Patrick Gordon of the Gordons of Methlic and Haddo was born in 1628, son of James Gordon and Anne Forbes.[1] Indeed, Patrick’s branch of the Gordons of Methlic and Haddo, more than any other branch of Gordons at the time, was a driving force behind the rash of inter-clan marriages in that day which were aimed at closing the rift between the clans that had allied with either Clan Forbes or Clan Gordon in their feud during the late 16th century. His father James was the son of John Gordon, who had married Elizabeth Crichton of Clan Crichton. She was the younger sister of William Crichton, 1st Earl of Dumfries, and the daughter of William Crichton and Katherine Carmichael.[2] John and his older brother George had themselves been the product of a union between James Gordon of Methlic and Haddo and Jean Keith of Clan Keith, daughter of William Keith, Master of Marischal. James Gordon had even been the product of marriage between Patrick (who had even lived to see the clan feud Battles of Tillieangus and Craibstone in 1571) and Agnes Frazer, daughter of Alexander Frazer (presumably of Clan Fraser).[3] The marriage of Patrick’s parents in 1627 (paralleled in 1630 in the other branch of the family by Patrick’s aunt Mary Forbes and cousin Sir John Gordon, 1st Baronet of Haddo) was the culminating step in a multi-generational process of forming new alliances where a feud had once endured for centuries.
Even within his own line, Patrick had an auspicious pedigree. The Aberdeen branch of Clan Gordon known as the Gordons of Methlic and Haddo were traced back through his great-grandfather James, his great-great-grandfather Patrick, and so on through James, George, James, James, Patrick, James, Jock, and Sir John with an unbroken male line of descent. On the other hand, the historically unknown Gordon who was Sir John’s father was also the father of Elizabeth Gordon, who married Sir Alexander Seton of Clan Seton, from whom the Gordons of Huntly were descended. With a documented unbroken male line of descent such as the Gordons of Methlic and Haddo had, they held a strong position within the legacy of Clan Gordon. Should Patrick’s great-uncle George’s line ever dwindle, Patrick stood to gain the inheritance of Methlic and Haddo, and the Haddo line might in the future rise to ascendance in Clan Gordon due to its male lineage from the House’s founders. Since his cousin Sir John, 1st Baronet of Haddo, who had succeeded to the family estates in1624, had not yet had any children, upon Patrick’s birth it was quite possible that the inheritance might revert to his branch, and thus to himself. Given this situation, his father James began right away to raise Patrick in preparation for life as an entitled noble. But by the time Patrick was 3 in 1632, his father’s hopes were dashed – Patrick’s aunt Mary gave birth to a healthy son, named John after his father. Fives years later in 1637 she had another son, George, and Patrick’s odds of inheritance dwindled to almost nothing. The later birth of her daughter Janet did nothing to change the path of inheritance, really, but stood as a symbol of the prosperity of the other branch of Gordons of Haddo.
As Patrick entered his teenage years, he and his father held little hope for a shift in inheritance within the family. Still, when the Bishops’ Wars came in 1639 and 1640, the polarization of Scotland for or against King Charles I helped Patrick’s father imagine another path to success for his only son. If he could be raised as a good leader, he might serve the king well in the future and be granted a baronetcy, even though the easiest chance to do so had vanished when Charles had given up Nova Scotia to the French in 1631 in the Treaty of Suza. Still, the growth of the Covenanters’ opposition to the king suggested to James Gordon that if his son were raised as a good leader and a Royalist, that he might find favor on the winning side once the Covenanters were defeated. Thus Patrick was trained early in literacy, politics, estate management, tactics, and combat. Young Patrick learned well, and looked every bit a contender to be the next great leader of his family, even though his cousin Sir John’s family carried the titles.
Another stake that Patrick’s family had in the Royalist cause was that the Gordons of Methlic and Haddo were Catholic, as were the infamous Gordons of Gight. The Gordons of Huntly were apparently originally Catholic, but many were adopting Protestant (Covenanter) allegiance by the 1640s. If a purely Catholic branch of the Gordons with a documented unbroken male descent of inheritance could shine in the service of the Royalist cause, those Gordons of Huntly who would be defeated and convicted with the Covenanters might be subject to attainder, and the king would then have access to more lands to grant his favorites. To Patrick and his father, this certainly seemed the best plan to serve their principles while securing the future of their family and keeping Gordon lands held by Covenanter-allied Gordons of Huntly from being granted outside of the clan when the king’s followers regained full control of Scotland.
