Related
1692] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 179 Patrick Gordon of Cults
1690] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 107 their arrival was announced. Gordon was at once admitted to His Majesty
170 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1690 delighted that he made the Boyars
1689] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 165 memory, the younger Czar
1678] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 107 delivered to Gordon.
174 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1692 be restored. As for Harie Gordon
168 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1690 The twenty-eiglith of January
1667] DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. 95 After breakfast, I went to Greenwich, Sir John [Hebden]
24 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1656 in driving cattle was such
184 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1696 September 22. On twenty-second of September, the Czar commanded Gordon
Summary
Passages from the diary of General Patrick Gordon of Auchleuchries : A.D. 1635-A.D. 1699"
184 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1696
September 22. On twenty-second of September, the Czar commanded Gordon to order 15,000 arschin of
Englisli cloth according to pattern, one-third of it azure, another third dark blue, and the rest
raspberry colour.
A.D. 1695.
'I^rch. \yji]- against the Turks having been resolved upon, Gordon was ordered to march upon
Azof. He came in sight of the city upon the twenty-seventh of March, and, two days afterwards,
the army was joined by the Czar and the commander-in-chief of the expedition, Alexei Simono-
^^^- ^vitsch Schein. Itwasthemiddleof June, however, before the place could be invested. One of two
forts, called Callanshaes, having been stormed by Colonel James Gordon, the other was
^^^y- evacuated during the night following. About the middle of July, the besieged made a sally on
General Patrick Gordon's division, but were repulsed. During the following night, a German en-
gineer went over to the Turks, and betrayed to them the weak points of the Muscovite lines. The
next sally was, in consequence, directed against Lefort's quarter, and was so nearly successful that
the division was saved from destruction only by the opportune interposition of Gordon. The
Czar scolded and threatened the Strelltzes for failing to do their duty.
August 4. In tjie beginning of August, Peter determined to assault the town. It was in vain that
Gordon remonstrated; the attack was made, and failed, as he had foretold. 'Such,' he writes,
'was the unfortunate result of this ill-timed and rash undertaking, urged on, as I might say, by
Rehoboam's councillors. Of the four regiments, fifteen hundred men were killed, besides
oflScers. About nine o'clock, his Majesty sent for me and the other officers. There was nothing
to be seen but angry looks and sad countenances.'
A second assault, towards the end of August, was equally fruitless ; and in a few days after-
>ctober. wards the siege was raised. The Czar, with his generals, returned to Moscow about the end of
October.
On the fifteenth of November, Gordon writes, ' I drove with his Majesty to the iron works,
where I hammered a broad plate.'
A.D. 1696.
In January of this year, Gordon is found in correspondence with one of the two Scottish
Archbishops, Dr. John Paterson, who, when parson of Ellon, more than thirty years before, was no
distant neighbour of the family at Auchleuchries. He had been sent to the Castle of Edinburgh
in 1692, on a charge of being in communication with King James.]
TO HIS GRACE THE ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW.
January 29, 1696.
May it please your Grace,
I find my self both honoured and obliged by yours of the
second July. I am exceeding sorry for your sufferings, but cannot but
rejoyce hearing of your constant loyalty, and Christian patience. Suffering
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.