James Gordon (British Army officer, died 1783)

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James Gordon
Bornc.1735
Died17 October 1783 (aged 48)
Allegiance Great Britain
Service/branch British Army
RankLieutenant-Colonel
Battles/warsAmerican Revolutionary War
RelationsFather: James Gordon second Laird of Ellon (died April 1749)
Mother: Elizabeth Gordon (née Glen) (1712-1792)
Brother: Lieutenant-General Andrew Gordon (died 1806)
Nephew: Lieutenant-General Robert Balfour, 6th of Balbirnie (1772-1837)

Lieutenant-Colonel James Gordon, the third and last Laird of the barony of Ellon,[1] (c. 1735—17 October 1783)[2] was a British Army officer who fought in the American Revolutionary War. He was highly regarded by friend and foe alike, and became the hero of "The Asgill Affair" of 1782, in which a British prisoner of war was selected by lottery for retaliatory execution, but was eventually released on parole.[3]

Early life[]

On 1 February 1746 (when James Gordon was 11 years old) his family lived at Linlithgow Palace. Government troops, under the command of Lieutenant General Henry Hawley, were pursuing Jacobites in the area. They left their overnight camp in the palace, and rushed out leaving their campfires burning. The 320-year-old structure was badly damaged. This 1839 engraving shows the Keeper of the Palace, Mrs Glen Gordon chastising the fleeing troops.[4]
Mary Ellen Gordon, daughter of James Gordon of Ellon, married 23.7.1771 John Balfour, 5th of Balbirnie, mother of Lt.Gen. Robert Balfour and sister of Lt. Col. James Gordon. Photograph courtesy of Robert Balfour, Lord Lieutenant of Fife[5]

Gordon's father was James Gordon, the second Laird of the barony of Ellon (died April 1749).[6][7][1] "The second Laird became his father’s heir on 25 July 1732; and on 22 November 1732, heir male and of provision special to his brother William. On 4 September 1747, he executed a deed (registered 23 March 1732) empowering his spouse, Elizabeth Glen, conjoined with others, to have full charge of his lands or to dispose of them. It began – "I, James Gordon of Ellon, considering that I am to reside for some time out of Scotland, and that it may be necessary for the expeeding of my affairs to sell and dispose of my lands - before my return to Scotland or in case of my decease." Why James should have found it necessary to go out of Scotland is not clear, unless he was a Jacobite, the Battle of Culloden having taken place on 16 April 1746. He seems to have been accompanied by his son, James, aged approximately 12 at the time. James Gordon the second Laird died, according to his will, in April 1749. His inventory was given up by his widow, Elizabeth Glen.[8]

Gordon, the second Laird, married Elizabeth Glen (1712-1792),[9][10] daughter of Alexander Glen and sister of James Glen (1701-1777),[11][12] Governor of South Carolina and keeper of the Palace of Linlithgow.[13] She lived in the Palace of Linlithgow, of which her relations, the Linlithgows, had charge.[8] A staunch Jacobite herself,[14] she was particularly well connected. When Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) arrived in Linlithgow in 1745, he was entertained by her.[13][9] And in 1762, on being presented to King George III, she told him that she had four beautiful daughters (James Gordon's sisters) who were each married in one of his four kingdoms. "I have heard of three" said King George, "but never four." "Did your Majesty never hear of the Kingdom of Fife?" was Mrs Glen Gordon's reply.[15][9]

James Gordon the third Laird "did not keep Ellon long, for the lands were offered for sale on 8 April 1752. The articles of roup, in the Ellon Charter Chest, show that the upset price was £16,000 sterling, and in addition there is a stipulation that there shall be a present of 200 guineas for a gown to the said Elizabeth Glen. After a protracted competition, the lands were bought for George Gordon, 3rd Earl of Aberdeen in 1752, at £17,600, plus 200 guineas for the gown. There was an annuity of £120 to Elizabeth Glen reserved from the price".[1]

That same year, 1752, Gordon petitioned for a writership (administrator) in the Honourable East India Company.[13][14]

