Gordon, Alexander

Male 1505 - 1530  (25 years)


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  • Name Gordon, Alexander  [1, 2, 3, 4
    Birth 1505  Dunrobin Castle, Golspie, Sutherland, Scotland Find all individuals with events at this location  [1, 3
    Gender Male 
    Appointments / Titles 1527  Sutherland, Scotland Find all individuals with events at this location  [1, 3
    Earl of Sutherland 
    Death 13 Jan 1530  Dunrobin Castle, Golspie, Sutherland, Scotland Find all individuals with events at this location  [1, 3
    Burial Aft 13 Jan 1530  Dunbar, East Lothian, Scotland Find all individuals with events at this location  [1, 3
    Person ID I31016  The Thoma Family
    Last Modified 20 Sep 2023 

    Family Stewart, Lady Janet,   b. 17 Jul 1502, Scotland Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 5 Oct 1562, Richmond Palace (Demolished), Surrey, England Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 60 years) 
    Children 
     1. Gordon, Katherine,   b. 1521, Lesmoir Castle, Rhynie, Aberdeenshire, Scotland Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 1569, Inverness, Inverness-shire, Scotland Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 48 years)  [natural]
     2. Gordon, Sir John,   b. 1520, Golspie, Sutherland, Scotland Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 23 Jun 1567, Golspie, Sutherland, Scotland Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 47 years)  [natural]
     3. Gordon, William,   b. 1529, Dunrobin Castle, Golspie, Sutherland, Scotland Find all individuals with events at this locationd. DECEASED, Scotland Find all individuals with events at this location  [natural]
     4. Gordon, Alexander,   b. 1526, Dunrobin Castle, Golspie, Sutherland, Scotland Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 1552, Scotland Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 26 years)  [natural]
     5. Gordon, Beatrice,   b. 1528, Dunrobin Castle, Golspie, Sutherland, Scotland Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 1565, Dunbeath, Caithness, Scotland Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 37 years)  [natural]
    Family ID F11824  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 20 Sep 2023 

  • Event Map
    Link to Google MapsBirth - 1505 - Dunrobin Castle, Golspie, Sutherland, Scotland Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsAppointments / Titles - Earl of Sutherland - 1527 - Sutherland, Scotland Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsDeath - 13 Jan 1530 - Dunrobin Castle, Golspie, Sutherland, Scotland Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsBurial - Aft 13 Jan 1530 - Dunbar, East Lothian, Scotland Link to Google Earth
     = Link to Google Earth 

  • Notes 
    • Alexander Gordon, Master of Sutherland (c.1505-1530), Scottish magnate, made Earl of Sutherland in 1527.

      Early life
      Alexander Gordon was the son of Adam Gordon of Aboyne (d.1538) and Elizabeth Sutherland, 10th Countess of Sutherland (d.1535), the daughter of John Sutherland, 8th Earl of Sutherland.

      Sutherland estate
      19th-20th century historian Angus Mackay rejects the history written by 17th century historian Sir Robert Gordon, 1st Baronet who himself was a son of Alexander Gordon, 12th, Earl of Sutherland. Sir Robert Gordon stated that between 1517 and 1522, John Mackay, 11th of Strathnaver led six warlike expeditions of his clansmen into Sutherland in which the Mackays were defeated in every one of them.[1] According to Sir Robert Gordon, one of these battles was the Battle of Torran Dubh, in which Elizabeth, Countess of Sutherland had persuaded her half brother, Alexander Sutherland, to resist John Mackay, whose sister Alexander Sutherland later married.[1] However, both historians Angus Mackay and Sir William Fraser show that it can be proved that Alexander Sutherland was in prison in 1517 when the Battle of Torran Dubh is supposed to have taken place.[2] Angus Mackay says that the Battle of Torran Dubh was actually fought by the Clan Mackay against the Murrays, Clan Ross and Clan Gunn, and not against the family of Sutherland.[3] According to historian Angus Mackay a few months after the battle another skirmish took place upon the borders of Ross in the parish of Rogart in which on one side William Mackay, chieftain of the Mackay of Aberach branch of clan was killed as was his brother Donald, and on the other side was killed John Murray of Aberscross.[1] Shortly after this the Mackays burned the town of Pitfure in Strathfleet, Rogart.[1] However, this was immediately followed by a bond of friendship between the Mackays and Adam Gordon, Earl of Sutherland dated 16 August 1518, in which Mackay renewed the bond that his father had made with the Gordon Earl of Sutherland before him.[1] Angus Mackay states that historian Sir Robert Gordon incorrectly refers to these skirmishes as "defeats" for the Mackays, and that Gordon also fails to mention that the Mackays rounded the year off by securing a title to the lands in the said parish of Rogart as confirmed by the Reay Papers.[1] Angus Mackay also disputes Sir Robert Gordon's account that in 1522, Sir Alexander Gordon, Master of Sutherland overthrew John Mackay of Strathnaver at Lairg and that Mackay then submitted himself to Gordon, the Earl of Sutherland.[1] Angus Mackay explains that Earl Adam, resigning the earldom into his son Alexander's hands was simply renewing the bond of friendship that he had made with Mackay in 1518 this time with his son Alexander.[1]

