Related
1686] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 141 Being invited to devotion and dinner, by my Lord Chancellour
1686] DIAHY OF PATRICK GORDON. 151 pleasure, wee shall heartily embrace it. And so wee pray God
1692] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 179 Patrick Gordon of Cults
1686] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 163 and equity which I had on my syde
1686] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 131 Htle way, and being four, wee hired a coach
170 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1690 delighted that he made the Boyars
1686] DIAEY OF PATRICK GORDON. 113 I gott our landlord to conduct
182 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1694 Gordons my lawfull, undoubted, and irrevocable procurators
42 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1661 misfortune
1686] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 143 Gordon, and as much to the Lord Chancellour
Summary
Passages from the diary of General Patrick Gordon of Auchleuchries : A.D. 1635-A.D. 1699"
1686] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 143
Gordon, and as much to the Lord Chancellour. I dined in the towne with
some noblemen ; and, in the afteruoone, did writt letters to Russia, London,
and Hamburg.
I dated and dispatched my letters to our chieiFe Minister of State, to my June
wyfe, Mr. Vinius, Mr. Cambridge in Hamburgh, my cousin, Mr. Meverell,
and Maior Dowgall, in London.
I payed some visitts to those I had not seen, and, intending to have June
gone north, I was, by my cousine, perswaded to stay untill my writeings
should come.
The Duke of Gordon tooke me up to the Castle, and show me all the June
places worth the seeing therein. I gave two dollars to the keeper of the
magazine, and four doUers to the guards. From thence I gave a visitt to the
Lady Marquess of Huntley.*
I dined in my lodging, and, in the afteruoone, passed the tyme in the Parke. '^^^'^
Father Leslyt came to me in the morning, and gave me a letter from June
my Sonne, James, and another from the Rector of the CoUedge of Doway,
called Gilbert Inglis,:|: I dined in the towne with some noblemen, and was
in company this evening. Our dinner costed us ordinarily about halfe a
crowne, and our collations, two or three shillings a peece.
I heard devotion in Lady Lucy Hamiltons,§ and, being invited, dined J""^
with the Earle of Airly ; and, after noone, went to Lieth, and passed the
tyme there. In the evening, the Duke came by me, to whom I gave a
Turkish cimiter. Then wee went and walked in the Parke.
*[Mary, daughter of Sir James Grant of + [The Reverend Mr. Griffin informs me that
Freuchie, widow of Louis, third Marquis of Father Gilbert Inglis, a native of Aberdeen,
Huntly, and now wife of James, second Earl was more than once Rector of Douay. He is
of Airly.] mentioned in Dr. Oliver's Biography of Mem-
t [William Aloysius Lesley was a son of the bers of the Society of Jesus, p. 24.]
house of Balquhain. He was born in Aber- g [Lady Lucy Hamilton, third daughter of
deenshire in 1641, and, in 16G6, became a the first Earl of Abercorn, was affianced, before
member of the Society of Jesus. He was 1627, to Randal Lord Dunluce, afterwards
Superior of the Scottish College at Rome, from Marquis of Antrim, who refusing to complete
1674 to 1683. He returned to Scotland in the marriage, was ordered to pay £3000 to
1685, and continued to labour as a missionary the lady. (Sec-retaiy Stirling's Register, MS.)
there imtil liis death in 1704. (Dr. Oliver's She had a pension from the Crown, which
Biography of Members of the Society of Jesus, had fallen'into an-ear in January, 1686-7, when
p. 28 ) King James II. ordered the Lords of the Scot-
Father Lesley is believed to be the author tish Treasury to see it paid. (Abstracts of the
of the ' Laurus Lesliaua Explicata, sive clarior Records of the Secretary's Office, no. 478, 15
enumeratio personarum utriusquc sexus cog- January, 168G-7, MS.) Her house in Edinburgh,
nominis Leslie. (Graecii 1692.' fol. To him with tho.'^e of other Romanists, was plundered
also is ascribed the Italian Life of St. Mar by a mob at the Revolution in 1688. Count
garet, Queen of Scotland, printed at Rome in Anthony Hiimilton, the author of the Me-
1675. (Vitae Antiquae Sanctorum Scotiae, moires du Comte de Gramont, was her ne-
p. 308.)] phew.]
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.