Lord George Gordon
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Lord George Gordon (26 December 1751 – 12 November 1793), third and youngest son of Cosmo George Gordon, 3rd Duke of Gordon, was an eccentric politician in the United Kingdom.
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[edit] 1751-
George Gordon was born in London. After completing his education at Eton, he entered the Royal Navy, where he rose to the rank of lieutenant in 1772, but Lord Sandwich, then at the head of the Admiralty, would not promise him the command of a ship, and he resigned his commission shortly before the beginning of the American Revolutionary War. In 1774 the pocket borough of Ludgershall was bought for him by General Fraser, whom he was opposing in Inverness-shire, in order to bribe him not to contest the county. He was considered flighty, and was not looked upon as being of any importance.
[edit] 1779-
In 1779 he organized, and made himself head of the Protestant associations, formed to secure the repeal of the Catholic Relief Act of 1778. On the 2 June 1780 he headed the mob which marched in procession from St George's Fields to the Houses of Parliament in order to present a huge petition against Emancipation. After the mob reached Westminster the "Gordon Riots" ensued, which continued several days, during which the city was virtually at their mercy. At first indeed they dispersed after threatening to make a forcible entry into the House of Commons, but reassembled soon afterwards and destroyed several Roman Catholic chapels, pillaged the private dwellings of many Catholics, set torched to Newgate Prison and broke open all the other prisons, attacked the Bank of England and several other public buildings, and continued their tumultuous action until the interference of the military, by whom no fewer than 450 persons were killed or wounded before the riots were quelled. For his share in instigating the riots Lord Gordon was apprehended on a charge of high treason but mainly through the skilful and eloquent defence of Baron Erskine, he was acquitted on the ground that he had no treasonable intentions.
His life was henceforth full of eccentric schemes, political and financial. In 1786 he was excommunicated by the archbishop of Canterbury for refusing to bear witness in an ecclesiastical suit; and in 1787 he was convicted of libelling Marie Antoinette, the French ambassador and the administration of justice in England. He was, however, permitted to withdraw from the court without bail, and made his escape to the Netherlands; but on account of representations from the court of Versailles he was commanded to quit that country, and, returning to England, was apprehended, and in January 1788 was sentenced to five years imprisonment in Newgate, where he lived at his ease, giving dinners and dances. As he could not obtain securities for his good behaviour on the termination of his term of imprisonment, he was not allowed to leave Newgate, and there he died in delirium on the November 1 1793. Some time before his apprehension he had become a convert to Judaism, and had undergone the initiatory rite.
A serious defence is undertaken in The Life of Lord George Gordon, with a Philosophical Review of his Political Conduct, by Robert Watson, M.D. (London, 1795). The best accounts of Lord George Gordon are to be found in the Annual Registers from 1780 to the year of his death. He figured as a character in Charles Dickens' historical novel Barnaby Rudge.
[edit] 1787 - Lord George Gordon, the Jew
In 1787, at the age of 36, Lord George Gordon converted to Judaism in Birmingham. Considering that Jews had only shortly before been grudgingly allowed to live in England after almost 400 years of banishment, his conversion at that time was quite unique.
He took the name of Yisrael bar Avraham Gordon and eventually died as a Jew.
Gordon was what the Jews call a "Ger Tzedek" - a righteous convert. He did not shake in his conviction.
Not much is known about his life as a Jew in Birmingham, but the Bristol Journal of Dec. 15, 1787 reports Gordon's presence in Birmingham since August 1786:
| Unknown to every class of man but those of the Jewish religion, among whom he has passed his time in the greatest cordiality and friendship... he appears with a beard of extraordinary length, and the usual raiment of a Jew... his observance of the culinary (Kashrut) laws preparation is remarkable. |
...
| He was surrounded by a number of Jews, who affirmed that his Lordship was Moses risen from the dead in order to instruct them and enlighten the whole world... It appears that (he) has officiated as a chief of the Levitical Order... |
While in Jail, George Gordon lived the life of an Orthodox Jew, and he adjusted his prison life to his circumstances. He put on his Tzitzit and Tefillin daily. He fasted when the Halakha (Jewish law) prescribed it, and likewise celebrated the Yomim Tovim. He had kosher meat and wine, and Shabbat challah's. The prison authorities permitted him to have a minyan on Shabbat and to affix a mezuzah. The Ten Commandments were also hung on his wall for Shabbat to transform the room into a synagogue.
Lord George Gordon associated only with these pious Jews; because in his passionate enthusiasm for his new faith, he refused to deal with any Jew who compromised the Torah commands. Although any non-Jew who desired to visit Gordon in prison (and there were many) was welcome; he requested the prison guards to admit only Jews who had beards and wore head coverings.
He would often in keep with Jewish Chesed (Mercy and Charity) Law; go into other parts of the prison to comfort prisoners by speaking with them, playing the violin, and in keep with Tzadakah (Charity) laws, give what little money he could, to those in need.
Charles Dickens, in his novel Barnaby Rudge, which centers around the "Gordon" riots of 1780, writes about describing Gordon as a true Tzadik (Pious Man) among the prisoners as follows:
The prisoners bemoaned his loss, and missed him; for though his means were not large his charity was great, and in bestowing alms among them he considered the necessities of all alike, and knew no distinction of sect or creed ...
[edit] 1793: potential release from prison, and death
On the 28th of January, 1793, Lord George Gordon's sentence expired and he had to appear to give claim to his future good behavior. When appearing in court he was ordered to remove his hat, which he refused to do. The hat was then taken from him by force, but he covered his head with a night cap and bound it with a handkerchief. He defended his behavior concerning his kippa by quoting the Bible "in support of the propriety of the creature having his head covered in reverence to the Creator." Before the court, he read a written statement in which he claimed that "he had been imprisoned for five years among murderers, thieves, etc., and that all the consolation he had arose from his trust in G-d."
Since he had brought as guarantors only two Jews whom the court would not accept due to its prejudice, Gordon was again remanded to his prison cell. Although his brothers; the 4th Duke of Gordon and Lord William, the future Vice-Admiral; and his sister, Lady Susan; offered to cover his bail; Gordon refused their help saying that to "sue for pardon was a confession of guilt."
In October of the same year Gordon caught the dreaded prison fever that had been raging in Newgate in the year of 1793. Christopher Hibbert, another biographer, writes that scores of prisoners waited outside his door for news of about his health; friends, regardless of infection, stood whispering in the room and praying for his recovery. But on November 1, 1793 when he was but 42, this virulent form of typhoid took him from this world, and George Gordon died.
[edit] References
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by: Peniston Lamb Whitshed Keene |
Member of Parliament for Ludgershall 2seat constituency (Peniston Lamb) 1774–1780 |
Succeeded by: Peniston Lamb George Augustus Selwyn |
