Glenbuchat Heritage

32 Hugh Gordon Clock

Hugh Gordon Clockmaker

The pictures above shows

The Hugh Gordon’s Grandfather clock, probably made before 1790s therefore it was probably bought by Bombay Jock


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It is interesting that Hugh Gordon who was brought up not far from Strathdon, went to India when John Forbes ‘Bombay Jock’ and not long after Charles and Kohn Forbes has also gone to India.

High Gordon

Hugh Gordon was born in 1766. The starting points of Hugh Gordon's life were Rhynie and the Cabrach, fairly remote backwaters, where his father James Gordon of Old Meldrum lived and worked (and was buried in a snowstorm).

He arrived at Madras in 1792 to be reunited with his elder brother Robert Gordon who had run away to make his own way in the world. For a number of years Hugh Gordon was employed by the East India Company but was also in business as a watchmaker and silversmith on his own account from 1793 giving birth to one of the most important dynasties of colonial silversmiths active in Madras in the 19th Century. He continued in business at Madras until 1803 when, in that year, his business was passed to the firm of Gordon & Lovell (George Gordon I, Francis Lovell, and Robert Gordon II). He appears to have made his fortune in Madras, and in 1804 he returned home to Aberdeen a wealthy man.

When he returned from India with his fortune in 1804, Hugh Gordon bought the estate which he re-named Manar, after the straits between India and Ceylon (Sri Lanka) where according to some accounts Hugh had made part of his fortune in pearls.

On 2nd April 1807 Hugh Gordon of Manar married Elizabeth Forbes of Echt, a well-established family.

Hugh died on 11th July 1834, aged 68, at Manar House

In 1821, Hugh’s grandson, George Gordon, founded the company George Gordon & Co. in partnership with his brother Robert Gordon III, John Law, and Andrew Barron (the last of whom died there on 15 July 1832). The company produced silverware in the Regency, or Georgian, style, which, at the time in Madras, sometimes featured traditional Indian design and iconography and retailed to wealthy British citizens and Indian aristocrats.

Although George Gordon retired to the U.K. in the 1830s, the firm continued operating as Gordon & Co. in Madras, until 1848, using the maker’s mark “GG&Co.”

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