Robert Home Gordon

1765 - 1826


Biography

Absentee Jamaica slave-owner, second husband of Susanna Harriott Biscoe nee Hope (q.v.). Shown as a minor as owner of Home Castle from at least 1775.

  1. Robert Home Gordon was born in Jamaica c. December 1765 and spent most of his early life in Britain living off the profits of his family's Jamaica sugar estates. Following his elopement with Susanna Biscoe, her husband Joseph Biscoe sued Gordon for £10,000 for "criminal conversation" (Joseph Biscoe was finally granted a divorce in 1796 and went on to marry Stephana Law (q.v.)). It is likely that Susanna never saw her daughter Mary after leaving Biscoe - Mary was brought up by her father's sister, also called Mary, and in 1807 married Sir Robert Harry Inglis. No record of the marriage of Susanna and Robert Home Gordon has been found but a codicil to Robert's will implies they were married by 1812. Robert died in Brighton in 1826. Susanna died in Westminster in 1839.

  2. Owner of 243 enslaved people and 944 (last digit faded) stock in St Ann, Jamaica, in 1792.

  3. The Petition to HM King George III for the establishment of Tain Royal Academy lists Robert Hume Gordon of Embo as being a subscriber of £50 and upwards towards "defraying the expense of erecting building and endowing an Academy".

  4. Will of Robert Home Gordon of Embo Sutherlandshire proved 03/02/1827.


Sources

  1. Life details from a vivid and thoroughly researched account of the marriage and divorce of Briscoe and Susanna Harriot Hope: Anne M. Powers, 'A very Regency scandal' at http://aparcelofribbons.co.uk/2011/09/a-very-regency-scandal/ [accessed 05/03/2013]; Baptism and first marriage of Susannah Harriot Hope at familysearch.org batch nos. C03587-2 and M01623-2; Deaths of Robert Home Gordon and Susanna Harriot Gordon at Ancestry.com, England & Wales, FreeBMD Death Index, 1837-1915 [database online].

  2. 'A List of slaves and stock in the parish of St Ann taken the 28th March 1792 pursuant to order of the Honourable House of Assembly... transcribed from papers presented to the British Museum by Charles E. Long ref. Add. 12435' transcribed at http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Members/mstann1792.htm.

  3. Petition to George III for the establishment of Tain Royal Academy in 1807, facsimile of the Petition in the possession of Councillor Derek Louden.

  4. PROB 11/1721/114.

We are grateful to Jim Brennan and Derek Loudon for their assistance with compiling this entry.


Further Information

Absentee?
British/Irish
Spouse
Susanna Harriott Biscoe nee Hope

Associated Estates (7)

The dates listed below have different categories as denoted by the letters in the brackets following each date. Here is a key to explain those letter codes:

  • SD - Association Start Date
  • SY - Association Start Year
  • EA - Earliest Known Association
  • ED - Association End Date
  • EY - Association End Year
  • LA - Latest Known Association
1823 [EA] - → Lessee
1789 [EA] - 1829 [LA] → Owner
1775 [EA] - 1826 [LA] → Owner
1775 [EA] - → Trust beneficiary
1778 [EA] - 1778 [LA] → Owner

A minor

1775 [EA] - 1826 [LA] → Owner
1775 [EA] - → Owner

Legacies Summary

Cultural (2)

Paintings
In her will proved in 1839, Susannah Harriot Gordon bequeathed the picture of her late husband Robert Home Gordon 'by Sir Joshua Reynolds' to Sir Orford Gordon. To date this picture has not been... 
Subscriber
Tain Royal Academy...... 
notes →
The Petition to HM King George III for the establishment of Tain Royal Academy lists Robert Hume Gordon of Embo as being a subscriber of £50 and upwards towards "defraying the expense of erecting...

Physical (1)

Country house
Embo House, Dornoch, Highland [Built] 
description →
Country house, built c. 1790 by Robert Home Gordon on site of existing house of the Gordon family....
notes →
Recently (c. 2016) for sale through Strutt & Parker for...

Relationships (4)

Second Husband → Wife
First Cousins
Son → Father
Nephew → Uncle
Notes →
George Gordon of Cromwell estate has been inferred by LBS to have been the uncle of Robert Home...

Addresses (1)

Brighton, Sussex, South-east England, England