Alexander Gordon, 4th Duke of Gordon

Alexander Gordon, 4th Duke of Gordon KT (18 June 1743 – 17 June 1827), styled Marquess of Huntly until 1752, was a Scottish nobleman, described by Kaimes as the "greatest subject in Britain", and was also known as the "Cock o' the North", the traditional epithet attached to the chief of the Gordon clan.

Alexander Gordon was born at Gordon Castle, Fochabers, on 18 June 1743; the eldest son of Cosmo Gordon, 3rd Duke of Gordon and his wife, Lady Catherine Gordon, daughter of the 2nd Earl of Aberdeen. He was educated at Eton and also possibly at Harrow. He succeeded as 4th Duke of Gordon in 1752. His younger brother was Lord George Gordon who led the Gordon Riots.

He was elected as a Scottish representative peer from 1767. He was appointed a Knight of the Thistle in 1775 and was created a Peer of Great Britain as Baron Gordon of Huntley, of Huntley in the County of Gloucester, and Earl of Norwich, in the County of Norfolk, in 1784. His new titles were not universally popular. He was thought to have taken designations to which he had no right. The Scots Peerage described the Gordon of Huntley peerage thus: "an absurd speciman of Peerage topography. The village of Huntley, four miles from Newent in Gloucestershire, had apparently no connection with the Gordon family or with the town of Huntly in North Britain." [Quoted in The Complete Peerage Volume VI, p.5, footnote b. ] While George Edward Cokayne in The Complete Peerage says the following with regard to the Duke's choice of Norwich for his Earldom: "His great-grandmother was the daughter of the 5th Duke of Norfolk and 1st Earl of Norwich, but though that title had become extinct in 1777, the representation thereof did not vest in the issue of that lady"." [The Complete Peerage Volume VI, p.5, footnote c. ]

He was Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland from 1794 to 1806 and from 1807 to 1827. Between 1793 and 1827, he was Chancellor of King's College, Aberdeen. In addition, he was Lord Lieutenant of Aberdeenshire until 1808. He received the Order of the Thistle from King George III on 11 January 1775. The Duke was a truly enlightened grandee. He planned villages, improved his estates and was well-regarded by his tenants. The Dictionary of National Biography described him thus: "At the time of his marriage the Duke was reputed one of the handsomest men of his day"

He raised regiments (the 92nd Highlanders) in 1794 for the American Rebellion and French Revolutionary Wars. He was responsible for establishing the village of the new village of Fochabers as well as forTomintoul and Port Gordon in Banffshire. He is also credited as the founder of the Gordon Setter breed of dog, having popularised a 200 year old breed during the 18th century and then formalised its breed standard in 1820.

He was an enthusiastic supporter and patron of the music of William Marshall (1748-1833), a Scottish fiddler and composer, and famous for his many strathspeys, who acted as steward of the Gordon household. [ [http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/LORC_LORP.htm The Fiddler's Companion] ]

His Grace married firstly on October 23rd 1767, at Ayton, Berwickshire, and again Mr Fordyce's house in Argyll Street, Edinburgh, Jane, the daughter of Sir William Maxwell, 3rd Baronet of Monreith, by his wife, Magdalen, daughter of William Blair, of Blair, Ayrshire. Duchess Jane was born at Hyndford's Close, Edinburgh in 1748, she was described by the diarist Sir Nathaniel Wraxall, as a celebrated beauty. From 1787 she was the social centre of the Tory party and was described in the Female Jockey Club of 1794, as possessing "an open ruddy countenance, quick in repartée, and no one excelling her in performing the honours of the table, her society is generally courted". It went on to say that "The Duchess triumphs in a manly mien; Loud is her accent, and her phrase obscene."She resided for some years in Edinburgh, but eventually refused to renew her residence at George Square, Edinburgh, because it was "a vile dull place".The poet Erskine wrote the following lines to her;- "That is, quoth he, as if the Sun should say, A vile dark morning this - I will not rise to-day." [The Complete Peerage Volume VI, p.6, footnote a.]