"On 25 June 1765, Charles Gordon of Auchleuchrie, son of James Gordon of Meikle Mill of Esslemont, got decreet and sentence before the Lords of Council against James Gordon, late of Ellon and sometime captain in H.M. [80th] Regiment of Foot, eldest son of the late deceased James Gordon of Ellon, and grandson of James Gordon of Ellon, in the matter of a bond of 1,000 marks which James I of Ellon had borrowed from James at Meikle Mill of Esselmont on 17 June 1730. The sum of £20 figures in Charles’s will 1777 as the expenses of the plea and for extracting the decreet. On 23 September 1772, Captain James had sasine in life-rent (political) in Auchanachie (Banffshire sasines)".[1]

Military career[]

Gordon initially served as an officer in the 115th Regiment of Foot (Royal Scotch Lowlanders)[16] which were raised at Paisley in 1701, and disbanded about 1763, when he was placed on half pay.[1] He was appointed major in the 80th Regiment of Foot (Royal Edinburgh Volunteers)[17][a] on 16 December 1777 and accompanied the regiment on active service during the American Revolutionary War[16] in August 1779. Gordon fought under General Charles Cornwallis, but became an American prisoner of war following capitulation after the siege of Yorktown, Virginia, in October 1781.[19] In 1783, by a curious coincidence, he was a member of the Court Martial in New York in which his Aberdeenshire neighbour, Cosmo Gordon, son of the Earl of Aberdeen, was involved.[20][21][1]

In Katherine Mayo's book she describes him thus:

James Gordon, First Major of the Eightieth Foot, was, like his regiment, Scot to the core. Middle-aged, tall, rather heavily built, one glance at the man revealed his character. Frank as the sun and as friendly, brave to a fault, and as generous, utterly self-forgetful in the face of others' needs, neither the activity of his mind nor the dignity and cheerfulness of his spirit would bow to the worst of days. His soldiership, as displayed in the two past years of campaigning, had won him Lord Cornwallis' special praise - coupled once with an aside: 'When I first knew Gordon, twenty years ago, gay in gay London, who could have guessed how much lay in the man?’[22]

In April 1782, a captain of the Monmouth Militia and privateer named Joshua Huddy was overwhelmed and captured by Loyalist forces. Huddy was conveyed to New York City, then under British control, where he was summarily sentenced to be executed by William Franklin, the Loyalist son of Benjamin Franklin. This led to retaliation being taken on a British officer, Captain Charles Asgill who, in a lottery, drew the paper which put him under threat of execution.[23]

Major Gordon, 'Periodical Literature' Morning Post Monday 10 November 1834, Column 5

Gordon was closely involved in the Asgill Affair as is clear from a letter written by Lieutenant and Captain Henry Greville of the 2nd Foot Guards, to his mother, after lots had been drawn in Lancaster. He writes two days later, on 29 May 1782: "...a letter came to Genl Hazen, Commanding at this post, to summon all the British Captains at York and Lancaster and make them draw lots who should be given up as he [Washington] meant to retaliate on one of us, being the only means in his power to put an end to our barbarous method of proceeding, never was surprise equal to ours, little did we think an Article of so Solemn a Capitulation as ours was, concluded between three Powers, would be so shamefully violated, however there was no Alternative so we all set off from York Town to Lancaster, which was twenty miles off, we were but thirteen Captns in the whole and five of those belonged to the Guards, on our arrival we all repaired to Major Gordon's House, he is our Commanding Officer here, we there learnt for a Certainty that one of us must be given up and that the next morning was the time appointed for us to draw lots; we were all unanimous, as you may suppose in refusing to draw ourselves, we said we had been guilty of no crime and deserved no punishment, we were in their Pow'r, they might do what they pleased with us, but that we positively would not lend a helping hand to our own destruction, this was the Evening of the 26.th I can't say I slept remarkably well that night, on the Morrow we were all summon'd to the Major's House, he there informed us that at ten o'Clock all the British Captains were ordered to repair to the Bear Inn, where General Hazen would meet them... Major Gordon stood up and begged his patience for a few moments - with infinite feeling he expressed his Sorrow and Amazement at so unexpected a transaction taking place, he urged the Injustice of the Innocent suffering for the Guilty. Whatever action, said he, this barbarous and Inhuman method of carrying on the War regains, surely it does not extend to us who, by the 14th Article are expressly under your protection,... we were all indeed very much agitated, Major Gordon in particular, never did a man possess more exquisite sensibility than he does; he is an honour to Society, and his attention and care respecting everything that could alleviate my poor Friend's misfortune will ever be remembered with Gratitude and esteem by his Brother Officers."[24]

