[1] For this name see footnote to SHAPUR.
GORDIUM, an ancient city of Phrygia situated on the Persian "Royal road"
from Pessinus to Ancyra, and not far from the Sangarius. It lies
opposite the village Pebi, a little north of the point where the
Constantinople-Angora railway crosses the Sangarius. It is not to be
confused with Gordiou-kome, refounded as Juliopolis, a Bithynian town on
a small tributary of the Sangarius, about 47 m. in an air-line N.W. of
Gordium. According to the legend, Gordium was founded by Gordius, a
Phrygian peasant who had been called to the throne by his countrymen in
obedience to an oracle of Zeus commanding them to select the first
person that rode up to the temple of the god in a wagon. The king
afterwards dedicated his car to the god, and another oracle declared
that whoever succeeded in untying the strangely entwined knot of cornel
bark which bound the yoke to the pole should reign over all Asia.
Alexander the Great, according to the story, cut the knot by a stroke of
his sword. Gordium was captured and destroyed by the Gauls soon after
189 B.C. and disappeared from history. In imperial times only a small
village existed on the site. Excavations made in 1900 by two German
scholars, G. and A. Koerte, revealed practically no remains later than
the middle of the 6th century B.C. (when Phrygia fell under Persian
power).
See _Jahrbuch des Instituts_, Erganzungsheft v. (1904).
(J. G. C. A.)
GORDON, the name of a Scottish family, no fewer than 157 main branches
of which are traced by the family historians. A laird of Gorden, in
Berwickshire, near the English border, is said to have fallen in the
battle of the Standard (1138). The families of the two sons ascribed to
him by tradition, Richard Gordon of Gordon and Adam Gordon of Huntly,
were united by the marriage of their great-grandchildren Alicia and Sir
Adam, whose grandson Sir Adam (killed at Halidon Hill, 1333) at first
took the English side in the Scottish struggle for independence, and is
the first member of the family definitely to emerge into history. He was
justiciar of Scotland in 1310, but after Bannockburn he attached himself
to Robert Bruce, who granted him in 1318 the lordship of Strathbogie in
Aberdeenshire, to which Gordon gave the name of Huntly from a village on
the Gordon estate in Berwickshire. He had two sons, Adam and William.
The younger son, laird of Stitchel in Roxburghshire, was the ancestor of
William de Gordon of Stitchel and Lochinvar, founder of the Galloway
branch of the family represented in the Scottish peerage by the dormant
viscounty of Kenmure (q.v.), created in 1633; most of the Irish and
Virginian Gordons are offshoots of this stock. The elder son, Adam,
inherited the Gordon-Huntly estates. He had two grandsons, Sir John (d.
1394) and Sir Adam (slain at Homildon Hill, 1403). Sir John had two
illegitimate sons, Jock of Scurdargue, the ancestor of the earls of
Aberdeen, and Tam of Ruthven. From these two stocks most of the northern
Gordon families are derived. Sir Adam's daughter and heiress, Elizabeth,
married Sir Alexander Seton, and with her husband was confirmed in 1408
in the possession of the barony of Gordon and Huntly in Berwickshire and
of the Gordon lands in Aberdeen. The Seton-Gordons are their
descendants. Their son Alexander was created earl of Huntly (see HUNTLY,
EARLS AND MARQUESSES OF), probably in 1445; and his heirs became dukes
of Gordon, George Gordon (c. 1650-1716), 4th marquess of Huntly, being
created duke of Gordon in 1684. He had been educated in a French
Catholic seminary, and served in the French army in the campaigns of
1673 to 1675. Under James II. he was made keeper of Edinburgh Castle on
account of his religion, but he refused to support James's efforts to
impose Roman Catholicism on his subjects. He offered little active
resistance when the castle was besieged by William III.'s forces. After
his submission he was more than once imprisoned on suspicion of Jacobite
leanings, and was ordered by George I. to reside on parole in Edinburgh.