The sense of their plan was quickly illustrated when King Charles appointed Sir John Gordon second in command to the Marquis of Huntly, his lieutenant in the north. While young Patrick trained at home, his cousin fought for Charles at the “Trot of Turiff”. Charles created John the 1st Baronet of Haddo in 1642.
In 1644, when Patrick was 16 years old, the chance to realize his father’s plan at his cousin’s side finally came. The Covenanters allied with the English parliament against the king and mobilized into England, and the Marquis of Huntly took up arms as Royalists and Sir John joined him. They were both excommunicated by the Covenanters, cementing the majority of Clan Gordon as enemies of the Covenanting Convention. Patrick quickly joined under his younger cousin’s command. Soon, though, Huntly disbanded and retreated, leaving the Gordons of Haddo alone to defend their estate at Kelly near Aberdeen when the Marquis of Argyll advanced with a strong force sent to crush them. John’s cousin, the Earl Marischal, urged him to capitulate to honorable terms of surrender, and John did so on May 8th, 1644. “The greater part of the garrison was dismissed, but Sir John, Captain Logie, and four or five others, were detained as prisoners. The author of the history of the Gordon family asserts that Argyll ‘destroyed and plundered everything that was in the house, carried away out of the garners 180 chalders victual, killed and drove away all the horse, nolt, and sheep that belonged to Sir John and his tenants round about,’ and that this ‘barbarous usage touched Marischal in the most sensible part; he took it as an open affront to himself,’ being a violation of the terms of surrender.”[4] Sir John and the others were taken and imprisoned in Edinburgh at St. Giles’ Church’s western division, which came to be called “Haddo’s Hole”.[5] Patrick was among the dismissed, but he was incensed at how Argyll had destroyed the family estate, including the documentation proving the Gordons of Methlic and Haddo’s unbroken male descent, the most compelling evidence for their place within Clan Gordon in contrast to the Gordons of Huntly. The Scottish Civil War took on a much more powerful aspect when Sir John was beheaded at the Cross of Edinburgh on July 10, 1644. Sir John’s final words touched Patrick and his relatives deeply: “I confess myself to be a great sinner before God, but never transgressed against the country, or any in it but such as were in open rebellion against the King; and what I did in that case I thought it good service, and bound to it as my duty by the laws of God and the land.”[6] Thus Patrick’s conviction against the Covenanters was solidified.
On September 1, 1644 James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, and his Highlanders, joined by Alasdair MacColla McDonald and many Irish soldiers, defeated the Covenanters near Perth in the Battle of Tippermuir, suddenly revitalizing the Royalist cause in Scotland.
Quickly many Highland clans rushed to his side, including Clan Gordon. On September 13, 1644, Patrick fought on horseback with Sir Nathaniel Gordon, who led Gordon Clan infantry under James Graham of Montrose in the Battle of Aberdeen. The clan’s division was reflected as Lord Lewis Gordon, 3rd Marquess of Huntly (son of George, 2nd Marquess) fought alongside the Covenanters with his cavalry in that conflict. Again, Graham led the Royalist forces to victory, despite still lacking any sizeable force of cavalry. Patrick reported back to his clansmen about the need for cavalry among Montrose’s forces, and following Patrick’s advice, they prepared to support Graham soon with cavalry raised from Clan Gordon.
A few months later, on May 9, 1645 Patrick fought with the newly contributed Gordon Clan cavalry under Lord Charles Gordon (styled Lord Aboyne or Lord Gordon), who followed James Graham of Montrose in the Battle of Auldearn. Irish and Gordon infantry were also camped in the town of Auldearn during the battle. Again, Montrose led the Royalists to victory.[7] History makes it clear that the Highlanders played a large part in this victory, as well as the quick thinking of MacColla, but Montrose himself didn’t acknowledge the Highlanders at all in his battle report. Auldearn was an extremely bloody battle due to the confusion during engagement. At this point in Montrose’s victorious campaign, Patrick’s sense of the heroism and righteousness of war began to flag, but he kept it to himself, as none were willing to listen to him at the height of the army’s successes. In the coming years, Patrick would remember this battle as the turning point when he first felt called to lead a life of peace. Still, he was a young man with many affronts to his family and beliefs to avenge upon the Covenanters, so he went forth with the army as young men tend to do, trying to suppress his moral concerns with his genuine loyalty to family, nation, king, and the God of the Church, who was under attack by the Protestant Covenanters in his view at the time.