Hugh Wodehouse Pearse reports that Lieutenant Colonel Lake "was one of the three field officers selected by lot to take charge of the troops in captivity, but, as he was anxious for private reasons to proceed to England, Major Gordon of the 76th [sic] Regiment generously volunteered to take his place. Major, then Lieut.-Colonel, Gordon died in captivity."[25]

Death and legacy[]

The Morris House which served as the headquarters of both the American and the British Forces during the War and in which Gordon died
Gordon's bedroom in the Morris House[26]

Gordon was the hero of the Asgill Affair: he remained at Asgill's side throughout his ordeal, never once leaving, unless on a mission to save his life. Not only did he offer to go to the gallows in Asgill's stead, saying: “I wish to God they would take me in your place; for I am an old worn out trunk of a tree, and have neither wife nor mother to weep for me. But even to that they will not consent; so all that I can undertake to do is, to accompany the unfortunate individual, whoever he may be, to the place of his martyrdom, and to give him every consolation and support while life remains, and to obey his wishes after it is taken away.” Having nobody to mourn his loss, was, of course, a lie - the most honourable of lies - overlooking that he had a mother, a brother and four sisters. But he also laid a detailed plan (with the help of several ladies in Chatham, New Jersey and no doubt beyond) to 'spirit Asgill away' to escape execution (to which proposal, as Katherine Mayo also reports, Asgill made the noblest of statements, not wishing to break his parole, "The lot fell to me, I will abide by it").[27] Mayo explains that Samuel Graham’s close friendship with Gordon, and the time they spent together in Manhattan in the year before Gordon’s death, brought the two Scotsmen closer together. Graham also served with Gordon in the same court and the two spent much time talking over past times. It was now that Graham learnt of Gordon’s part in planning an escape for Asgill: “With the help of certain American ladies whose friendship he had reason to know and to trust, Gordon had laid a well-ensured plan for the spiriting away of Asgill, should the order for his execution come through. This plan, in its entirety, could not be confided to Asgill, since, had he guessed its full nature, he would certainly have refused to stir. For it involved, for Gordon, the final sacrifice. The boy once safely off beyond recall or the possibility of return, Gordon, avowing his own authorship of the escape, would have stepped into the place of the condemned. Such, in essence, was his purpose. This project, so Graham in later time affirmed, “would have been effected.” That he declared no more, it is safe to say, was because of the women concerned, whom he would not implicate.“ [28]

According to Ambrose Vanderpoel: “Major Gordon seems to have been the chief sufferer from the threatened act of retaliation. He took Asgill's misfortune keenly to heart, and his health, which previously had been somewhat delicate, was permanently impaired by the anxieties of the summer. He returned to Lancaster a changed and broken man; a lively and jovial disposition which had formerly distinguished him gave place to profound depression; and even his release from captivity upon the cessation of hostilities, and subsequent appointment to a command at Kingsbridge, New York, with the brevet of lieutenant-colonel, failed to restore his health or revive his spirits.“ [29]

During his final moments he was greatly cheered and comforted by the knowledge that his conduct in the Asgill case had won for him the approval and commendation of the Prince of Wales.[30]

On his deathbed he was visited by Captain Samuel Graham who had served with him throughout the Revolutionary war. Gordon handed Graham a letter he had received from Lady Asgill (Charles Asgill's mother) in which she expresses her deepest gratitude for all that Gordon had done for her son. In Gordons under arms; a biographical muster roll of officers named Gordon in the navies and armies of Britain, Europe, America and the Jacobite risings it is said that this letter did not reach New York before he died.[31] But in Samuel Graham's Memoirs he recalls that Gordon asked him to thank Lady Asgill for her letter and to apologise to her for being unable to respond. This he did once he himself had returned to Britain.[32]

