Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gordon, John (1702-1739)
GORDON, JOHN (1702–1739), Gresham professor of music, son of a London watchmaker, was born on 26 March 1702. From Westminster School he was admitted a pensioner to Trinity College, Cambridge, on 18 June 1720, succeeded to a scholarship in 1721, but left college in 1722 to study law in London. He had been entered at Gray's Inn on 9 Nov. 1718, and was called to the bar on 10 Feb. 1725. In the meantime he was elected professor of music at Gresham College on 16 Jan. 1723, on the death of Dr. Edward Shippen, a post which he filled in the mute and inglorious fashion of most of his predecessors, until his death on 12 Dec. 1739. He died a bachelor, and intestate, and was buried by his sister, Mrs. Smith, at St. Dunstan's, Fleet Street.
[Ward's Lives of the Gresham Professors, ii. 236; Burney, iii. 107; Welch's Alumni Westmonast. p. 275; Admon. Act Book, Commissary Court of London, 1740.]