Joseph Gordon

Slave-owner and attorney, resident in Jamaica in the 1830s but in 1851 shown, Custos of St Andrew Jamaica, living at Meadowbank, St Lawrence Jersey aged 61 born Scotland with his wife Sarah aged 40 born England and five children aged 3 to 15 all born Jamaica.

1. Joseph Gordon was a powerful planter-attorney. In 1832 he was one of only four attorneys who had control over more than 20 properties on the island.

2. Gordon was the father of George William Gordon. Said to be born in 1820, G. W. Gordon's mother was an enslaved woman of colour called Ann Rattray. G. W. Gordon went on to become a successful businessman and politician. However he was courtmartialed and executed on the order of John Edward Eyre, Governor of Jamaica following the Morant Bay Rebellion in 1865. He was constituted a National Hero of Jamaica in 1969: his face was featured on the ten dollar note and the Jamaica Parliament's official meeting place Gordon House is named after him.

3. Executor of Benjamin Marriott Perkins I and later married Perkins' widow Sarah nee Arrowsmith. Sarah Marriott Perkins, his only surviving daughter and stepdaughter of Joseph Gordon esq, married at St Andrew, 10/03/1840, James Carson Esquire of the firm of Chrystie, Porteous and Carson of Kingston.

4. Joseph Gordon's children by his wife Sarah were: Joseph Seaford Gordon (born 09/03/1836 and baptised 09/04/1836); Ellis Macintosh Gordon (born 28/01/1838 and baptised at St.James, Paddington, 23/06/1838, died 14/12/1847 and was buried at Twickenham); Constance Josephine Minna Gordon (born 20/12/1839 and baptised 10/3/1840, married, 27/04/1876 Frederick Swinnerton Dyer (per “The Peerage”) and had issue); Francis Smith Gordon (born 25/08/1841 and baptised 05/02/1842, alive in 1891 (Census)); Georgina Wilhelmina Gordon (born 07/03/1845 and baptised 22/05/1845); Duncan Robertson Gordon (born 30/09/1847 and baptised 01/01/1848). All baptisms, except that of Ellis, were at St Andrew and the father is described as Custos in the 1842 and subsequent entries, his address being given as Shortwood.

5. Various on-line posts, citing credible Channel Islands sources, say Gordon died at 3 Clarence Terrace, St Helier, aged 77 years and 2 months, 12/05/1867, that his widow Sarah died at 3 Victoria Terrace there, 08/02/1883, and that her will dated 09/03/1880 was proved 13/02/1883 (probate description is widow of Benjamin Marriott Perkins and of Joseph Gordon of Melrose Place).

6. There are also posts on genealogical sites identifying seven alleged children of Gordon by Ann Rattray born in the period 1815-30. Two of these children, Jane and Ann Gordon, are said to have been born on 18/01/1830 and the St Andrew register records children of colour of these names and birthdates as having been baptised on 31/12/1830, described as of Charlton Pen; the particulars for four others of the alleged children are very sketchy but (contrary to material published by Jamaican government sources, which makes him much younger) give the birthdate of George William Gordon as September/October 1815. This strongly suggests he was the “George Gordon, aged 3 months, a quadroon slave on Cherry Garden” baptised at St Andrew on 27/12/1815 (per parish register). Ann Rattery, aged about 23, a "mulatto slave on Cherry Garden", was baptised at the same time.

7. According to the 1817 slave registers for Cherry Garden: Jane Rattray,"mulatto", was age 26, the daughter of Esther; Anne Rattray,"mulatto", was age 25, also the daughter of Esther; George Gordon, "quadroon", was age 2 months, the son of Anne Rattray; and Mary Ann Gordon, "quadroon", age 5, was the daughter of Bessy Richards. Bessy Richards, "Sambo", is also listed, age 36. The 1820 register includes Margaret Gordon, age 1, daughter of Ann Rattray. The 1826 register lists two more children of Ann Rattray: John Gordon age 1 year 10 months and Jane Gordon age 1 3/4 years. Ann Rattray, "mulatto", age 35, living on Cherry Garden, was manumitted at some point between 1826 and 1829 along with Jane Rattray, "mulatto", age 32, Mary Ann Gordon, "mulatto", age 16, George Gordon, "quadroon", age 10, Margaret Gordon, "quadroon", age 8, Janet Isabella Gordon, "quadroon", age 5, Jane Gordon, "quadroon", age 5, John Gordon, "quadroon", age 3 and Ann Gordon, "quadroon" (daughter of Ann Rattray), age 1.

8. According to John Malcolm Bulloch, The Making of the West Indies: the Gordons as Colonists (1915), Joseph Gordon of Navidale was the younger son of Hugh Gordon of Carroll in the parish of Clyne, Sutherland, Scotland.

1851 Channel Islands Census.

1. B. W. Higman, Plantation Jamaica, 1750-1850: Capital And Control In A Colonial Economy (Kingston, University of the West Indies Press, 2005), p.64

2. B. W. Higman, Plantation Jamaica, p.81; http://www.jnht.com/site_gordon_house.php [accessed 23/05/2017].

3. Evening Mail 08/05/1840.

4. Familysearch.org, Jamaica Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1880 [database online].

5. https://www.ancestry.com/boards/thread.aspx?mv=flat&m=3625&p=surnames.gordon [accessed 19/02/2019].

6. Email from Paul Hitchings, 08/02/2019; Familysearch.org, Jamaica Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1880 [database online]. See https://jis.gov.jm/information/heroes/george-william-gordon/ [accessed 20/03/2019] for more on George William Gordon.

7. T71/125 p. 122; T71/126 p. 151; T71/132 p. 262; T71/135 p. 221.

8. John Malcolm Bulloch, The Making of the West Indies: the Gordons as Colonists (1915) pp. 26, 27, 31.

We are grateful to Paul Hitchings and Greg Gordon for their assistance with compiling this entry.