For some time before his death he was separated from his wife Elizabeth
Howard, daughter of the 6th duke of Norfolk. His son Alexander, 2nd duke
of Gordon (c. 1678-1728). joined the Old Pretender, but gained the royal
pardon after the surrender of Gordon Castle in 1716. Of his children by
his wife Henrietta Mordaunt, second daughter of Charles Mordaunt, earl
of Peterborough, Cosmo George (c. 1720-1752) succeeded as 3rd duke; Lord
Lewis Gordon (d. 1754) took an active part in the Jacobite rising of
1745; and General Lord Adam Gordon (c. 1726-1801) became commander of
the forces in Scotland in 1782, and governor of Edinburgh Castle in
1786. Lord George Gordon (q.v.) was a younger son of the 3rd duke.
The title, with the earldom of Norwich and the barony of Gordon Huntly,
became extinct on the death of George, 5th duke (1770-1836), a
distinguished soldier who raised the corps now known as the 2nd
battalion of the Gordon Highlanders. The marquessate of Huntly passed to
his cousin and heir-male, George, 5th earl of Aboyne. Lady Charlotte
Gordon, sister of and co-heiress with the 5th duke, married Charles
Lennox, 4th duke of Richmond, whose son took the name of Gordon-Lennox.
The dukedom of Gordon was revived in 1876 in favour of the 6th duke of
Richmond, who thenceforward was styled duke of Richmond and Gordon. Adam
Gordon of Aboyne (d. 1537) took the courtesy title of earl of Sutherland
in right of his wife Elizabeth, countess of Sutherland in her own right,
sister of the 9th earl. The lawless and turbulent Gordons of Gight were
the maternal ancestors of Lord Byron.
Among the many soldiers of fortune bearing the name of Gordon was
Colonel John Gordon, one of the murderers of Wallenstein. Patrick Gordon
(1635-1699) was born at Auchleuchries in Aberdeenshire, entered the
service of Charles X. of Sweden in 1651 and served against the Poles. He
changed sides more than once before he found his way to Moscow in 1661
and took service under the tsar Alexis. He became general in 1687; in
1688 he helped to secure Peter the Great's ascendancy; and later he
crushed the revolt of the Streltzi. His diary was published in German (3
vols., 1849-1853, Moscow and St Petersburg), and selections from the
English original by the Spalding Club (Aberdeen, 1859).
The Gordons fill a considerable place in Scottish legend and ballad.
"Captain Car," or "Edom (Adam) of Gordon" describes an incident in the
struggle between the Forbeses and Gordons in Aberdeenshire in 1571; "The
Duke of Gordon's Daughter" has apparently no foundation in fact, though
"Geordie" of the ballad is sometimes said to have been George, 4th earl
of Huntly; "The Fire of Frendraught" goes back to a feud (1630) between
James Crichton of Frendraught and William Gordon of Rothiemay; the
"Gallant Gordons Gay" figure in "Chevy Chase"; William Gordon of
Earlston, the Covenanter, appears in "Bothwell Bridge" &c.
See William Gordon (of old Aberdeen), _The History of the Ancient,
Noble, and Illustrious House of Gordon_ (2 vols., Edinburgh,
1726-1727), of which _A Concise History of the ... House of Gordon_,
by C. A. Gordon (Aberdeen, 1754) is little more than an abridgment;
_The Records of Aboyne, 1230-1681_, edited by Charles, 11th marquess
of Huntly, &c. (New Spalding Club, Aberdeen, 1894); _The Gordon Book_,
ed. J. M. Bulloch (1902); _The House of Gordon_, ed. J. M. Bulloch
(Aberdeen, vol. i., 1903); and Mr Bulloch's _The First Duke of Gordon_
(1909).
GORDON, ADAM LINDSAY (1833-1870), Australian poet, was born at Fayal, in
the Azores, in 1833, the son of a retired Indian officer who taught
Hindustani at Cheltenham College. Young Gordon was educated there and at
Merton College, Oxford, but a youthful indiscretion led to his being
sent in 1853 to South Australia, where he joined the mounted police. He
then became a horsebreaker, but on his father's death he inherited a
fortune and obtained a seat in the House of Assembly. At this time he
had the reputation of being the best non-professional steeplechase rider
in the colony. In 1867 he moved to Victoria and set up a livery stable
at Ballarat. Two volumes of poems, _Sea Spray and Smoke Drift_ and
_Ashtaroth_, were published in this year, and two years later he gave up
his business and settled at New Brighton, near Melbourne. A third volume
of poetry, _Bush Ballads and Galloping Rhymes_, appeared in 1870. It
brought him more praise than emolument, and, thoroughly discouraged by
his failure to make good his claim to some property in Scotland to which
he believed himself entitled, he committed suicide on the 24th of June
1870. His reputation rose after his death, and he became the best known
and most widely popular of Australian poets. Much of Gordon's poetry
might have been written in England; when, however, it is really local,
it is vividly so; his genuine feeling frequently kindles into passion;
his versification is always elastic and sonorous, but sometimes too
reminiscent of Swinburne. His compositions are almost entirely lyrical,
and their merit is usually in proportion to the degree in which they
partake of the character of the ballad.
