Gordon, George Hamilton

Prime Minister, Lord Aberdeen, was born George Gordon in Edinburgh on 28 January 1784. By 1795 he was an orphan and his guardians were Pitt and Lord Melville. He was educated at Harrow and studied at St. John's College, Cambridge. He inherited the Earldom in 1801 on the death of his grandfather and travelled in Europe soon afterwards spending much of the time in Greece. Gordon spoke in the House of Lords for the first time in 1807. In 1813 he became Ambassador Extraordinary and Minister Plenipoteniary to Vienna, and signed an alliance with Austria (Treaty of Toeplitz). In 1814 he signed the Treaty of Paris, and for his diplomatic skill became Viscount Gordon. When the Duke of Wellington formed an administration in 1828, Lord Aberdeen became Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster with a seat on the Cabinet, and later that year he was made Foreign Secretary. During his office, Greece became independent. Under Sir Robert Peel's administration, Lord Aberdeen was Secretary for War and the Colonies and then in 1841 he was Secretary for Foreign Affairs, successfully concluding agreements with the Americans over boundaries in the north-east and in Oregon. In 1852, Lord Aberdeen became Prime Minister within a 'coalition ministry' of Lord John Russell, Palmerston, Gladstone, and the Duke of Argyll. His government became embroiled in the Crimean War and he resigned in 1855. He spoke for the last time in the Lords in 1858. His publications included An inquiry into the principles of beauty in Grecian architecture (1822). Aberdeen married Lady Catherine Elizabeth Hamilton (d. 1812), daughter of John, 1st Marquis of Abercorn, in 1805, and then Harriet, daughter of the Hon. John Douglas, in 1815. George Hamilton Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen, died at Argyll House, London, on 14 December 1860, and was buried at Stanmore, Middlesex.

From the guide to the Letters of George Hamilton Gordon (1784-1860), 4th Earl of Aberdeen, 1832-1849, (Edinburgh University Library)