Gordon died of dropsy on 17 October 1783 at the Morris House in Kingsbridge, Upper Manhattan.[33][34]

He was given a military funeral[2] and was buried in an unmarked grave at Trinity Church Cemetery.[35][32]

Timothy Day's Tavern, Chatham, NJ, the location of Asgill and Gordon's confinement in 1782. From "At the crossing of the Fishawack" by John T. Cunningham (p.11) with permission from the Chatham Historical Society. "The Asgill Affair" is re-written in The Journal of Lancaster county's Historical society VOL. 120, NO. 3 Winter 2019 which has devoted the entire issue to this subject.[36]

On 20 December 1786, Captain Charles Asgill wrote to the Editor of the New-Haven Gazette and Connecticut Magazine.[37] It was a lengthy eighteen page letter in response to Washington's Papers being published in that newspaper on 16 November 1786. However, the Editor chose not to publish Asgill's letter and it has lain hidden from public view ever since. This letter has now been published and the following passage extracted since it refers to James Gordon.[36]

… These were the attentions I received from General Washington ― I had however a comfort beyond his reach ― totally above his power to invade      it was the Pride, the Consolation & Support which I derived from the exalted Friendship & Kind Compassion of Major Gordon of the 80th Regt who feeling for the distresses of a Brother Officer, [entrusted] by the best of Hearts in the cause of humanity & unwilling to leave a Youth of eighteen unadvised & unsupported to act in so peculiar & difficult a situation, sacrificed every Comfort to partake my hardships & Confinement & by the impulse of his excellent & noble Heart, felt on the [first] acquaintance all the steady & persevering Zeal that the longest & most tried Friendship could hope for or Claim     he was there the whole of this transaction the partaker of my hardships the support of my Spirits, & the monitor of my conduct     I am delighted at having the opportunity of proclaiming to the World his generous & benevolent attentions     Tho whilst I do justice to his Memory I aggravate the sensations of regret, which I must ever retain, for the loss of him

In his review of General Washington's Dilemma by Katherine Mayo, entitled "Only one hero – Major James Gordon", Keith Feiling writes that Mayo's book is, in some ways, a novel and as such deserves a hero. He maintains that the hero is not Washington – not the young Asgill and nor the murdered Huddy. The hero, he declares, was Major James Gordon of the 80th Regiment of Foot – [consisting of Edinburgh Volunteers]. Pointing out the many ways in which Gordon helped to change the disastrous path chosen for Asgill, he highlights that he worked to death to save his young charge. He helped Asgill face up to the fate handed to him; shared all the hardships of his imprisonment; "spurred Frenchmen and British and Americans to action" and in doing so shamed them all to eventually do the right thing. While he acknowledges that there have been other heroes in British military history, as anyone reading Sir John Fortescue and Winston Churchill knows, he says that Gordon's "plain courage and humanity shines in this ugly, tangled business". He thinks that all readers of Mayo's work should be grateful to her for bringing yet one more hero to the attention of all who care to read her book - "as the curtain falls on her intensely-wrought, moving, brief, and rounded tragedy".[38]

The Asgill Affair in drama[]

  • J.S. le Barbier-le-Jeune, Asgill.: Drama in five acts, prose, dedicated to Lady Asgill, published in London and Paris, 1785. James Gordon had a leading role in this play. The author shows Washington plagued by the cruel need for reprisal that his duty requires. Washington even takes Asgill in his arms and they embrace with enthusiasm. Lady Asgill was very impressed by the play, and, indeed, Washington himself wrote to thank the author for writing such a complimentary piece, although confessed that his French was not up to being able to read it.[39] A copy of this play is available on the Gallicia website.[40]

Notes[]