Gordon's poems were collected and published in 1880 with a
biographical introduction by Marcus Clarke.
GORDON, ALEXANDER (c. 1692-c. 1754), Scottish antiquary, is believed to
have been born in Aberdeen in 1692. He is the "Sandy Gordon" of Scott's
_Antiquary_. Of his parentage and early history nothing is known. He
appears to have distinguished himself in classics at Aberdeen
University, and to have made a living at first by teaching languages and
music. When still young he travelled abroad, probably in the capacity of
tutor. He returned to Scotland previous to 1726, and devoted himself to
antiquarian work. In 1726 appeared the _Itinerarium Septentrionale_, his
greatest and best-known work. He was already the friend of Sir John
Clerk, of Penicuik, better known as Baron Clerk (a baron of the
exchequer); and the baron and Roger Gale (vice-president of the Society
of Antiquaries) are the "two gentlemen, the honour of their age and
country," whose letters were published, without their consent it
appears, as an appendix to the _Itinerarium_. Subsequently Gordon was
appointed secretary to the Society for the Encouragement of Learning,
with an annual salary of L50. Resigning this post, or, as there seems
reason for believing, being dismissed for carelessness in his accounts,
he succeeded Dr Stukeley as secretary to the Society of Antiquaries, and
also acted for a short time as secretary to the Egyptian Club, an
association composed of gentlemen who had visited Egypt. In 1741 he
accompanied James Glen (afterwards governor), to South Carolina. Through
his influence Gordon, besides receiving a grant of land in South
Carolina, became registrar of the province and justice of the peace, and
filled several other offices. From his will, dated the 22nd of August
1754, it appears he had a son Alexander and a daughter Frances, to whom
he bequeathed most of his property, among which were portraits of
himself and of friends painted by his own hand.
See Sir Daniel Wilson, _Alexander Gordon, the Antiquary_; and his
Papers in the _Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland_,
with Additional Notes and an Appendix of Original Letters by Dr David
Laing (_Proc. Soc. of Antiq. of Scot._ x. 363-382).
GORDON, CHARLES GEORGE (1833-1885), British soldier and administrator,
fourth son of General H. W. Gordon, Royal Artillery, was born at
Woolwich on the 28th of January 1833. He received his early education at
Taunton school, and was given a cadetship in the Royal Military Academy,
Woolwich, in 1848. He was commissioned as second lieutenant in the corps
of Royal Engineers on the 23rd of June 1852. After passing through a
course of instruction at the Royal Engineers' establishment, Chatham, he
was promoted lieutenant in 1854, and was sent to Pembroke dock to assist
in the construction of the fortifications then being erected for the
defence of Milford Haven. The Crimean War broke out shortly afterwards,
and Gordon was ordered on active service, and landed at Balaklava on the
1st of January 1855. The siege of Sevastopol was in progress, and he had
his full share of the arduous work in the trenches. He was attached to
one of the British columns which assaulted the Redan on the 18th of
June, and was also present at the capture of that work on the 8th of
September. He took part in the expedition to Kinburn, and then returned
to Sevastopol to superintend a portion of the demolition of the Russian
dockyard. After peace with Russia had been concluded, Gordon was
attached to an international commission appointed to delimit the new
boundary, as fixed by treaty, between Russia and Turkey in Bessarabia;
and on the conclusion of this work he was ordered to Asia Minor on
similar duty, with reference to the eastern boundary between the two
countries. While so employed Gordon took the opportunity to make himself
well acquainted with the geography and people of Armenia, and the
knowledge of dealing with eastern nations then gained was of great use
to him in after life.
In China.
