religion. On this account he was for some time out of favour, and when he went to court in March 1688 was so coldly received that he offered to resign his offices and retire to the continent, but the king would not permit him. After the landing of the Prince of Orange it was reported he had turned protestant, and had gone to Scotland to join the Duke of Queensberry (Hatton Correspondence, Camd. Soc. p. 122). Gordon, however, continued nominally to hold the castle of Edinburgh in behalf of the king, although he was on terms for its surrender when Dundee and Balcarres arrived from London with special instructions from James. When they went to confer with him they actually met his furniture coming out (Balcarres, Memoirs, p. 23). On 2 March the convention of estates before proceeding to business sent him a demand for its surrender within twenty-four hours, on the ground that their place of meeting was commanded by its batteries. He asked a night for consideration, but having had in the meantime an interview with Dundee and Balcarres, he offered to yield on condition that the promised indemnity were made to include all his friends, a proviso which he explained was meant to secure all the highland clans against hostile proceedings. The offer was possibly seriously meant, but it was regarded as a mere evasion, and on 18 March the convention proceeded in a very unscientific manner to invest the castle. On the following day he had his celebrated interview with Viscount Dundee [see Graham, James], who as he was leaving Edinburgh climbed up a steep part of the rock on the western side, and entreated him to hold the castle as long as possible. This Gordon promised to do (Memoirs of Ewan Cameron, p. 235), but his attitude continued to be chiefly passive. The garrison, which originally consisted of 160 men, was gradually weakened by desertions and disaffected. The duke was earnestly requested by the Jacobites to fire on the city in order to compel the convention to adjourn to Glasgow, but he absolutely refused to do so without the king's particular orders (Balcarres, Memoirs, p. 34). Both parties, indeed, virtually consented to an armed truce. After an ineffectual attempt to alarm the duke by throwing bombs, it was decided, in order to prevent injury to the castle buildings, to confine the operations to a blockade (Leven and Melville Papers, p. 57). Gordon did not bear up long against the strain of anxiety and uncertainty. Terms of capitulation were finally completed on 14 June, three days before the battle of Killiecrankie, the garrison receiving an indemnity for themselves and those who had aided them, and being permitted to march out with their arms and baggage. The duke declined to ask terms for himself, stating that he ‘had so much respect for all the princes of King James VI's line as not to make conditions with any of them for his own particular interest’ (Siege of the Castle, printed by the Bannatyne Club, p. 76). The reason of the surrender was stated to have been that the ammunition had been embezzled by Captain Drummond the storekeeper (Memoirs of the Siege, printed along with ‘Memoirs of Dundee,’ p. 41). In July William signified his desire that the duke should be kept a close prisoner (Leven and Melville Papers, p. 135). He afterwards proceeded to London, and, after making his submission, visited the exiled court of St. Germain, where he was ungraciously received. On his return to Scotland his movements were regarded with much suspicion, and he was frequently subjected to imprisonment. In 1697 his wife retired to a convent in Flanders, and a litigation ensued between them regarding a separate maintenance, in which the duchess, chiefly through the advocacy of Dundas, was finally successful (see her exulting letter, 19 March 1707, in Fraser, Chiefs of Grant, ii. 192). Gordon is classed by Hooke in 1707 as a ‘catholic and entirely devoted to the king’ (Correspondence of Nathaniel Hooke, ii. 101). He figures in the ‘Hooke Correspondence’ under the names of Sabina, Caesar, and Mr. Duncomb. His wife was also a zealous Jacobite, and in June 1711 sent to the Faculty of Advocates a Jacobite medal for preservation among their collection of coins. It was accepted, after a somewhat excited dispute, on the motion of her former advocate, Dundas (Flying Post, 31 July and 2 Aug. 1711, quoted in Arniston Memoirs (1887), i. 52). The incident is alluded to in Scott's ‘Heart of Midlothian.’ On the accession of George I, the duke, being considered hostile to the Hanoverian dynasty, was ordered to be confined in the city of Edinburgh on his parole. He died at Leith 7 Dec. 1716. He had a son Alexander, second duke of Gordon [q. v.]; and a daughter Jean, married to the fifth Earl of Perth.
[Fountainhall's Historical Notices (Bannatyne Club); Historical Observes (ib.); Memoirs of Ewan Cameron (ib.); Balcarres's Memoirs (ib.); Siege of the Castle of Edinburgh (ib.) Leven and Melville Papers (ib.); Correspondence of Nathaniel Hooke (Roxburghe Club); Lauderdale Correspondence in the British Museum; Napier's Memoirs of Viscount Dundee; Burnet's Own Time; Fraser's Chiefs of Grant; Macaulay's Hist. of England; Burton's Hist. of Scotland; Mackay's Secret Memoirs; Douglas's Scottish Peerage (Wood), i. 653, 654; Gordon's House of Gordon, ii. 580-608.]