  1. ^ A uniform of this regiment has been sold at auction.[18]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c d e f "James Gordon". Huntly Express. 7 December 1906. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
  2. ^ a b Monday 20 October 1783 New York Gazette and the Weekly Mercury
  3. ^ Graham, James John (1862). Memoir of General Graham: with notices of the campaigns in which he was engaged from 1779 to 1801. Edinburgh: R. & R. Clark. p. 105. So much was he esteemed.
  4. ^ Jamieson, Bruce (2014). Linlithgow Through Time. Amberley. ISBN 978-1445636221.
  5. ^ "Lord-Lieutenant of Fife". Fife Council. Retrieved 17 February 2021.
  6. ^ "Elizabeth Gordon". Find-a-grave. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
  7. ^ Edward J. Davies, "The Balfours of Balbirnie and Whittingehame", The Scottish Genealogist, 60(2013):84-90.
  8. ^ a b "James Gordon". Huntly Express. 30 November 1906. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
  9. ^ a b c Jamieson, Bruce (2019). Linlithgow Lives. p. 11.
  10. ^ "Edinburgh and The Lothians Chapter XXIII - Linlithgow". Electric Scotland. Retrieved 15 November 2019.
  11. ^ "James Glen (1701-1777)". Scottish Places. Retrieved 15 November 2019.
  12. ^ Robinson, Walter Stitt (1996). James Glen: From Scottish Provost to Royal Governor of South Carolina. Greenwood Publishing. p. 130. ISBN 9780313297601.
  13. ^ a b c Graham, James John (1862). Memoir of General Graham: with notices of the campaigns in which he was engaged from 1779 to 1801. Edinburgh: R. & R. Clark. p. 18. Glen Gordon.
  14. ^ a b "Select Writings of Robert Chambers Volume 5 History of the Rebellion 1745-1746". W. And R. Chambers. 1847.
  15. ^ "Grahams of Airth and Graham-Stirling of Strowan". A Book of the Graemes. Retrieved 19 November 2019.
  16. ^ a b "The raising of a regiment in the American War of Independence III". Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research. 1949. Retrieved 14 September 2019.
  17. ^ "80th Regiment of Foot (Royal Edinburgh Volunteers)". Regiments.org. Archived from the original on 28 November 2007. Retrieved 14 September 2019.
  18. ^ "Uniform of 80th Regiment of Foot (Royal Edinburgh Volunteers)". Retrieved 14 November 2019.
  19. ^ Wright, Waldo Carlton. "The Captain Asgill Affair" (PDF). Dalhousie University. pp. 452–458. Retrieved 14 September 2019.
  20. ^ "Captain The Hon Cosmo Gordon". British Empire. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
  21. ^ Kiernan, Victor (2016). The Duel in European History: Honour and the Reign of Aristocracy. Z Books. ISBN 978-1783608386.
  22. ^ Mayo, Katherine (1938). General Washington's Dilemma. London: Jonathan Cape. p. 12.
  23. ^ "General Washington's terrible dilemma". Massachusetts Historical Society. Retrieved 21 August 2019.
  24. ^ Mayo, Katherine (1938). "Appendix 2". General Washington's Dilemma. London: Jonathan Cape. pp. 265–267. (Appendix 2 is not available in the New York, Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1938 edition.) There are some errors in Mayo's book, relative to the names and regiments of the thirteen officers drawing lots, of which Henry Greville was one. The 7th Earl Spencer mistranscribed the name of the writer of the following letter. All references to The Hon. R. Fulke Greville, of the First Foot Guards, are now known to refer to Lieutenant and Captain The Hon. Henry Greville of the Second Regiment of Foot Guards (now known as the Coldstream Guards). All references to Asgylle and Asgyle refer to Lieutenant and Captain Charles Asgill of the First Regiment of Foot Guards (now known as the Grenadier Guards). See Abel, Martha (2019). "'Unfortunate': Lancaster, Pennsylvania, May 26–28, 1782". The Journal of Lancaster County's Historical Society. 120 (3): 97–105. OCLC 2297909.
  25. ^ Pearse, Hugh Wodehouse (1 January 1908). Memoir of the life and military services of Viscount Lake: Baron Lake of Delhi and Laswaree, 1744-1808. p. 64.
  26. ^ "Admission". Morris-Jumel Mansion. Retrieved 17 February 2021.
  27. ^ Mayo, Katherine (1938). General Washington's Dilemma. London: Jonathan Cape. p. 223.
  28. ^ Mayo, Katherine (1938). General Washington's Dilemma. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company. p. 256.
  29. ^ Vanderpoel, Ambrose (1921). History of Chatham New Jersey. Charles Francis Press. p. 455.
  30. ^ Vanderpoel, Ambrose E. (1921). History of Chatham, New Jersey. New York: Charles Francis Press. p. 456.
  31. ^ Skelton, Constance Oliver; Bulloch, John Malcolm (1912). Gordons under arms; a biographical muster roll of officers named Gordon in the navies and armies of Britain, Europe, America and the Jacobite risings. University of Aberdeen. p. 162.
  32. ^ a b Graham, James John (1862). Memoir of General Graham: with notices of the campaigns in which he was engaged from 1779 to 1801. Edinburgh: R. & R. Clark. p. 107. Copy of Lady Asgill's letter to Lieutenant-Colonel Gordon, delivered to me by him on his deathbed.
  33. ^ "Morris-Jumel Mansion". Morris-Jumel Mansion. Retrieved 14 September 2019.
  34. ^ Scott, Keith (1977). Genealogical Data from N.Y. Gazette-Mercury, 1783. Genealogical Publishing Company. p. 242. ISBN 0-8063-0777-3.
  35. ^ Mayo, Katherine (1938). "General Washington's Dilemma". Jonathan Cape. p. 259.
  36. ^ a b "The Journal of Lancaster County's Historical Society Vol. 120, No. 3 Winter 2019".
  37. ^ "The New-Haven gazette, and the Connecticut magazine. | Library of Congress". Loc.gov. Retrieved 2019-12-13.
  38. ^ Feiling, Keith (29 May 1938). "Only one hero - Major James Gordon". The Observer. p. 8. ProQuest 481400900.
  39. ^ "To George Washington from Jean Louis Le Barbier". US National Archives. 4 March 1785. Retrieved 13 December 2019.
  40. ^ "Asgill, drame, en cinq actes, en prose ; dédié à madame Asgill. Par M. J.-L. Le Barbier, le jeune". gallica.bnf.fr. Retrieved 27 August 2015.

