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Alexander Gordon of Earlston
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Alexander Gordon of Earlston
Sir Alexander Gordon of Earlston (1650–1726) was a 17th-century Scottish gentleman. He was known as a Covenanter and was member of the United Societies network. He was involved in the early 1680s in fomenting rebellion against the Crown in Scotland.
Alexander Gordon was the son of William Gordon of Earlston, the correspondent of Samuel Rutherford, and brother of Sir William Gordon, 1st Baronet of Earlston.
In 1679, his father was on his way to join the Covenanters at Bothwell Bridge when he was shot by a gang of English dragoons and flung into a ditch. Alexander was in the army of the Covenanters at Bothwell Bridge, and narrowly escaped being taken by the ingenuity of one of his tenants, who recognizing him as he rode through Hamilton, made him dismount, hid his horse's furniture in a dunghill, dressed him in women's clothes, and set him to rock the cradle.
For his participation in that conflict, Gordon was tried before the High Court of Justiciary on a charge of treason on 19 February 1680. He was found guilty and sentenced to death in absentia. He escaped capture for more than three years. On one occasion, in the dress of a servant, he helped the dragoons in searching the house for himself. From 1682, Gordon was involved with John Nisbet in seeking support and financial assistance for the radical Covenanters, a group known as the United Societies. They travelled together to London, and Gordon then went on his own to Holland.
On 1 June 1683, Gordon embarked there for Holland with a person named Edward Aitken, and both were seized by some customs officers. When they were about to set sail from Newcastle on covert business, Gordon and his servant were arrested. The pair tried to destroy papers by throwing them overboard, but they were recovered, and showed Gordon to be a conspirator. He was taken under guard to Edinburgh. They were sent for trial to Edinburgh, where, on 10 July 1683, Aitken was condemned to death on the simple charge of harbouring Gordon.
A trial was thought superfluous, but Gordon was examined several times in reference to his knowledge of the Rye House Plot. His depositions on these occasions, viz. 30 June, 5 July, and 25 September 1683, with Nisbet's letter, and his own commission from the ‘societies’ in Scotland, were printed at length by Thomas Sprat in his True Account of the Horrid Conspiracy against the late King.
On 16 August, he had been brought to the bar of the justiciary court, and the sentence of death and forfeiture was passed upon him, and 28 September was fixed as the date of his execution. The King ordered the Privy Council of Scotland to put Gordon to the torture of the boots in order to extort from him the names of his accomplices. The council replied that it was irregular to torture malefactors after they had been condemned to death, but the King responded by sending Gordon on 11 September a reprieve till the second Friday of November.
Gordon about this time made an ineffectual effort to escape. On 3 November, King Charles II extended the reprieve for a month, and a fortnight later again wrote ordering Gordon to be examined by torture. This command was immediately obeyed, but Gordon, on being brought to the council chamber on 23 November, either ‘through fear or distraction, roared out like a bull, and cried and struck about him so that the hangman and his man durst scarce lay hands on him,’ and at last fell down in a swoon. Upon recovering, he named several royalists as among the plotters, as some thought from madness or out of design. The Earl of Aberdeen, then chancellor, however, befriended him, and he was remitted to the care of the physicians. For greater quietness, they sent him to the castle of Edinburgh. On 13 December, his case was again before the council, when, as it was thought that the execution of a man in a state of insanity would endanger his soul, he was reprieved until the last Friday of January 1684.
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Alexander Gordon of Earlston
Sir Alexander Gordon of Earlston (1650–1726) was a 17th-century Scottish gentleman. He was known as a Covenanter and was member of the United Societies network. He was involved in the early 1680s in fomenting rebellion against the Crown in Scotland.
Alexander Gordon was the son of William Gordon of Earlston, the correspondent of Samuel Rutherford, and brother of Sir William Gordon, 1st Baronet of Earlston.
In 1679, his father was on his way to join the Covenanters at Bothwell Bridge when he was shot by a gang of English dragoons and flung into a ditch. Alexander was in the army of the Covenanters at Bothwell Bridge, and narrowly escaped being taken by the ingenuity of one of his tenants, who recognizing him as he rode through Hamilton, made him dismount, hid his horse's furniture in a dunghill, dressed him in women's clothes, and set him to rock the cradle.
For his participation in that conflict, Gordon was tried before the High Court of Justiciary on a charge of treason on 19 February 1680. He was found guilty and sentenced to death in absentia. He escaped capture for more than three years. On one occasion, in the dress of a servant, he helped the dragoons in searching the house for himself. From 1682, Gordon was involved with John Nisbet in seeking support and financial assistance for the radical Covenanters, a group known as the United Societies. They travelled together to London, and Gordon then went on his own to Holland.
On 1 June 1683, Gordon embarked there for Holland with a person named Edward Aitken, and both were seized by some customs officers. When they were about to set sail from Newcastle on covert business, Gordon and his servant were arrested. The pair tried to destroy papers by throwing them overboard, but they were recovered, and showed Gordon to be a conspirator. He was taken under guard to Edinburgh. They were sent for trial to Edinburgh, where, on 10 July 1683, Aitken was condemned to death on the simple charge of harbouring Gordon.
A trial was thought superfluous, but Gordon was examined several times in reference to his knowledge of the Rye House Plot. His depositions on these occasions, viz. 30 June, 5 July, and 25 September 1683, with Nisbet's letter, and his own commission from the ‘societies’ in Scotland, were printed at length by Thomas Sprat in his True Account of the Horrid Conspiracy against the late King.
On 16 August, he had been brought to the bar of the justiciary court, and the sentence of death and forfeiture was passed upon him, and 28 September was fixed as the date of his execution. The King ordered the Privy Council of Scotland to put Gordon to the torture of the boots in order to extort from him the names of his accomplices. The council replied that it was irregular to torture malefactors after they had been condemned to death, but the King responded by sending Gordon on 11 September a reprieve till the second Friday of November.
Gordon about this time made an ineffectual effort to escape. On 3 November, King Charles II extended the reprieve for a month, and a fortnight later again wrote ordering Gordon to be examined by torture. This command was immediately obeyed, but Gordon, on being brought to the council chamber on 23 November, either ‘through fear or distraction, roared out like a bull, and cried and struck about him so that the hangman and his man durst scarce lay hands on him,’ and at last fell down in a swoon. Upon recovering, he named several royalists as among the plotters, as some thought from madness or out of design. The Earl of Aberdeen, then chancellor, however, befriended him, and he was remitted to the care of the physicians. For greater quietness, they sent him to the castle of Edinburgh. On 13 December, his case was again before the council, when, as it was thought that the execution of a man in a state of insanity would endanger his soul, he was reprieved until the last Friday of January 1684.