Gordon, George, ninth Marquis of Huntly 1761-1853, son and heir of Charles, fourth earl of Aboyne, and Lady Margaret Stewart, third daughter of Alexander, sixth Earl of Galloway, was born at Edinburgh on 28 June 1761. When Lord Strathaven he entered the army as ensign in the 1st regiment of foot guards, and was promoted in 1777 to a company in the 81st highland regiment of foot. In 1780 he was one of the aides-de-camp to the Earl of Carlisle, then lord-lieutenant of Ireland. In 1782 he had a troop in the 9th regiment of dragoons, and in March 1783 he was constituted major of an independent corps of foot, which was reduced at the peace of 1784. He was promoted lieutenant-colonel of the 35th foot in 1789, but exchanged with Lieutenant-colonel Lennox (subsequently Duke of Richmond) for his company in the Coldstream guards, after a dispute between the latter and his royal highness the Duke of York, then colonel of the Coldstreams. Lord Strathaven quitted the army in 1792, and was appointed colonel of the Aberdeenshire militia in 1798. He succeeded his father as Earl of Aboyne 28 Dec. 1794. At the general election of 1796 he was returned to parliament as one of the sixteen representatives of the peerage of Scotland. He was again chosen in 1802, 1807, and 1812. On 11 Aug. 1815 he was created a peer of the United Kingdom by the title of Baron Meldrum of Morven, and thenceforward took his seat in the House of Lords in his own right. He was made a knight of the Thistle in 1827. In 1836, on the extinction of the male line of the elder branch of his family by the death of George, fifth duke of Gordon [qv.], he succeeded to the dignities of marquis and earl of Huntly. He was a tory in politics, and voted in the majority for Lord Lyndhurst's motion on the Reform Bill, which led to the temporary resignation of Earl Grey's ministry on 7 May 1832. The marquis married in 1791 Catherine, second daughter of Sir Charles Cope, and with this lady he acquired the estate of Orton Longueville, Huntingdonshire, which he very considerably enlarged by purchasing in 1803 the two adjoining parishes of Chesterton and Haddon. The marquis died at his residence in Chapel Street, Grosvenor Square, London, on 17 June 1853. He left a family of six sons and three daughters, and was succeeded by his eldest son, the tenth marquis, who sat for some years in the House of Commons, first for East Grinstead, and afterwards for Huntingdonshire.

Sources:
     Ann. Reg. 1853
     Gent. Mag. 1853.

Contributor: G. B. S. [George Barnett Smith]

Published: 1890