Related
1661] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 47 good earnest to consider how I might ridd myself of this countrey
42 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1661 misfortune
1661] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 43 Wee rose early, and, towards eveniug, came to Kokenliausen
1699] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 193 ' A number of Strelitzes were executed
1686] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 131 Htle way, and being four, wee hired a coach
1686] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 163 and equity which I had on my syde
1657 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 27 left to support themselves by charity
170 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1690 delighted that he made the Boyars
1667] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 99 I went to Altenaw and heard devotion
1661] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 49 quarters, and exercized these souldiers
Summary
Passages from the diary of General Patrick Gordon of Auchleuchries : A.D. 1635-A.D. 1699"
1661] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 49
quarters, and exercized these souldiers twice a day in faire weather. I re- September 2
ceived money, twenty fyve rubles, for ray welcome ; and the next day,
sables, and two dayes thereafter, damask and cloth.
I received a months meanes, in cursed copper money, as did these who September ■>;
came along with me.
About thirty officers, most whereof I had bespoke in Riga, came to September 2:
Mosko, most of them being our countreymen, as Walter Airth, William
Guild, Georg Keith, Andrew Burnet, Andrew Calderwood, Robert Stuart,
and others, most whereof were enrolled in our regiment.
I marched, by order, into the utmost great tovme, and to the Sloboda October.
Zagrodniky, and tooke up my quarters
At the first, some contentions did fall out betwixt the officers and sojours,
with the rich burgesses, who would not admitt them into their houses.
Amongst the rest, a merchant, by whom my quarters were taken up, whilst
my servants were cleansing the inner room, he breake downe the oven in
the utter roome, which served to warme both, so that I was forced to go to
another quarter. But, to teach him better manners, I sent the profos* to
quarter by him, with twenty prisoners and a corporalship of sojours, who,
by connivence, did grievously plague him a weeke ; and it cost him near a
hundred dollers, bcfor he could procure an order out of the right office to
have them removed, and was well laught at besides for his uncivilitv and
obstinacy.
During my abode here, two notable passages happened, which follow :
The first : The souldiers takeing a liberty to keep brandy for their owne
uses, and sometimes to sell, which being prejudicial! to his Majesties reve-
nues (the profitt of all strong liquor brewed or made in his countrey, come-
ing into his treasure), it is not only strictly forbidden to all to sell any by
smalls, but the breach hereof most severely punished ; spyes and searchers
being every where, who, getting notice of the selling of any such liquor,
delate and immediately give notice to the office On a Sunday afternoone,
whilst I was in the Sloboda of the Strangers, a writter, with twenty or thirty
Streltsees, comeing to a house where the sojours had brandy, the doore being
shutt, befor they gott entrance, the sojours carryed their brandy back into
the garden, so that, after a narrow search, and nothing found, the sojours
* [Profos, that is. provost,— the provost marshal]
H
Gordon was brought up and remained a lifelong Roman Catholic, at a time when the Church was being persecuted in Scotland. At age of fifteen, he entered the Jesuit college at Braunsberg, East Prussia, then part of Poland. In 1661, after many years experiences as a soldier of fortune, he joined the Russian army under Tsar Aleksei I, and in 1665 was sent on a special mission to England. After his return, he distinguished himself in several wars against the Turks and Tatars in southern Russia. In recognition of his service he was promoted to major-general in 1678, was appointed to the high command at Kiev in 1679, and in 1683 was made lieutenant-general. In 1687 and 1689 he took part in expeditions against the Tatars in the Crimea, being made a full general. Later in 1689, a revolution broke out in Moscow, and with the troops under his command, Gordon virtually decided events in favor of Peter the Great against the Regent, Tsarevna Sophia Alekseyevna. Consequently, he was for the remainder of his life in high favor with the Tsar, who confided to him the command of his capital during his absence from Russia. In 1696, Gordon's design of a "moveable rampart" played a key role in helping the Russians take Azov. One of Gordon's convinced the Tsars to establish the first Roman Catholic church and school in Muscovy, of which he remained the main benefactor and headed the Catholic community in Russia until his death. For his services his second son James, brigadier of the Russian army, was created Count of the Holy Roman Empire in 1701. At the end of his life the Tsar, who had visited Gordon frequently during his illness, was with him when he died, and with his own hands closed his eyes. General Gordon left behind him a uniquely detailed diary of his life and times, written in English. This is preserved in manuscript in the Russian State Military Archive in Moscow. Passages from the Diary of General Patrick Gordon of Auchleuchries (1635–1699) was printed, under the editorship of Joseph Robertson, for the Spalding Club, at Aberdeen, Scotland, 1859.