Robert Gordon, 1665-1731; his hospital, 1750-1876; and his college, 1880.

  • Walker, Alexander, 1825-1903.
Date:
1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Robert Gordon, 1665-1731; his hospital, 1750-1876; and his college, 1880. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/68 (page 6)
    I find his share of his father's fortune is stated to have been about /iioo, and with this sum, his biographer tells us, he went to the Continent, a vague enough place to set him in. The same authority would make us believe that he played the part of the wanton and unthrifty Heir of Lynne. This may be so, but he came of a thrifty race, and as we find him a merchant in the great city of Dantzic very shortly after leaving Scotland, we may infer, if he ever played the part of libertine and spendthrift, he soon turned to the paths of purity and industry. I hold in my hand for your inspection a volume, written by Baillie Skene, of Aberdeen, which Robert Gordon had in Dantzic with him. His signature, with the date 1690, is at the bottom of the title page. You will notice that it is only five years after the book's issue from the printing press of John Forbes, printer to the City and University, that Robert Gordon possessed it. At that date, our Skenes and Rollands and Gordons and many another Guild brother's family traded and trafficked with