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George Hamilton-Gordon, 5th Earl of Aberdeen

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British peer and Liberal Party politician

The Right HonourableThe Earl of Aberdeen
George Hamilton-Gordon, 5th Earl of Aberdeen
Member of Parliament
for Aberdeenshire
In office
1854–1860
Preceded byWilliam Gordon
Succeeded byWilliam Leslie
Personal details
BornGeorge John James Hamilton-Gordon
28 September 1816
Bentley Priory, Hertfordshire, England
Died22 March 1864(1864-03-22) (aged 47)
Haddo House, Aberdeenshire, Scotland
Resting placeMethlick, Aberdeenshire, Scotland
Political partyLiberal Party
SpouseMary Baillie
ChildrenGeorge Hamilton-Gordon, 6th Earl of Aberdeen
James Hamilton-Gordon
John Hamilton-Gordon, 1st Marquess of Aberdeen and Temair
Mary Hepburne-Scott, Lady Polwarth
Harriet Lindsay
Katherine Bruce, Lady Balfour of Burleigh
Parent(s)George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen
Harriet Hamilton, Dowager Viscountess Hamilton
Alma materHarrow School
Trinity College, Cambridge

George John James Hamilton-Gordon, 5th Earl of Aberdeen (28 September 1816 – 22 March 1864), styled Lord Haddo before 1860, was a British peer and Liberal Party politician.

Early life

Lord Haddo was born at Bentley Priory in Hertfordshire, the eldest son of the 4th Earl of Aberdeen and Harriet Hamilton, Dowager Viscountess Hamilton (née Harriet Douglas), widow of James Hamilton, Viscount Hamilton and granddaughter of James Douglas, 14th Earl of Morton. He was educated at Harrow School and Trinity College, Cambridge.

Marriage

On 5 November 1840, he married Mary Baillie (a sister of the future 10th Earl of Haddington) at Taymouth Castle. They had six children:

Career

His uncle, William Gordon, had retired as Member of Parliament for Aberdeenshire in 1854 and Haddo put himself forward as his successor. However, Haddo had contracted what was probably tuberculosis, and he went to Egypt to spend a few months in a warm climate. Despite being absent from Scotland and not having canvassed the constituency, Haddo won the election and returned to take his seat in the House of Commons, in good health, a year later. He left the Commons after inheriting his father's title in 1860 and made a second trip to Egypt. Aberdeen had previously converted to Evangelicalism and it was in Egypt that he campaigned for the Coptics to convert to his own faith.

For part of his time in Egypt, he distributed Bibles with the American missionary Gulian Lansing, who later wrote a memoir about their journey.

Aberdeen later returned to Scotland and died at his home, Haddo House, in 1864. He was buried at Methlick and was succeeded by his eldest son, George. His last words were (when asked how he felt) "Perfectly comfortable". Hamilton-Gordon donated a large collection of antiquities that his father had collected to the British Museum in 1861.

References

  1. "Gordon, George John James (Lord Haddo) (GRDN834GJ)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  2. John Doran "Haddo: The House with Outstretched Arms" Archived 15 February 2010 at the Wayback Machine, Leopard magazine, July 2002
  3. Lansing, Gulian (1864). Egypt's Princes: A Narrative of Missionary Labor in the Valley of the Nile (2nd ed.). Philadelphia: William S. Rentoul.
  4. "Collection". The British Museum. Retrieved 6 March 2023.

External links

Media related to George Hamilton-Gordon, 5th Earl of Aberdeen at Wikimedia Commons

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded byWilliam Gordon Member of Parliament for Aberdeenshire
1854–1860 		Succeeded byWilliam Leslie
Peerage of Scotland
Preceded byGeorge Hamilton-Gordon Earl of Aberdeen
1860–1864 		Succeeded byGeorge Hamilton-Gordon
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