On July 2, 1645 Patrick fought with the Clan Gordon cavalry under George Gordon, 2nd Marquess of Huntly (a Protestant Royalist, styled Lord Gordon) in the Battle of Alford under James Graham of Montrose. “Montrose waited until the Covenanting horse was across the river, and the infantry crossing, before ordering a general attack. A fierce fight ensued around the ford, between the Covenant cavalry, under Balcarras, and the Royalist Cavalry, under Lord Gordon. Montrose committed his reserves, a force of Gordon infantry, and the Covenant forces broke. The difficulties presented by escaping across a ford meant that the rout was particularly vicious.”[8]
Again, Patrick was disturbed by the increasing bloodiness of the war. Also in 1645, Lord Lewis Gordon, who had at first fought along with the Covenanters in 1644, burned Brodie Castle down, apparently just because Clan Brodie was allied with the Covenanters. Patrick did not agree with such an extreme move on the basis of political allegiance, having been victim to it himself at Kelly, where his family’s records of descent had been destroyed. His view of the Gordons of Huntly in those days held them to be fighting viciously, motivated purely by political convenience: the leaders of the Gordons of Huntly were Presbyterians who supported the king only on secular terms. At this point, with his many priorities of loyalty and ideology in such disarray in the current political environment, Patrick lost enthusiasm for the war effort, as did many other Highlanders. There was little fire left in his heart for aggression, but he knew he would have to fight to defend what he had at home, so he continued to suppress the call in his heart for peace and went home to his family.
The Scottish Royalist Army soon dissipated due to the fractured aims of the clans, and the Highland troops (including the Gordons) went home to defend against the retaliation they anticipated from Clan Campbell for the vicious attacks Montrose and MacColla had commanded in Argyll. On September 13, 1645, Montrose’s remaining forces were routed at the Battle of Philiphaugh on the Scottish borders, and the Royalist cause’s run of success ground to a halt. In May of 1646, Charles I surrendered to the Scottish Covenanter army in England, and Montrose left for Norway. At this point, the Royalist cause was not just halted, but evaporated. The Gordons of Methlic and Haddo took stock of what was left to them, now that the documents proving their descent had been destroyed. Patrick and his father saw little hope for a prosperous future in Scotland anymore. James and his wife figured they might yet live on quietly to the end of their days as Catholics at home without being prominent enough to draw the ire of the Covenanting Convention, but Patrick was left with few options of upward mobility or prospects for profitable marriage that would not draw unwanted attention to his Catholic faith. For a while, he lived quietly, helping his father to manage their remaining estate, and hoping something would change for the better. Fortunately, no attacks of retaliation ever reached his family’s estates, and they were left in relative peace, but Patrick remained troubled by his experience in the war and the wrongness of the Scotland that was developing around him now that it was done. He became a quiet man, mostly staying at home and shunning the happier social events that many young men attend in order to find a favorable marriage and build a secure future. His heart was in turmoil, and he did not know yet what he must do to heal it.
He did spend some of his time in Aberdeen as well, there hoping to get the favor of any who might yet offer him prospects for the future. He was less aware of it, but closer to his heart lay his hope to find some clue as to what he could do to heal his heart of the concerns that had grown since his battle days. Being in Aberdeen on estate and social business afforded him the best chance of hearing news of the wars overseas. Part of his mild connection-building efforts included becoming involved with the Freemasons, who had been established in Aberdeen for some time. After decades of a gentrification transition from operative to speculative members, the Freemasons were becoming another path to building successful political and financial relationships somehow both outside of and underlying the political sphere. The broad spiritual creed of Freemasonry also helped to reduce tension between different types of Christian members, so his Catholic faith did not hinder him in becoming involved, though he knew to be careful of what they might teach thanks to warnings from Church leaders. With a discerning and guarded mind, he became involved, hoping to secure some means of making a living through the connections he would make, but more hoping those connections might one day offer him what he needed to answer the call upon his heart, which he still did not fully understand. As the Peace of Westphalia drew the protracted religious conflict on the Continent to a close in 1648, he received his first Masonic degree (Apprentice) in Aberdeenshire, but he was no closer to peace in his spirit.