He returned to England towards the end of 1858, and was then selected
for the appointment of adjutant and field-works instructor at the Royal
Engineers' establishment, and took up his new duties at Chatham after
promotion to the rank of captain in April 1859. But his stay in England
was brief, for in 1860 war was declared against China, and Gordon was
ordered out there, arriving at Tientsin in September. He was too late
for the attack on the Taku forts, but was present at the occupation of
Peking and destruction of the Summer Palace. He remained with the
British force of occupation in northern China until April 1862, when the
British troops, under the command of General Staveley, proceeded to
Shanghai, in order to protect the European settlement at that place
from the Taiping rebels. The Taiping revolt, which had some remarkable
points of similarity with the Mahdist rebellion in the Sudan, had
commenced in 1850 in the province of Kwangsi. The leader, Hung Sin
Tsuan, a semi-political, semi-religious enthusiast, assumed the title of
Tien Wang, or Heavenly King, and by playing on the feelings of the lower
class of people gradually collected a considerable force. The Chinese
authorities endeavoured to arrest him, but the imperialist troops were
defeated. The area of revolt extended northwards through the provinces
of Hunan and Hupeh, and down the valley of the Yangtsze-kiang as far as
the great city of Nanking, which was captured by the rebels in 1853.
Here the Tien Wang established his court, and while spending his own
time in heavenly contemplation and earthly pleasures, sent the assistant
Wangs on warlike expeditions through the adjacent provinces. For some
years a constant struggle was maintained between the Chinese imperialist
troops and the Taipings, with varying success on both sides. The latter
gradually advanced eastwards, and approaching the important city of
Shanghai, alarmed the European inhabitants, who subscribed to raise a
mixed force of Europeans and Manila men for the defence of the town.
This force, which was placed under the command of an American, Frederick
Townsend Ward (1831-1862), took up a position in the country west of
Shanghai to check the advance of the rebels. Fighting continued round
Shanghai for about two years, but Ward's force was not altogether
successful, and when General Staveley arrived from Tientsin affairs were
in a somewhat critical condition. He decided to clear the district of
rebels within a radius of 30 m. from Shanghai, and Gordon was attached
to his staff as engineer officer. A French force, under the command of
Admiral Protet, co-operated with Staveley and Ward, with his little
army, also assisted. Kahding, Singpo and other towns were occupied, and
the country was fairly cleared of rebels by the end of 1862. Ward was,
unfortunately, killed in the assault of Tseki, and his successor,
Burgevine, having had a quarrel with the Chinese authorities, Li Hung
Chang, the governor of the Kiang-su province, requested General Staveley
to appoint a British officer to command the contingent. Staveley
selected Gordon, who had been made a brevet-major in December 1862 for
his previous services, and the nomination was approved by the British
government. The choice was judicious as further events proved. In March
1863 Gordon proceeded to Sungkiang to take command of the force, which
had received the name of "The Ever-Victorious Army," an encouraging
though somewhat exaggerated title, considering its previous history.
Without waiting to reorganize his troops he marched at once to the
relief of Chansu, a town 40 m. north-west of Shanghai, which was
invested by the rebels. The relief was successfully accomplished, and
the operation established Gordon in the confidence of his troops. He
then reorganized his force, a matter of no small difficulty, and
advanced against Quinsan, which was captured, though with considerable
loss. Gordon then marched through the country, seizing town after town
from the rebels until at length the great city of Suchow was invested by
his army and a body of Chinese imperialist troops. The city was taken on
the 29th of November, and after its capture Gordon had a serious dispute
with Li Hung Chang, as the latter had beheaded certain of the rebel
leaders whose lives the former had promised to spare if they
surrendered. This action, though not opposed to Chinese ethics, was so
opposed to Gordon's ideas of honour that he withdrew his force from
Suchow and remained inactive at Quinsan until February 1864. He then
came to the conclusion that the subjugation of the rebels was more
important than his dispute with Li, and visited the latter in order to
arrange for further operations. By mutual consent no allusion was made
to the death of the Wangs. This was a good example of one of Gordon's
marked characteristics, that, though a man of strong personal feelings,
he was always prepared to subdue them for the public benefit. He
declined, however, to take any decoration or reward from the emperor for
his services at the capture of Suchow. After the meeting with Li Hung
Chang the "Ever-Victorious Army" again advanced and took a number of
towns from the rebels, ending with Chanchufu, the principal military
position of the Taipings. This fell in May, when Gordon returned to
Quinsan and disbanded his force. In June the Tien Wang, seeing his cause
was hopeless, committed suicide, and the capture of Nanking by the
imperialist troops shortly afterwards brought the Taiping revolt to a
conclusion. The suppression of this serious movement was undoubtedly due
in great part to the skill and energy of Gordon, who had shown
remarkable qualities as a leader of men. The emperor promoted him to the
rank of Titu, the highest grade in the Chinese army, and also gave him
the Yellow Jacket, the most important decoration in China. He wished to
give him a large sum of money, but this Gordon refused. He was promoted
lieutenant-colonel for his Chinese services, and made a Companion of the
Bath. Henceforth he was often familiarly spoken of as "Chinese" Gordon.
