Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/383

 10 s. VIL APRIL 20, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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THE MYSTERIES OF THE EMBO BARONETCY <10 S. vii. 246). MR. J. M. BULLOCH will find the pedigree of the Gordons of Embo rather a tangled skein. Some years ago I had to unravel the genealogy, when pub- lishing a brief account of the family, and perhaps I may therefore be permitted to give the result of my investigation, because from the very beginning there is mystery and obscurity.

The initial difficulty is that in a Bore Brieve of 1663 it has been claimed for the Gordons of Embo that they

"" were descended of lawful marriage, of illustrious parents, and most distinguished families, who were all united in lawful wedlock, and were all renowned for splendour of descent and virtue."

This document further records that Adam Gordon, Dean of Caithness, had a son John " by Katherine, descended of a most ancient and verie noble lineage, to wit, the most illustrious Earl of Huntly." Now, in the various published pedigrees, this John {ancestor of Embo) is given as a brother of Master William Gordon, treasurer of Caithness, and of George Gordon, Captain of Badenoch, the ancestor of the Gordons of Beldornie. But there is contemporary record proof that William and George Gordon were sons of the Dean by " May or Mariote Duffus, bastard dochter of Sir John Duffus, chaplain," because on 24 Feb., 1527, they had letters of legitimation, and this document was recorded at Elgin. In this deed there is no mention of John Gordon, so that his maternity is still doubtful, if no reliance can be placed on the Bore Brieve of 1663.

As MR. BULLOCH points out, a problem arises after the death of the third baronet, owing to the name of a Sir William Gordon appearing in the published pedigrees. But this is only part of the difficulty which must be cleared up. Sir John, third baronet, is said by some genealogists to have died on 16 Oct., 1697, others give the date of his death as 10 May, 1701. But the truth seems to be that he was alive and M.P. for the shire till 1703, and was on the Commission of Supply in 1704 ! We take no concern with the younger members of his family, but he had John, his heir ; George, who d.s.p. ; and Robert, who married Anna Gray of Skibo ; and in connexion with their contract of marriage, which is dated 14 July, 1716, another puzzle arises, for the receipt for the lady's tocher is granted by Sir George, Gordon of Embo (Earls of Ross, sub voce Gray). Probably " Sir George " is a printer's error ; at all events, on 8 June, 1717, Sir

John Gordon of Embo was served heir of provision general to his brother George (' Services of Heirs '), and this same John the fourth baronet was served heir to his grandfather on 10 Jan., 1721, as noted by MR. BULLOCH. He contested the county of Sutherland against his kinsman Sir William Gordon, and being defeated he, on 24 Oct., 1722, petitioned the House of Commons against Sir William's return (' House of Commons' Journals,' vol. xx. pp. 38, 152). The proceedings herein, as well as other records, prove the Sir William given in the Peerages to be a mythical person, Sir John Gordon having lived until 14 April, 1760.

There is no mystery at all connected with the parentage of Robert Home Gordon, during whose tenure of Embo the ancient home of the Gordons was destroyed with all their muniments. Mr. BULLOCH has surely overlooked an entry in his own book, ' The House of Gordon ' (Appendix I. p. 122), where he gives the service of Robert Home Gordon as heir to his father, Dr. John Gordon, of Greencastle, Jamaica, on 23 Aug., 1776 ! This Dr. John Gordon was designated " of Golspietower," and he married Isabel Grant, widow of James Sutherland, of Pronsie. He apparently left her in Scotland, and settled in Jamaica, where he was when she was struggling to get her jointure from Pronsie. D. M. R.

" O DEAR, WHAT CAN THE MATTER BE ? "

(10 S. vi. 29, 57, 73, 92, 116, 152, 198, 454, 515 ; vii. 255.) The lines quoted by MR. J. T. PAGE appeared as the opening chorus in " Ruy Bias, a preposterous piece of nonsense for private representation, written and illustrated by W. S. Gilbert," which occupied seven pages of ' The Five Alls : Warne's Christmas Annual.' I think the year was 1866, but no date appears upon the title-page. This early work of Mr. W. S. Gilbert's bristles with puns and with parodies of popular songs, and the accom- panying woodcuts are in the style of those which, a little later, were so acceptable with his v Bab Ballads.' W. B. H.

[MR. EDWARD LATHAM gives the date of ' The Five Alls 'as circa 1868. J

SATIRE ON PITT (10 S. vii. 289). Mac-

aulay's reference is to Coleridge's ' Fire,

Famine, and Slaughter,' in which the poet

ndicates his victim in the suggestive line :

Letters four do form his name.

For the story embodying Coleridge's confession of authorship on a notable occasion, see Lockhart's * Life of Scott,'