GORDON, ALEXANDER [SSNE 2499]

Surname: GORDON
First name: ALEXANDER
Title/rank: COLONEL AND COMMANDANT
Nationality: SCOT
Social status: OFFICER

Text source

Alexander Gordon began service under Alexander Leslie's [SSNE 1] command in 1626 in the Narke och Varmland regiment. He went on to serve as colonel and chief for a recruited dragoon regiment from 1634-38. In September 1635 Jacob de la Gardie was expecting Gordon and his dragoons in Elbing. In March 1636 Gordon and his regiment were sent to join General Johan Banér, along with 4 companies of Colonel William Gunn's [SSNE 159] regiment. At this time two of the companies in the regiment composed Swedish recruits who had been so weakened that another two companies were needed to be recruited in Sweden to complete the regiment. The Kammarkollegium records refer to him on 21 July 1636. Gordon was also chief of an infantry regiment from Savolak and Viborg area from 1636-47. During this time he served as a commander, possibly commandant in Greifenhagen, in May 1639.

In one of the final actions of Johan Banér's 1639 Saxon-Bohemian campaign, Gordon detached from the main army of Major General Lilliehöök with 400 men and attacked a negligently guarded Imperial unit outside Dresden. According to the report submitted to Banér by Gordon’s lieutenant colonel they captured over 20 pieces of artillery, 3 mortars, a vast quantity of ammunition as well as several officers and numerous common soldiers.

In 1641, he was instructed to supply Robert Hay [SSNE 2635] with a company in his regiment. One source notes Gordon as commandant at Driessen in the 1640s, and that he subsequently left Swedish service in disgrace (?). Perhaps he lost Driesen to the enemy? The Kammarkollegium records note that 10 soldiers in Colonel Alexander Gordon's regiment were to receive one month's salary and "en kommiss till en klamning" on 3 July 1643. On 14 June 1648, he was refered to as the late colonel Alexander Gordon.

Gordon's widow and the executors of his will became embroiled in a case with Robert Buchan of Portlethen [SSNE 4928] May 1653. The case concerned a financial loan and the legitimacy of Gordon's descendants. A Scot called Hay (probably Robert) and Baron Hugh Hamilton of Deserf [SSNE 2582] had acted as Gordon's executors and they and Gordon's widow were both being presented with demands by Buchan for the repayment of his loan. Apparently Baron Hamilton owed Gordon's widow money, and thus she could not repay Buchan. Buchan had lent Gordon's mother 2000 riksdaler in Scotland which Gordon had promised to repay, or to make Buchan his inheritor. In addition, Gordon had made a will which implied he had no children, but this was not the truth. Gordon however married his consort and legitimised his children. Hamilton and Hay gave up their roles as Gordon's executors when his widow moved into a new household in Brandenburg. In Danzig Buchan had met with a certain Cochran who gave him 400 riksdaler, which Gordon was supposed to pay off. A further complicating factor was that Buchan claimed to have approached Hamilton for help in his cause, particularly in selling Gordon's land to raise funds - and after advising him not to sell Gordon's lands Hamilton obtained them for himself. Finally, on the 8 August, Queen Kristina of Sweden decided that Buchan should receive 2000 riksdaler, presumably from Hay and Hamilton.

Sources: Swedsh Krigsarkiv, Muster Roll, 1635/1,28-31; 1636/18-23; 1637/13-17; 1638/21; 1636/13; 1638/5,16,20,23,25,27; 1639/12-17,19-21; 1640/11,13,14,17; 1641/15,16,19-25; 1642/9,14-17,20,21; 1643/2,11,14; 1644/13,16; 1645/13,16,21-24; 1646/11,15-17; 1647/16,11.

See esp: https://sok.riksarkivet.se/bildvisning/A0053320_00204

Correspondence by and concerning Gordon is found here: Riksarkivets ämnessamlingar. Personhistoria https://sok.riksarkivet.se/bildvisning/A0069662_00243#?c=&m=&s=&cv=242&xywh=13%2C1222%2C6377%2C3678

Also: https://sok.riksarkivet.se/bildvisning/A0069662_00252#?c=&m=&s=&cv=251&xywh=3015%2C707%2C3073%2C1772

Several letters can be found in 'Krigskollegium Kancelliet ; Adressatregistratur till Krigskollegiets Registratur 1631-1654' including "om folkets exercering 22/9/1636"; "om krigsfolkens uppmarschering till Helsingfors och Viborg 15/3/1638"; "på löjt Goran Simonssons vägnar 18/7/1640"; "kapt Johan Mattson att inryma honom Hans Simonsson Rijes komp. 13/10/1640"; another letter (re weapons for troops) 4/3/1641; "att föreställa och inrymma Robert Hay ett komp under sitt reg 7/8/1641"; "fullmakt och instruktion att uttaga gevär, krut och lunta på Viborgs slott att därmed exercera folket 3/3/1642"; "för löjt Göran Poitz 31/1 1645"; See also Kammarkollegium cards no.14 and no.53; Stockholm Stadsarkiv, Nicolai forsamling döda, 1627-1680, p.102.

Swedish Riksarkiv, P. Sondén, Militärachefer I svenska arméen och deras skrivelser; Svenska Riksrådets Protokoll, vol.15, (Stockholm, 1920), pp. 407-8, 417-9, 424-6, 434-5; Rikskansleren Axel Oxenstiernas skrifter och brefvexling, (Stockholm, 1893), V, p.562 and XV, (Stockholm, 1956), p.216 and p.324; For the 1639 action see RAOSB, second series, VII, 684. Johan Banér to Axel Oxenstierna, 13 December 1639; C.O. Nordensvan, (ed.), Värmlands Regementes [Närkes och Värmlands Regementes] Historia: Andra Delen, Personal Historia (Stockholm, 1911), p.33; B. Gafvert, Meddelanden fran Krigsarkivet, X:II, (Stockholm, 1987), p.616; Steve Murdoch, Network North: Scottish Kin, Commercial and Covert Associations in Northern Europe, 1603-1746 (Brill, Leiden, 2006), pp.172, 230.

Service record

SWEDEN, ALEXANDER LESLIE, NARKE OCH VARMLAND: Arrived 1626-01-01, as ENSIGN; Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY
SWEDEN, ALEXANDER GORDON'S RECRUITED DRAGOON REG: Arrived 1634-01-01, as COLONEL + CHIEF; Departed 1638-12-31, as COLONEL + CHIEF; Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY
SWEDEN, SAVOLAK AND VIBORG INFANTRY REG, FINLAND: Arrived 1636-01-01, as COLONEL AND CHIEF; Departed 1647-12-31, as COLONEL AND CHIEF; Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY
SWEDEN, GRIEFENHAGEN, DRIESSEN: Arrived 1639-01-01, as COMMANDANT; Departed 1640-12-31, as COMMANDANT; Capacity OFFICER AND COMMANDANT, purpose MILITARY