George Gordon , educated at Eton and St. John's College, Cambridge. He had a long career in the army, and was a Member of Parliament for Eye from 1806 to 1807. Like his father, whom he succeeded as 5th Duke in 1827, he was Lord Lieutenant of Aberdeen, 1808-1836, and Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland, 1828-1830. In 1813, he married Elizabeth Brodie, but the marriage was childless, and when the Duke died in 1836, the dukedom became extinct. The Duchess, who rescued the 5th Duke from his financial embarrassments with her large dowry, survived him for thirty-seven years, devoting herself to works of charity, after she joined the Free Church in 1846. Very little family correspondence has survived from this period, but a certain number of relevant letters will be found in the section relating to the Dukedom of Gordon on pp. 52-55 of volume II of this catalogue.
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