Gordon, whose father had practised as a barrister in Antigua before succeeding to his uncle’s estates and name, entered Parliament as a supporter of Pitt. He came in for Truro on Lord Falmouth’s interest. From 1789, with the Duke of Gordon’s backing, he was pressing for an under-secretaryship and Pitt gave him some encouragement.
If it was one tenable with a seat in Parliament, I thought it too considerable for that purpose, and as I had been desired to mention a pension on hearing nothing of the first place that I expected, I did it, and it is now more than a year I mentioned to you that mode of doing it, and I hoped from what you said it would not have been long before it was obtained.
Ibid. f. 102 (dated only 2 May, but prob. 1793).
Gordon wrote to Pitt again on 3 Apr. 1794 thanking him for ‘the favour’ which had been done him: ‘To myself it is certainly much more desirable than holding any place on such conditions’.
When he returned to the Commons it was as a personal follower of John Cust, when he succeeded to the Brownlow peerage in 1807, brought in Gordon as his replacement. No speech by him is known; but he voted assiduously with government against the Scheldt inquiry, January-March 1810, against parliamentary reform, 21 May 1810, on the Regency, 1 Jan. 1811, and against sinecure reform, 4 May 1812. Perceval’s death ended Gordon’s parliamentary career. From about 1796 until about 1814 he was a practising barrister, of New Court in the Inner Temple. He died 18 Feb. 1822. It was later alleged that he had ‘cut his throat’.