Gordon was appointed on his return to England Commanding Royal Engineer
at Gravesend, where he was employed in superintending the erection of
forts for the defence of the Thames. He devoted himself with energy to
his official duties, and his leisure hours to practical philanthropy.
All the acts of kindness which he did for the poor during the six years
he was stationed at Gravesend will never be fully known. In October 1871
he was appointed British representative on the international commission
which had been constituted after the Crimean War to maintain the
navigation of the mouth of the river Danube, with headquarters at
Galatz. During 1872 Gordon was sent to inspect the British military
cemeteries in the Crimea, and when passing through Constantinople on his
return to Galatz he made the acquaintance of Nubar Pasha, prime minister
of Egypt, who sounded him as to whether he would take service under the
khedive. Nothing further was settled at the time, but the following year
he received a definite offer from the khedive, which he accepted with
the consent of the British government, and proceeded to Egypt early in
1874. He was then a colonel in the army, though still only a captain in
the corps of Royal Engineers.
To understand the object of the appointment which Gordon accepted in
Egypt, it is necessary to give a few facts with reference to the Sudan.
In 1820-22 Nubia, Sennar and Kordofan had been conquered by Egypt, and
the authority of the Egyptians was subsequently extended southward,
eastward to the Red Sea and westward over Darfur (conquered by Zobeir
Pasha in 1874). One result of the Egyptian occupation of the country was
that the slave trade was largely developed, especially in the White Nile
and Bahr-el-Ghazal districts. Captains Speke and Grant, who had
travelled through Uganda and came down the White Nile in 1863, and Sir
Samuel Baker, who went up the same river as far as Albert Nyanza,
brought back harrowing tales of the misery caused by the slave-hunters.
Public opinion was considerably moved, and in 1869 the khedive Ismail
decided to send an expedition up the White Nile, with the double object
of limiting the evils of the slave trade and opening up the district to
commerce. The command of the expedition was given to Sir Samuel Baker,
who reached Khartum in February 1870, but, owing to the obstruction of
the river by the sudd or grass barrier, did not reach Gondokoro, the
centre of his province, for fourteen months. He met with great
difficulties, and when his four years' service came to an end little had
been effected beyond establishing a few posts along the Nile and placing
some steamers on the river. It was to succeed Baker as governor of the
equatorial regions that the khedive asked for Gordon's services, having
come to the conclusion that the latter was the most likely person to
bring the affair to a satisfactory conclusion. After a short stay in
Cairo, Gordon proceeded to Khartum by way of Suakin and Berber, a route
which he ever afterwards regarded as the best mode of access to the
Sudan. From Khartum he proceeded up the White Nile to Gondokoro, where
he arrived in twenty-four days, the sudd, which had proved such an
obstacle to Baker, having been removed since the departure of the latter
by the Egyptian governor-general. Gordon remained in the equatorial
provinces until October 1876, and then returned to Cairo. The two years
and a half thus spent in Central Africa was a time of incessant toil. A
line of stations was established from the Sobat confluence on the White
Nile to the frontier of Uganda--to which country he proposed to open a
route from Mombasa--and considerable progress was made in the
suppression of the slave trade. The river and Lake Albert were mapped by
Gordon and his staff, and he devoted himself with wonted energy to
improving the condition of the people. Greater results might have been
obtained but for the fact that Khartum and the whole of the Sudan north
of the Sobat were in the hands of an Egyptian governor, independent of
Gordon, and not too well disposed towards his proposals for diminishing
the slave trade. On arriving in Cairo Gordon informed the khedive of his
reasons for not wishing to return to the Sudan, but did not definitely
resign the appointment of governor of the equatorial provinces. But on
reaching London he telegraphed to the British consul-general in Cairo,
asking him to let the khedive know that he would not go back to Egypt.
Ismail Pasha, feeling, no doubt, that Gordon's resignation would injure
his prestige, wrote to him saying that he had promised to return, and
that he expected him to keep his word. Upon this Gordon, to whom the
keeping of a promise was a sacred duty, decided to return to Cairo, but
gave an assurance to some friends that he would not go back to the Sudan
unless he was appointed governor-general of the entire country. After
some discussion the khedive agreed, and made him governor-general of the
Sudan, inclusive of Darfur and the equatorial provinces.