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The Spalding Club, Aberdeen, Scotland
PREFACE. The soldier of fortune, whose memoirs are now introduced to the Spalding Club
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Ellesmere, and it was published in the avowed hope that it might ' induce one of the Scotch clubs
Summary
Passages from the diary of General Patrick Gordon of Auchleuchries : A.D. 1635-A.D. 1699"
xil PREFACE.
Ellesmere, and it was published in the avowed hope that it might
' induce one of the Scotch clubs, or two or three of them in friendly
alliance, to undertake an edition of selections from the original
text.' The Spalding Club was specially referred to, and it lost
no time in taking measures for accomplishing an object so desirable
in itself, and so much in accordance with the purposes of the As-
sociation. Its President, the Earl of Aberdeen, then First Lord of
the Treasury, made application to the Court of St. Petersburg for
a transcript of all the passages of General Gordon's Diary which
related to his native country. The request was granted with a
prompt and liberal courtesy for which the warmest acknowledgements
are due ; and the selections which fill most of the following sheets
were placed at the disposal of the Club in a careful co])y made
from the original, in the Imperial Archives of Russia, by the hand
of all others best qualified for the task, that of the excellent editor of
the German translation. Dr. Posselt accompanied his transcript by
a note explaining that while he. had been at pains to preserve
Gordon's orthography, he had not thought it necessary to retain the
many abbreviations which obscure or perplex the original. He
adds that it is so faulty in the names of persons and places,
especially in Russia, that not a few of them are disguised beyond
his power of recognition.
The passages transcribed by Dr. Posselt, and now printed from
his copy, are six in number.
The first * gives Gordon's account of his birth, parentage, educa-
tion, and travels, till the summer of 1655, when, at the age of
twenty, he took service at Hamburg as a trooper in the army which
» Pp. 1-21.
Gordon was brought up and remained a lifelong Roman Catholic, at a time when the Church was being persecuted in Scotland. At age of fifteen, he entered the Jesuit college at Braunsberg, East Prussia, then part of Poland. In 1661, after many years experiences as a soldier of fortune, he joined the Russian army under Tsar Aleksei I, and in 1665 was sent on a special mission to England. After his return, he distinguished himself in several wars against the Turks and Tatars in southern Russia. In recognition of his service he was promoted to major-general in 1678, was appointed to the high command at Kiev in 1679, and in 1683 was made lieutenant-general. In 1687 and 1689 he took part in expeditions against the Tatars in the Crimea, being made a full general. Later in 1689, a revolution broke out in Moscow, and with the troops under his command, Gordon virtually decided events in favor of Peter the Great against the Regent, Tsarevna Sophia Alekseyevna. Consequently, he was for the remainder of his life in high favor with the Tsar, who confided to him the command of his capital during his absence from Russia. In 1696, Gordon's design of a "moveable rampart" played a key role in helping the Russians take Azov. One of Gordon's convinced the Tsars to establish the first Roman Catholic church and school in Muscovy, of which he remained the main benefactor and headed the Catholic community in Russia until his death. For his services his second son James, brigadier of the Russian army, was created Count of the Holy Roman Empire in 1701. At the end of his life the Tsar, who had visited Gordon frequently during his illness, was with him when he died, and with his own hands closed his eyes. General Gordon left behind him a uniquely detailed diary of his life and times, written in English. This is preserved in manuscript in the Russian State Military Archive in Moscow. Passages from the Diary of General Patrick Gordon of Auchleuchries (1635–1699) was printed, under the editorship of Joseph Robertson, for the Spalding Club, at Aberdeen, Scotland, 1859.