Adam de Gordon, Lord of Gordon

Who is Adam de Gordon, Lord of Gordon?

Sir Adam de Gordon, lord of Gordon, was a Scottish statesman and warrior.

Gordon was the son and heir of Adam de Gordon of Gordon in Berwickshire. His great-grandfather, likewise Adam de Gordon, was younger son of an Anglo-Norman nobleman who came to Scotland in the time of David I, and settled on a tract of land called Gordon, within sight of the English border. The second Sir Adam, grandfather of the fourth Sir Adam, married Alicia, only child and heiress of Thomas de Gordon, who represented the elder branch of the family, and by this alliance the whole estates were united into one property. His son William de Gordon was one of the Scottish nobles who in 1268 joined Louis IX of France in his crusade for the recovery of the holy sepulchre, and died during the expedition. He was succeeded by his brother, the third Sir Adam, who died on 3 Sept. 1296, and was succeeded by his son, the fourth Sir Adam. An historian of the Gordon family says that this last Sir Adam joined Sir William Wallace in 1297, and the statement is accepted by Lord Hailes as correct. It is probably true, as the English estates were forfeited at that time, but were recovered by Marjory, mother of Gordon, who submitted to the English rule and brought to her son a great inheritance on both sides of the border. The year 1303 was spent by Edward I in Scotland. On his return to England he carried with him certain sons of the nobles as hostages, and Gordon followed as a deputy with power to arrange for the pacification of the country.