution enabled him to pursue his vicious courses with apparent impunity, and in conse quence of his continual gayety and good health, he was known as "the happy rake." But in the year 1719ihe thtsubjeet of profound`religioushnpressions. The circumstances, as narrated by Dr. Doddridge (who had than from the hero himself), contain much that is marvelous, supernatural, and exceedingly improbable. Dodd ridge himself is hardly satisfied with G.'s account, and hints at the possibility of the whole being a dream, instead of a "visible representation of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross, surrounded on all sides with a glory," etc. Be also mentions that G.
"did not seem very confident" whether the voice which came to him was really "an audible voice, or only a strong impression on his mind equally striking." Considerable doubt has recently been cast on the whole story by the publication• of the Autobiography of Dr. Alexander Carlyle, edited by John Hill Burton (Edin. Blackwood. & Sons, 1860), in which Carlyle denies altogether the truth of Doddridge's version of the story, at least of the supernatural portion of it. The attendant circumstances, however, are of little moment one way or another; the great fact is the conversion of the brave but wicked soldier into a pious and excellent Cl7ristian, and regarding this there has never been any doubt. In 1724, G. was raised to the rank of maj., and in 1726 he married lady Francis Erskine, daughter of the fourth earl of Buchan, by whom he had 13 children, only 5 of whom survived him. In 1730, lie became lictit.col. of dragoons, and in 1743, col. of a new regiment of dragoons. He was killed at the battle of Prcstonpans, Sept. 21, 1745; and the spot on which he fell is marked by a monument. The:Wen/ Colonel Gardiner, written by Dr.. Doddridg,e, is a favorite volume with the more religious por tion of the public.
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