GORDON, George MP, President of the Protestant Association, Leader of the 'Gordon Riots' 1 2
- Baptised: 27 January 1752 1
- Died: 1 November 1793, Newgate Prison, London, England 1
User ID: P453.
General Notes:
"George (Gordon), baptized 27 January 1752, was for some years in the Royal Navy ; elected member of Parliament for Ledgershall 1774. An independent, able, and witty debater, he made some mark in the House of Commons ; but his name is chiefly associated with the great 'No Popery ' riots in London of 1780. In these 210 persons were killed and 248 wounded, while property to the amount of 180,000 was destroyed. Lord George was tried for high treason, but Erskine's defence secured his acquittal. Having, in 1786, refused to compear as witness in a Court of Justice, he was, under the law then prevailing, excommunicated by the Archbishop of Canterbury for contempt. Convicted in the following year of the authorship of two libellous pamphlets, he fled to Holland, but was sent back to England, and apprehended at Birmingham. He died of fever in Newgate 1 November 1793, having, it is said, latterly become a convert to Judaism. He was unmarried."
from Scots Peerage (vol 4) 1
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