The Duke and Duchess's marriage was tempestuous from the start and neither made any particular effort to be faithful to the other. For some years before her death she was bitterly estranged from the Duke. While the Duchess resided in the centres of society, the Duke lived in retirement at Gordon Castle. Elizabeth Grant mentions "The great width of the Spey, the bridge at Fochabers, and the peep of the towers of Gordon Castle from amongst the cluster of trees that concealed the rest of the building....the Duke lived very disreputably in this solitude, for he was very little noticed, and, I believe, preferred seclusion." [Grant, Elizabeth. "Memoirs of a Highland Lady." Edinburgh: Canongate, 1992. Volume I, p 125.]

The Duchess is best remembered for placing the King's shilling between her teeth to help recruitment to the Gordon Highlanders which were founded by her son. However, she also possessed a capacity for match-making which was unrivalled. Of her five daughters, three were married to Dukes, (Richmond, Manchester and Bedford) and one to a Marquess (Cornwallis).

Her eldest daughter, Charlotte, married Charles Lennox, 4th Duke of Richmond. Their son eventually inherited all of the vast estates of the Gordon family. The second daughter, Madelaine, married firstly Sir Robert Sinclair, Bart who died in August 1795 and then married Charles Fysche Palmer, of Luckley Park, Berkshire. The third daughter, Susan (b 2 February 1774) married at Mr Fordyce's house, near Edinburgh, on October 7th, 1793, William Montagu, 5th Duke of Manchester. Elizabeth Grant of Rothiemurchas in her Memoirs of a Highland Lady noted in 1812 that "the Duchess [of Manchester] had left home years before with one of her footmen" while Lady Jerningham wrote in September 1813, that "The Duchess of Manchester is finally parted from her husband, her conduct being most notoriously bad". " The Duchess of Manchester died at Bedfont Lodge, on August 26th, 1828. The next daughter, Louisa, married at her father's house in Piccadilly in 1797 Charles Cornwallis, subsequently Marquess Cornwallis. Allegedly, the Marquess had "expressed to the Duchess of Gordon some hestitation about marrying her daughter on account of the supposed insanity in the Gordon family, he received from the Duchess the gratifying assurance that there was not a drop of Gordon blood in Louisa." " [The Complete Peerage Volume VI, p.6 footnote a.] The youngest daughter, Georgiana, was born at Gordon Castle, on July 18th, 1781. She married at Fife House, in 1803, John Russell, 6th Duke of Bedford as his second wife.

The Duchess of Gordon herself died at Pulteney's Hotel, Piccadilly, Middlesex, on 14 April 1812, 1812 and was buried at her beloved Kinrara near Aviemore. Her husband, the 4th Duke, married secondly, at the Kirk of Fochabers, (probably Bellie), in July 1820, Jane [or Jean] Christie, who was a native of Fochabers and was then aged about 40. The Duke had previously had four natural children by Jane Christie. After their marriage she lived in great style not at the Castle but at a town house in Fochabers. She claimed that by residing at the Castle, which the Duke had rebuilt and enlarged considerably, none of his friends would visit him.

One of the Duke's illegitmate sons, Colonel Charles Gordon, was given the property of Glasterim near Port Gordon. Curiously, Colonel Gordon had been a great favourite with the late Duchess. Elizabeth Grant described Colonel Gordon as "much beloved by Lord Huntly, whom he exceedingly resembled, and so might have done better for himself and all belonging to him, had not the Gordon brains been of the lightest with him." [Grant, Elizabeth. "Memoirs of a Highland Lady." Edinburgh: Canongate, 1992. Volume I, p 112.]

His second duchess died on 17 June 1824 while the Duke died suddenly at Mount Street, Berkeley Square, on 17 June 1827 (three years to the day after his second wife's death), and was buried in Elgin Cathedral. He was succeeded by his son George Gordon, 5th Duke of Gordon.

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