page_title: Jane Gordon, Duchess of Gordon
section_title: Marriage
hierarchical_section_title: Jane Gordon, Duchess of Gordon / Marriage
caption_attribution_description: English: Alexander Gordon, 4th Duke of Gordon (1743-1827)
context_page_description: Jane Gordon, Duchess of Gordon was a Scottish Tory political hostess. Together with her husband Alexander, 4th Duke of Gordon, and son George, Marquess of Huntly, she founded the Gordon Highlanders, a British Army infantry regiment which existed until 1994.
context_section_description: On 18 October 1767 Jane married the 24-year-old Alexander Gordon, 4th Duke of Gordon. The young Duke lived in the Gordon townhouse almost opposite the Maxwells, and he had inherited a considerable fortune and the title at the age of nine.
  It was while they were on honeymoon at the Fordyce’s country seat, Ayton in Berwickshire, that she received a note from her former love, the young Fraser, very much alive, asking her to marry him. She is said to have read the note and fainted. However, she kept in touch with the young Fraser.
  For the next 20 years, the Duke and Duchess lived at Gordon Castle in Morayshire which Jane’s husband enlarged to be one of the largest homes in Scotland—with a facade 600 feet long and an 84 foot high central tower. Part of the town of Fochabers had to be demolished and rebuilt elsewhere to make room for the extensions. However, years later most of the enlargements were dismantled again.
  At Gordon Castle, Jane organised parties, planted trees, and took a keen interest in farming. She was a great enthusiast for local dancing and fiddle and pipe music. She is credited with establishing the Strathspey as a dance form.
  The couple had seven children. Her first son, George, Marquess of Huntly, the later George Gordon, 5th Duke of Gordon was born in 1770. The Duke also had an illegitimate son at about the same time, also called George, by a Mrs. Christie. Jane used to refer to “my George and the Duke’s George”.
caption: Jane’s husband, Alexander Gordon, 4th Duke of Gordon, portrayed by Pompeo Batoni (1764)
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