Further reading[]

  • Ammundsen, Anne; Abel, Martha (December 2019) The Journal of Lancaster county’s Historical society Volume. 120, No. 3 Winter 2019
  • Davies, Edward J. "The Balfours of Balbirnie and Whittingehame", The Scottish Genealogist, 60 (2013) p. 84-90. Available from the Scottish Genealogy Society (www.scotsgenealogy.com)
  • Graham, James J., (1862) Memoir of General Graham with notices of the campaigns in which he was engaged from 1779 to 1801, Edinburgh: R&R Clark
  • Jamieson, Bruce, (2019) "Linlithgow Lives, Insights into Linlithgow life through the centuries" p. 11.Available from Linlithgow Museum (www.linlithgowmuseum.org)
  • Jones, T. Cole, Captives of Liberty, Prisoners of War and the Politics of Vengeance in the American Revolution 2019 | ISBN 9780812251692
  • Mayo, Katherine, (1938) General Washington's Dilemma London: Jonathan Cape.
  • Skelton, Constance Oliver, Mrs; Bulloch, John Malcolm, (1912) Gordons under arms; a biographical muster roll of officers named Gordon in the navies and armies of Britain, Europe, America and the Jacobite risings p. 162-163
  • Vanderpoel, Ambrose E., (1921) History of Chatham, New Jersey. Charles Francis Press, New York, Chapters 17–20.

External links[]

  • C-Span 3 American History TV. Philadelphia - Museum of the American Revolution. Talk by Professor Gregory Urwin, of Temple University, Doylestown on 4 October 2019
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