The "Wizard " of Gordounstoun Sir Robert Gordon of Gordonstoun, 3rd Baronet

https://aberdeenvoice.com/2013/09/wizard-gordonstoun/

Better known as the Wizard of Gordonstoun, Sir Robert Gordon, the 3rd Baronet of Gordonstoun, was born in 1647 and lived out his 57 years during a highly-superstitious and God-fearing period in Scottish history. Educated in Italy where he studied chemistry and mechanics, he had somehow acquired the reputation of being a wizard. It was said he ‘gave himself away’ to gain more knowledge.

Image Credit: Duncan Harley
Sir Robert Gordon

Some said he had sold his soul to the devil in exchange for thirty years of life and the understanding of science. An inspiration for Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray perhaps?

The rumours followed him home to Gordonstoun, where he was seen to conduct scientific experiments in a round house connected to the sea caves at Covesea beach via a secret tunnel. Seemingly, he supped with the Devil and danced with naked women.

He was said to have no shadow and was rumoured to have learned the mysteries of necromancy during his residence at the University of Padau in Italy.

Many other rumours circulated and Robert’s reputation was perhaps not enhanced when it emerged that he had slow-cooked a salamander over the course of seven years to persuade it to reveal scientific secrets.

Fortunately for Sir Robert, his great wealth and not a few lofty connections meant that those who would have tried him for wizardry, or indeed witchcraft, were powerless to act against him. In the light of history he was probably just a rather eccentric but dedicated scientist who lived in a highly superstitious age.

Biographical Summary

"Sir Robert Gordon, Baronet [S 1625] of Gordonstoun, 1st son and heir by 1st wife, born 7th March 1647, at Gordonstoun; was M.P. [S] for co Sutherland, 1672-74, 1681-82, 1685-86; for Elgin and Forresshire, 1696, till void 1 October 1696; said to have been Knighted about 1683; succeeded t the Baronetcy in or before 1688, possibly in September 1685; F.R.S. 3 February 1686, being a scientific mechanist and inventor of machinery; was served heir general to his father, 21 September 1688; was a gent. of he household to James II. He executed an entail of the Gordonstoun estate in 1697, and obtained a Novodamus thereof, 27 June 1698. He married firstly 23 February 1676, Margaret, Dow. Baroness Duffus [S], daughter of William (Forbes), Lord Forbes [S], by his 1st wife, Jean, daughter of Sir John Campbell. She died s.p.m. 13 April 1677. He married secondly, in 1691, Elizabeth, daughter and heir of Sir William Dunbar, 1st Baronet [S 1700], of Hempriggs, by Margaret, daughter of Alexander Sinclair, of Lathron. He died 5 September or October 1704. M.I. at Ogston. His widow married Hon. James Sutherland, afterwards Dunbar, who inherited the estate of Hempriggs, and was created a Baronet [S] 10 December 1706."

• Complete baronetage; Cokayne, George E. (George Edward); 1900; Vol. II; page 278

Baronetcy of Nova Scotia

Gordon - Premier Baronetcy of Scotland

• created 28 May and sealed 23 July 1625
• Preceded by: Sir Ludovick Gordon of Gordonstoun, 2nd Baronet
• Succeeded by: Sir Robert Gordon of Gordonstoun, 4th Baronet