Related
PREFACE. xxi grave, his grandson was a landless man, and another race of Gordons dwelt in Auchleuchries
APPENDIX. 213 Sasine, John Gordone, sone of Generall Patrick Gordone
PEEFACE. xxiil The first nuptials of the second daughter of Patrick Iwanowitsch were graced by the presence of the Czar Peter
xxii PREFACE. James, the second son of General Patrick Gordon, was at the Jesuit College at Memel in 1686
34 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1661 hired it ; the lodging or house belonging to that family
APPENDIX. 217 Sasine of Alexander Gordon on Aiichleuchries,
110 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1686 I gave up my petition
Alexander III and his family in the Gatchina Palace
42 DIARY OF PATRICK GORDON. [1661 misfortune
XX PREFACE. family debts, that Patrick Gordon makes his first appearance.
Summary
Passages from the diary of General Patrick Gordon of Auchleuchries : A.D. 1635-A.D. 1699"
XX
PREFACE.
family debts, that Patrick Gordon makes his first appearance.^^ He
was then a boy of fifteen, on the eve of setting out to seek his
fortune as a foreign mercenary, according to the fashion of a time
which taught the country gentleman, however needy, to look
on trade with contempt^ Twenty years of successful service
enabled the thrifty soldier to pay off one heavy encumbrance.^* He
discliarged another in no long time afterwards f and when, he died,
Auchleuchrie£ was freed of all but one inconsiderable bond. But
its release was to be short lived. The cloud of ' wadsets' soon began
to thicken again, and before Gordon had been thirty years in his
3'' Appendix, no. 41, p. 209.
3" Gordon's kinsman, Robert Gordon of
Straloch, in his Description of Aberdeenshire,
•written about 1650, says: ' Negotiatio
urbanis relinquitur : meliores (magno suo
malo) id vitae genus, ut natalibus suis impar,
dedignantur ; unde inopia multis ; cui
levandae, ad tractanda arma se accingunt,
quae, multis locis apud exteros, Belgas prae-
sertim, Gcrmanos et Gallos, semper amieam
et illis adamatam gentem, a multis annis,
cum laude, exorcuerunt; ingeniis, enim,
acribus et fervidis, sive Musis sive Marti se
mancipent, non leviter proficiunt.' — (Prae-
fecturarum Aberdonensis et Banfiensis De-
scriptio, in Collections for a History of the
Shires of Aberdeen and Banff, p. 6.)
France and Flanders were the first fields
in which the Scottish mercenaries dis-
tinguished themselves. The earlier years
of the se\enteenth century drew them to
Germany, then the great tlieatre of European
war. But they hart long before carried their
arms to the banks of the Nile on one side,
and to the shores of the Baltic on the other.
So early as 1310, a younger son of Hume of
Fast Castle was high in the service of the
Mameluke Sultan at Cairo. In 1319, the
Scottish Privy Council authorised the King
of Denmark to levy soldiers in Scotland for
his war against Sweden. The Danish King
had Scottish troops again in his pay in 1372.
In 157.3, there was a Scottish regiment, com-
manded by Sir Archibald Ruthven of For-
teviot, in the service of the King of Sweden,
then at war with the Czar of Muscovy.
Before 1391, Russia had Scottish mercenaries
in her own ranks. — (Proceedings of the
Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. ii.
part ii., pp. 160, 161 ; Acta Dominorum
Concilii, vol. xxxii. fol. 179, MS. General
Register House ; Epistolae Regum Scoto-
rum, vol. i. p. 313 ; Registrum Secreti Con-
cilii, 1371-1572, p. 169, MS. General Re-
gister House : Giles Fletcher's Russe Com-
monwealth, ft'. 39, 40. 55.)
Before the middle of the sixteenth
century, Scotland had begun to pour out
another class of adventurers — those wander-
ing traders who, in Gordon's day, as we see
from the earlier pages of his Diary, swarmed
throughout all the Polish provinces. Sir
John Skene speaks of ' the Scottesmen of the
realme of Polonia' so early a? 1369.' — (De
Verborum Significatione, voce ' Pede-pul-
verosus.') Not long afterwards they were of
such numbers and importance that a Scottish
Consul — Patrick Gordon of Braco —was sent
to Dantzic for their protection. He was the
only officer of his class of whom Scotland could
boast, with the old exception of the Conserva-
tor of Scottish Privileges in the Netherlands.
*a Appendix, no. 48, p. 211.
a» Appendix, no. 54. p. 214.
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.