Arms: Quarterly, 1st and 4th, grandquarters:
Quarterly, 1st Azure, three Boar’s heads couped Or ( for Gordon )
2nd Or three lion’s heads erased Gules ( Badenoch )
3rd Or three crescents within a double tressure, flory counterflory Gules ( for Seton )
4th Azure, three cinquefoils Argent ( for Fraser )
( These four quarters together are for Huntly )
2d and 3rd grandquarters: Gules three stars Or ( for Sutherland )
All surrounded with a bordure Or for difference.
The senior and Premier Baronetcy of Nova Scotia
SOURCES, NOTES & CREDITS: The illustration for background, none, the blazon is from Douglas’ “The Baronage of Scotland”, 1798, and the text is based on, and adapted from Douglas’ “The Baronage of Scotland”, 1798, Paul’s “The Scots Peerage”, vol. VIII, 1911, “A History of the Baronetage” Pixley,1900, and from the Wikipedia internet article.
Sir Robert Gordon of Gordonstoun, Bt., was born on 14 May 1580 at Dunrobin Castle in Sutherland and died in 1656, was the fourth but second surviving son of Alexander, 12th Earl of Sutherland, and Jane Gordon, daughter of the Earl of Huntly.
He went to the University of St. Andrews in 1598 then to Edinburgh for three years, He received permission to go abroad in 1602 returning in 1605. Robert then entered the service of King James VI and rose rapidly in favour being knighted in 1609. When his brother John, the 13th Earl of Sutherland died, in 1615, Sir Robert became tutor of his nephew, John, the 14 Earl, 1615-1630. In 1620-21 he sold some of his own property in France and returned to Scotland and paid of the heavy debts of the estates of the Earl.
By 1625 Sir Robert was a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber of King Charles I. On 28 May 1625, the King created him Premier Baronet of Nova Scotia with remainder to his heir male whatsoever. Sir Robert obtained a charter under the Great Seal granting him 16,000 acres on the coast of Nova Scotia which were erected into a barony.
In August 1629 he was chosen as Sheriff of Inverness-shire representing same at the convention of 1630. At the coronation of Charles I in Scotland in 1633, he served as the Vice-Chamberlain and with four earls’ sons carried the King’s train. As Sir Robert’s mother was a Roman Catholic, she and he had problems with the Kirk. He had his various lands & estates erected into a barony in a charter under the Great Seal in 1642.
Sir Robert married on 16 Feb 1613, Louisa, only daughter and heiress of John Gordon, Lord of Longormes in France. They had issue of five sons and four daughters.
Sir Robert Gordon of Gordonstoun, Bt. died in March 1656, age 75.
He was succeeded by his oldest son, Sir Ludovick Gordon, b. 1614-d.1685.
The artwork is a rendition of John Hamilton Gaylor
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