      William Sutherland, 6th of Duffus, as the new Laird of Skelbo and having entered into a fresh acquisition of territory gave a bond of manrent to Alexander Gordon, Master of Sutherland on September 4, 1529 which acknowledged that the Master of Sutherland had received him as a tenant and vassal in the lands. A breach of the bond of service and manrent would incur a fine of £1500 Scots, £500 of which would have to be paid to Dornoch Cathedral, £500 to the Master of Sutherland and £500 to the King.[4]

      Perhaps in connection with Alexander's marriage to Janet Stewart, daughter of John Stewart, 2nd Earl of Atholl, his parents resigned the Earldom of Sutherland to Alexander in November 1527, and a crown charter to this effect was issued in December. Alexander, now Earl of Sutherland lived at Dunrobin Castle, and died there on 13 January 1530.[5]

      Master's charter
      Alexander's royal charter of the earldom, dated 1 December 1527 describes his parents as the Earl of Countess of Sutherland. They resigned to him the earldom of Sutherland and its lands, Dunrobin with all its tenants and outliers, mills, sea and freshwater fishing, patronage of the church and chapel there, with some reservations to Adam and Elizabeth in their lifetimes. As Alexander pre-deceased his parents, he did not profit from the earldom in full.[6]

      Family
      With Janet Stewart, Alexander had children:

      John Gordon, 11th Earl of Sutherland
      Alexander Gordon (of Kintessock), (d.1552)
      William Gordon
      Janet Gordon, married Patrick Dunbar of Westfield and Cumnock
      Beatrice Gordon, married William Sinclair of Dunbeath.
      References
      Robert Gordon of Gordonstoun, A Genealogical History of the Earldom of Sutherland, from Its Origin to the Year 1630; with a Continuation to the Year 1651, Edinburgh (1813)
      Mackay, Angus (1906). The Book of Mackay. pp. 77–85.
      Mackay, Angus. (1906). The Book of Mackay. p. 82. Quoting: Fraser, Sir William, The Sutherland Book.
      Mackay, Angus. (1906). The Book of Mackay. pp. 82 – 83. Quoting: the MS Account of the Gunns.
      Paul, James Balfour (1906). The Scots Peerage; Founded on Wood's Edition of Sir Robert Douglas's Peerage of Scotland; Containing an Historical and Genealogical Account of the Nobility of that Kingdom. Vol. III. Edinburgh: David Douglas. pp. 197-198. Retrieved 28 August 2021.
      Fraser, William, ed., Sutherland Book, vol.1 (1892), pp.90-98
      Register of the Great Seal of Scotland, 1513-1546, (1883), p.116 no.520

  • Sources 
    1. [S1531] SCOTLAND: Births and Baptisms, 1564-1950.
      https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1771030

    2. [S1532] SCOTLAND: Marriages, 1561-1910.
      https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1771074

    3. [S818] NETHERLANDS: GenealogieOnline Trees Index 1000-Current.
      https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/9289/

    4. [S790] WORLD: Family Search, Ancestral File.
      https://www.familysearch.org/search/genealogies