Lord William Gordon (1744–1823) was a Scottish nobleman.

Background

He was the second son of

Cosmo Gordon, 3rd Duke of Gordon Cosmo George Gordon, 3rd Duke of Gordon KT (27 April 1720 – 5 August 1752), styled Marquess of Huntly until 1728, was a Scottish peer. Life Gordon was the son of the 2nd Duke of Gordon and was named after his father's close Jacobite friend ...

(1720–1752) and his wife

Lady Catherine Gordon Lady Catherine Gordon (–October 1537) was a Scottish noblewoman and the wife of Yorkist pretender Perkin Warbeck, who claimed he was Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York. After her imprisonment by King Henry VII of England, she became a favoure ...

(1718 – 10 December 1779), daughter of

William Gordon, 2nd Earl of Aberdeen William Gordon, 2nd Earl of Aberdeen (1679 – 30 March 1745), known between c. 1691 and 1720 as Lord Haddo, was a Scottish landowner and Tory politician who sat in the British House of Commons briefly from 1708 to 1709 when he was declared inelig ...

. His elder brother was Alexander Gordon, 4th Duke of Gordon (1743–1827). His younger brother was the controversial

Lord George Gordon Lord George Gordon (26 December 1751 – 1 November 1793) was a British politician best known for lending his name to the Gordon Riots of 1780. An eccentric and flighty personality, he was born into the Scottish nobility and sat in the Hous ...

, notorious for the anti-Catholic riots named after him. He also had a sister, Lady Susan Gordon.

Affair and elopement

In the mid-1760s, Lord William had an affair with a married woman, Lady Sarah Bunbury, who had once been courted by King

George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...

. In 1768, he fathered a child upon Lady Sarah, a daughter who was not immediately disclaimed by Sir Charles Bunbury, and received the name Louisa Bunbury. Nevertheless, Lady Sarah and Lord William eloped shortly afterwards, taking the infant with them. Lord William soon tired of his lover's incessant demands for attention, gifts and ceaseless entertainments and abandoned her. Her husband refused to take her back, and Lady Sarah returned to her brother's house with her child, while her husband, Sir Charles, moved Parliament for a divorce on grounds of adultery, citing her elopement, not the birth of Louisa. It was not until 1776 that the decree of divorce was issued. The affair with Lady Sarah ruined both hers and William's social reputation, and also his military and political career. In 1778 he was appointed lieutenant-colonel in his brother's new fencible regiment 'the Northern regiment of Fencible Men' (Gordon's Fencibles).

Marriage

Several years after the Bunbury affair, Lord William married the Hon. Frances Ingram-Shepheard, daughter of

Charles Ingram, 9th Viscount of Irvine Charles Ingram, 9th Viscount of Irvine (19 March 1727 – 27 June 1778), known as Charles Ingram until 1763, was a British landowner, politician and courtier. He succeeded his uncle to the Viscountcy and the Temple Newsam estate in Leeds in 1763. ...

. They had one daughter, Frances Gordon, who died unmarried. His wife died in 1841.

Another affair and progeny

While married to the Hon. Frances, Lord William had another affair and fathered an illegitimate son, William Conway Gordon (1798–1882). He arranged for the boy to receive an education and settled a reasonable income upon him. William Conway Gordon served as ADC to General Sir

Peregrine Maitland General Sir Peregrine Maitland, GCB (6 July 1777 – 30 May 1854) was a British soldier and colonial administrator. He also was a first-class cricketer from 1798 to 1808 and an early advocate for the establishment of what would become the Canad ...

, a relative by marriage of Lord William, being a distant cousin of the Hon. Frances. William Conway Gordon entered services for the Bengal Army in 1815, belonging to the 53rd Native Infantry. He married Louisa Vanrenen, daughter of Brigadier-General J. Vanrenen, Honourable East India Company's Service, in Bengal in 1828. They had four children: William George Conway Gordon, Francis Ingram Conway-Gordon, Lewis Conway-Gordon and Charles Van Renen Conway-Gordon. William Gordon was promoted lieutenant in 1851 in the 91st to lieutenant, then captain in 1854. He married Jane Miller Dickson (September 18, 1824 - January 27, 1876) in 1857, and died the following year. Jane Gordon is buried in the

English Cemetery, Florence The English Cemetery in Florence, Italy (Italian, ''Cimitero degli inglesi'', ''Cimitero Porta a' Pinti'' and ''Cimitero Protestante'') is an Evangelical cemetery located at Piazzale Donatello. Although its origins date to its foundation in 1827 ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gordon, William, Lord 1744 births 1823 deaths

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for Scottish constituencies British MPs 1774–1780 British MPs 1780–1784 British MPs 1790–1796 Younger sons of dukes

Background

Affair and elopement

Marriage

Another affair and progeny

See also

References