and a poorhouse. The city has two fine public parks. Aberdeen appears in the twelfth cen- tury us a populous town. William the Lion granted it a charter in 1179 and Robert Bruce extended its privileges. The English burned the town in 1336, but it was rebuilt and named New Aberdeen. It suffered severely during the civil wars of the seventeenth century. A period of great prosperity began in 1818, with the rediscovery of the art of granite polishing. Population of royal, parliamentary, and munic- ipal burgh, 1891, 123,000; 1901, 153,108, 9386 of whom overflow into Kincardineshire.
ABERDEEN. A city and county seat of
Monroe Co., Miss., about 130 miles southeast of
Memphis, Tenn., on the Tombigbee River, and on
the Illinois Central, the Kansas City, Memphis,
and Birmingham, and the Mobile and Ohio rail-
roads (Map: Mississippi, J 3). It has grist-
mills, lumber-mills, cotton-gins, and other indus-
trial establishments, and is principally engaged
in the cotton trade. Pop., 1890, 3449; 1900,
3434.
ABERDEEN. A city and county seat of
Brown Co., South Dakota, 280 miles west of
Minneapolis, Minn., on the Chicago and North-
western, the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul,
and the Great Northern railroads (Map: South
Dakota, G 4). It has a public library (Car-
negie) and is the seat of a State normal school.
The city has important commercial interests,
and manufactures brooms, mantels, patent medi-
cines, and artesian well supplies. Settled in
1880, Aberdeen was incorporated in 1882. The
government is administered under a charter of
1890, which provides for a mayor, elected bien-
nially, and a city council which exercises powers
of confirmation in the executive's appointments
of the majority of administrative officials. The
water works are owned and operated by the
municipality. Pop., 1890, 3182; 1900, 4087.
ABERDEEN, fourth Earl, of. George Ham-
ilton Gordon (1784-1860). A British states-
man. He was born at Edinburgh, January 28,
1784. He was educated at Harrow, and in 1804
took the M.A. degree at St. John's College, Cam-
bridge. In 1801 he had succeeded to the earl-
dom and made a journey through Greece, which
is perpetuated by Byron's satirical distich,
"First in the oat-fed phalanx shall be seen The traveled thane, Athenian Aberdcen."
He was elected a Scotch representative peer and took his seat as a Tory in December, 1806. In 1813 he was appointed Ambassador Extraordina- ry to Austria, where he gained the friendship of Metternich, whom he considered a pattern of diplomacy. He signed the Treaty of Paris, as one of England's representatives, on May 30, 1814. He was raised to the peerage as Viscount Gordon. He was foreign secretary under Wel- lington, 1828 to 1830, and under Peel, 1841 to 1846, in 1834 and 1835 acting as Peel's war sec- retary. The general principle which guided his policy as secretary of state for foreign affairs was that of non-interference in the internal af- fairs of foreign states, which, joined to his well- known sympathy with such statesmen as Metter- nich, exposed him — not always justly — to the suspicion of being inimical to the cause of popu- lar liberty. His gradual abandonment of high Tory principles was evinced by his support of the bill for the repeal of the test and corporation acts
and of the Roman Catholic Emancipation Act, The conclusion of the Chinese War, the Ashburton Treaty, and the Oregon Treaty were the principal services rendered to the country during his administration of foreign affairs. In 1852, on the resignation of Lord Derby, the extraordinary state of parties necessitated a coalition, and Lord Aberdeen was selected as the fittest man to head the new ministry, which for some time was extremely popular. The feeble and vacil- lating policy displayed in the conduct of the war with Russia gradually undermined its stability, and the disastrous mismanagement brought to light in the winter of 1854, in all departments of the public business connected with the war, filled up the measure of popular discontent, and led to his resignation in 1855. He died in London, December 14, 1860. Consult Gordon, Earl of Aberdeen (London, 1893).
ABERDEEN, seventh Earl of. Sir John
Campuell Gordon (1847 — ). A British states-
man. He was educated at St. Andrews and Uni-
versity College, Oxford; in 1880 was appointed
Lord Lieutenant of Aberdeenshire, and from 1881
to 1885 was lord high commissioner to the gen-
eral assembly of the Church of Scotland. In
1886 he was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
by Gladstone, and from 1893 to 1898 was Gover-
nor-General of Canada. In 1891 he became a
vice-president of the Royal Colonial Institute.
ABERDEEN, University of. A university
founded in 1494 by the Bishop of Aberdeen,
William Elphinstone. In 1505 the College of
St. Mary, later King's College, was founded
within the university. In 1593 Marischal Col-
lege was founded by George Keith, Earl Mari-
schal of Scotland. In 1860 these two were
united by act of Parliament into the University
of Aberdeen. The students retain the old divi-
sions into four nations, Mar, Buchan, Moray,
Angus. The officers are a chancellor, lord rector,
vice-chancellor and two secretaries. There are
a large number of bursaries or scholarships, ag-
gregating over £8000. The students number
about 900. There are faculties of arts, science,
theology, law, and medicine, with about thirty
professors and many assistants. The University
of Aberdeen has a library of over 130,000 vol-
umes and several museums.
AB'ERDEEN'SHIRE. A maritime province
in the northeast division of Scotland; bounded
north by Banffshire and the North Sea; east, by
the North Sea; south, by Kincardine, Forfar,
and Perth shires; west, by Inverness and Banff
shires (Map: Scotland, F 2). Its greatest
length is 102 miles; its greatest breadth, 50
miles, with 60 miles of sea-coast, and an area of
1955 square miles. It is popularly divided into
five districts, Mar, Strathbogie, Garioch, For-
martin and Buchan. The principal towns are
Aberdeen, the capital, Peterhead, Fraserburgh,
Huntly, Kintore, Inverurie, and Turriff. The
chief industries are connected with agriculture
and sea fisheries. Pop., 1801, 121,100; 1851,
212,000; 1891, 284,036; 1901, 304,400. Consult
A. Smith, History of Aberdeenshire (Aberdeen, 1875).
AB'ERDE'VINE' (origin unknown). A bird-dealer's name for the English goldfinch: also abadavine. See Siskin.
AB'ERFOYLE'. A village in Perthshire, Scotland, a few miles south of the Trossachs.
