Elizabeth (Browne) Gordon (abt. 1765 - 1794)

Born about 1765 in England [uncertain]

Wife of Pryse Lockhart Gordon — married 12 Feb 1787 in St Andrew, Plymouth, Devon, England

Died 30 Sep 1794 at about age 29 in Turriff, Aberdeenshire, Scotland

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Penelope Shorne [send private message]

Biography

Date and place of birth not known. Estimated as date of marriage, minus 21 years. Place of birth estimated based on place of marriage, bur given her father was in the army, she could have been born anywhere. Daughter of Lieutenant Colonel Browne of the Marines.

Elizabeth married Pryse Lockhart Gordon, 12 Feb 1787, St Andrew, Plymouth, Devon, England.^{[1] [2][3]}
Children:

• William Abercromby Gordon, (c1788 - 1808) ^[4]
• Jane Maxwell Gordon, (c1790 - 1819), m. 1818, Second Lieutenant Edward Coxwell
• Sarabella Maria Gorden, (? - ?), m. 1811, Francis Leonard Chiaranda
• George Huntly Gordon, ( c1794 - 1868) ^[5][6], m. 1839, Mary Ann Reeves

She died 30 Sep 1794, Turriff, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, possibly giving birth to their youngest child.

Sources

1. ↑ "England, Devon and Cornwall Marriages, 1660-1912", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QGYS-Q3XY : Sun Mar 10 05:47:45 UTC 2024), Entry for Pryce Lockart Gordon, Lieutenant and Elizabeth Browne, 10 Feb 1787.
2. ↑ "England, Devon, Parish Registers, 1538-1912", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KC9K-7RF : 11 August 2022), Pryce Lockart Gordon and Elizabeth Browne, 1787.
3. ↑ "England, Devon, Parish Registers, 1538-1912", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KC9N-2W4 : 11 August 2022), Pryce Lockart Gordon and Elizabeth Browne, 1787.
4. ↑ https://archive.org/details/gordonsunderarms00skelrich/page/354/mode/2up?q=pryse
5. ↑ "Scotland Births and Baptisms, 1564-1950", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XBQW-FJB : 16 September 2021), Pryce Lockart Gordon in entry for George Gordon, 1794.
6. ↑ "News." Inverness Courier, 7 Jan. 1869, pp. 4+. British Library Newspapers.
   Mr George Huntly Gordon. —This gentleman, an active contributor to Notes and Queries, but best known as having been a sort of protege of Sir Walter Scott, died on the 27th December last, aged 72. For above thirty years Mr Gordon held an appointment in the Government Stationery Office, having previously been a clerk in the Treasury, for which he was indebted to Sir Walter Scott. His success in life, he said, was all clearly traceable to Sir Walter. Mr Gordon was the son of Major Pryse L. Gordon, and grandson of the Rev. H. Gordon, minister of the parish of Ardersier, in this county. Major Gordon was a man of literary taste, an acquaintance of both Byron and Scott, and author of two volumes of " Personal Memoirs " (quoted by Moore in his life of Byron, and by Lockhart in his life of Scott), and who had the good fortune to discover the genius of the late Mr John Phillip, R.A., and to recommend him to the patronage of Lord Panmure, by which the great artist was enabled to prosecute the study of his art. While residing at Brussels, Major Gordon entertained Byron and Scott, and it was on one of these occasions that Scott met the Major's son Huntly, who had been educated for the Scottish Church, but was afflicted with deafness, so that he was obliged to use an ear trumpet. This infirmity did not prevent his being licensed to preach, but he was so anxious and nervous regarding any public appearance, that he seemed to be deprived of all power of mental exertion, and Sir Walter Scott generously wrote for him two suitable discourses. Mr Gordon was then, and had been for some time before, engaged in transcribing the MSS. of the Waverley novels for the press, in order that the secret of the authorship might not be betrayed by the handwriting of Sir Walter being seen in the printing-office. When the day came for the delivery of the trial sermons, Huntly Gordon's conscience smote him, and he could not preach Scott's discourses as his own. He wrote one himself (which, however, Scott touched up and enlarged) and he passed the ordeal of an Aberdeenshire Presbytery. The two discourses written by Scott he afterwards sold, by the author's permission, to relieve himself from some pecuniary embarrassments, and obtained for them the sum of £250. The sermons were published under the title of " Religious Discourses by a Layman," but were known to be by the author of Waverley, and had his initials "W. S.," subscribed to the preface. They are plain sensible discourses, without any display of what old Micah Balwhidder calls " kirk-filling eloquence." Scott, however, was too well read in his Bible to fall into the error which Sheridan committed on a similar occasion; for the English wit having composed a sermon for his father-in-law, Dean Ogle, perpetrated the blunder of writing—" As Moses says, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle," &c. Huntly Gordon abandoned the idea of becoming a parish minister, and having, by the kindness of his early and illustrious friend, obtained the means of easy and comfortable subsistence, he passed his quiet life in happy contentment.,