Related
1667] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 95 After breakfast, I went to Greenwich, Sir John [Hebden]
1667] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 103 to me, desireing me to let him have him
1667] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 99 I went to Altenaw and heard devotion
150 DIAEY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1686 Nethermuir. I went thereafter to the Links
1678] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 107 delivered to Gordon.
76 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1666 the cart was ready
1686] DIAEY OF PATRICK GORDON. 113 I gott our landlord to conduct
1661] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 47 good earnest to consider how I might ridd myself of this countrey
1692] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 179 Patrick Gordon of Cults
1666] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 79 I did writt to Sir John Hebden
Summary
Passages from the diary of General Patrick Gordon of Auchleuchries : A.D. 1635-A.D. 1699"
1666] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 79
I did writt to Sir John Hebden,* informing him of ray business and stay, September i
to my Lord Lawderdale, and father. T did writt to Russia to my wyfc and
her mother, to Doktor Collins and Mr. Bryan, and to the Dumnij Almais
Ivanovitz, giveing- notice of my tedious and expensive jorney, and my beino-
forced to stay here for want of passage, not dareing adventure by the
ordinary packet boat for fear of being robbed, as a Brandeburgish envoy
was lately by the piokarowus, desireing and hopeing that consideration
should be taken of my expenses.
I received an answer of my letter from Sir John Hebden, desireing me
to land at Deptford, and ask the way to Peckham, where he invited me co
stay in his house untill so long as cloaths and other things should be fur-
nished, which offer I resolved to embrace. I received an answer of my
letter to Mr Mettellan, giveing me notice that a Kings yacht, which was to
land at Newport, had orders to take me in.
I borrowed ten pounds sterling from Mr. Collison and recommended my
trunks and other things to Mr. Skeine, takeing only a bagge with my cre-
dentialls and other letters, and went downe by boat to Newport, and tooke September 2i
up my lodging in an Irishmans house.
Here I was farr more grieved as at Bruges, not hearing any thing of the September 2(
yacht, and wanting company. The next day, the packet boat arriving, one,
a Scotsman, told me that the Kings yacht, which had orders to take me
over, was forced to land at Bolloignej and would hardly come to Newport,
which grieved me exceedingly.
of Lieutenant General, together returned to torical Observes, p. 28.) Elsewhere he relates
their native country in 1665. It was not with how a Covenanter, brought before a committee
out great difficulty that King Charles II. pre- of the Privy Council, denounced the members
vailed on the Czar to allow them to leave his as 'bloody murderers and papists,' and railed
dominions. The severity of the military dis- at Dalyell as 'a Muscovia beast who used to
cipline to which they had been habituated roast men,'— (FountainhaU's Historical Notices
abroad, seems to have been matter of frequent of Scottish Affairs, vol. i., p 332.) The same
allusion in Scotland. TheCovenanting Kirkton assiduous annalist, in recording an instance of
speaks of Dalyell as a man whose 'rude and torture by the thumbscrew.", in September,
fierce natural disposition hade been much con- 168-1, tells us that 'the authors of this inven-
firmed by his breeding and service in Muscovia, tion of the thunimikins were General Dalyell
where he hnde the command of a small army, and Drummond, who had seen it in Moscovia.'
and saw nothing but tyrranie and slavery.'— ' But,' he adds, 'its also used among our
(Hist, of Church of Scot., p. 225) Bi'^hop coilyiars in Scotland, and is called the pilli-
Burnet's character of Drummond is, that he wincks.'— (Id., vol. ii , p. 5.')7 )
had yet too much of the air of llussia about Dalyell died at Edinburgh in August, 1685.
him, though not with Dalziel's fierceness." Sir Drummond was created >'iscount of Strath-
John i.auder chronicles the popular murmurs allan in 1686, and died two vcars afterwards.]
against the 'Muscovian rigour' of Dalyell's * [The Kussiau resident at London.]
military administration — iFountainhall's His-
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.