GORDON aka SUTHERLAND, ADAM [SSNE 2495]

Surname: GORDON aka SUTHERLAND
First name: ADAM
Title/rank: CAPTAIN
Nationality: SCOT
Region: SUTHERLAND
Social status: OFFICER

Text source

Adam Gordon was the fifth son of John, thirteenth earl of Sutherland, by Agnes, eldest daughter of Alexander, Master of Elphinstone, and brother-german of John, fourteenth earl of Sutherland. He was born on 15 May 1613. In 1631, he joined the Swedish army ‘with a number of resolute soldiers’. He went with Colonel John Munro of Obsdale ‘who was then upon his second expidition into Germanie, and made Adam Gordon (being then but the age of nynteen yeares and six months) the first captain of his regiment’. They shipped at Cromarty and sailed to Hamburg ‘with a prosperous successe’. Captain Adam Gordon was accompanied at the time by fellow northern Highlanders: Alexander Gray, son of George Gray of Skibo; and John Gordon, son of Gilbert Gordon of ‘Bein-ewen’. Adam rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel but died shortly afterwards, on 5/6 September 1634, killed at the battle of Nördlingen in his twenty-second year.

This man is not to be confused with Captain Adam Gordon [SSNE 435] who was in Danish service in Mackay's Regiment in 1627. A Captain Adam Gordon served in the Swedish army in 1636 and is most likely [SSNE 6949].

Sources: The Modern History of the World. Or An Historical Relation of the most memorable passages in Germany, and else-where, since the beginning of this present Yeere 1635 (London, 1635), A3; Gordon under Arms, eds. C. O. Skelton and J. M. Bulloch (Aberdeen, 1912), no. 1637; Sir William Fraser, The Sutherland Book, II, p. 156; R. Gordon, A Genealogical History of the Earldom of Sutherland (Edinburgh, 1813), pp. 450, 471-2.

This entry was kindly updated by Dr Thomas Brochard. NB This entry now merges the old record for Adam Sutherland [SSNE 2813] which has now been deleted.

Service record

SWEDEN, ALEXANDER GORDON: Arrived 1631-01-01; Departed 1631-09-06, as LIEUTENANT COLONEL; Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY