Colonel Harry Gordon 10th of Knockespock

Harry Gordon owned property in Grenada and North America. After his death in August 1787 the property devolved to his son Peter, who died in October 1787 intestate and without issue. In his will, in leaving property to his son Peter, Harry Gordon remarked that his Grenada estate was mortgaged to John Anthony and John Peter Ruckers [sic], and was burdened with £10,500 for his younger children. The case Gordon vs. Gordon determined the subsequent succession of the property and hinged on the supposed illegitimacy of Harry Gordon's two eldest sons. From the compensation records, it appears that one of his estates was Observatory. He was possibly the Harry Gordon shown as the original purchaser of Lot No. 26 in St Andrew Dominica which by c. 1773 was in the hands of James Byres together with an adjacent lot originally purchased by Byres.

1. Son of George Gordon, 8th of Knockespock, and his second wife Jean Leith. Colonel in the Royal Engineers. Half-brother of James Gordon of Antigua and Moor Place (q.v.). From James he inherited the entailed Knockespoke estate in Scotland.

Reports of Cases in the High Court of Chancery during the time of Lord Chancellor Eldon vol. III pp. 400-483; will of Harry Gordon of HM Corps of Engineers of Liverpool proved 12/03/1788, PROB 11/1163/181; John Byres, References to a plan of the island of Dominica as surveyed from the year 1765 and 1773 p. 1.

1. Douglas Wimberley, A genealogical account of the family of Gordon of Knockespock (1903) pp. 79-81.

We are grateful to David Alston for his assistance with compiling this entry.