by Cardinal Barberigo, on 11 April 1706, for the see of Nicopolis in partibus. He returned to Scotland in the autumn of that year, and in October 1718 succeeded Bishop Nicholson as vicar-apostolic of Scotland. In 1727 Benedict XIII divided Scotland into two districts or vicariates—the lowland and the highland. Gordon became in February 1730-1 the first vicar-apostolic of the lowland district, and continued in that office till his death, which took place on 1 March (N.S.)1745-6 at Thornhill, near Drummond Castle, the seat of Mrs. Mary Drummond, a catholic lady.
[London and Dublin Orthodox Journal, iv. 83; Catholic Directory, 1888, p. 60; Gordon's Catholic Mission in Scotland, p. 3; Brady's Episcopal Succession, iii. 457, 459.]
GORDON, JAMES (1762–1825), eccentric character, was son of the chapel clerk of Trinity College, Cambridge, a man of some property, who gave him a good education, and articled him to an attorney. He began practice in Free School Lane, Cambridge, with fair prospects of success. Unfortunately his convivial talents led him into society where he learnt to drink to excess. To console himself for his disappointments, he became a confirmed sot, and fell into destitution. He was several times in the town gaol for drunken freaks. For many years he was kept from starvation by an annuity of a guinea a week left by a relative. He was induced to leave Cambridge for London, where he picked up a living by waiting at the coach offices. He returned, and used to pass the night in the grove at Jesus College and the barn at the Hoop hotel. A fall in a fit of drunkenness injured him so severely that he had to be taken to the workhouse at Barnwell, where he died on 16 Sept. 1825, when about sixty-three years old. He was a man of keen and ready wit, and several of his jests are preserved in Hone's 'Everyday Book,' where there is a portrait of him (i. 692). It is stated there (ib. i. 1295) that he had left a memoir of his life, which has not been published. Gunning gives some anecdotes of his thrusting his company during a university election upon Pitt in the senate house, and of his making money by writing Latin essays when in gaol.
[Cooper's Annals of Cambridge, iv. 549; Hone's Every-day Book, ed. 1838, i. 692 and 1294; Cambridge Chronicle, 2 Feb. and 13 April 1793, and 23 Sept. 1825; Gunning's Reminiscences (1854), i. 190-8; Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. iv. 170.]
GORDON, Sir JAMES ALEXANDER (1782–1869), admiral of the fleet, eldest son of Charles Gordon of Wardhouse, Aberdeenshire, entered the navy in November 1793 on board the Arrogant, on the home station, under the command of Captain James Hawkins Whitshed [q. v.] In rapid but continuous succession he then served in many different ships, including the Révolutionnaire frigate in the action off L'Orient, on 23 June 1795, and the Goliath in the battles of Cape St. Vincent and the Nile. In January 1800 he was promoted to be lieutenant of the Bordelais, and in her assisted in the capture of the Curieuse on 28 Jan. 1801 [see Manby, Thomas]. In the following year he was appointed to the Racoon sloop, and was first lieutenant of her when she captured the Lodi brig in Leogane Roads on 11 July 1803, and drove the Mutine brig on shore near Santiago de Cuba on 17 Aug. 1803 (James, iii. 188-9). His share in these services won him his promotion to the command of the Racoon on 3 March 1804, her former commander, Captain Bissell, being promoted at the same time. During the year he cruised with good fortune against the enemy's privateers in the West Indies, and on 16 May 1805 was posted to the Diligentia, in which he remained but a few months. In June 1807 he was appointed to the Mercury of 28 guns, in which, after taking convoy to Newfoundland, he joined the squadron off Cadiz, and on 4 April 1808 had a distinguished share in the capture or destruction of Spanish convoy and gunboats off Rota [see Maxwell, Sir Murray]. In June 1808 he was appointed to the Active, which he commanded, mostly in the Adriatic, for the next four years, and during this time was engaged in numerous affairs with the enemy's boats and batteries; took a prominent part in the action off Lissa on 13 March 1811 [see Hoste, Sir William], for which he received the gold medal, and in the capture of the Pomone on 29 Nov. (James, v.261; Chevalier, Hist. de la Marine française sous le Consulat et l'Empire, p. 291), when he lost a leg, shot off at the knee. The first-lieutenant soon afterwards lost his arm, and the engagement finished with the ship under the command of the second lieutenant, Mr. George Haye. Captain Maxwell of the Alceste, the senior officer on this occasion, acknowledging the principal share of the Active in the capture, sent the French captain's sword to Gordon as his by rights. As he recovered from his wound he was sent to England for the re-establishment of his health, and in the autumn of 1812 was appointed to the Seahorse, in which, towards the end of the following year, he joined Sir Alexander Cochrane in the Chesapeake. In August 1814 he was senior officer and in command of the squadron which forced its way up the Potomac, reduced Fort Washington and its supporting batteries,
