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Single Person record details
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Back
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Person Code
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NA16668
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PreTitle
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Sir
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Forenames
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George Hamilton
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Surname
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Gordon
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Title
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4th Earl of Aberdeen
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Dates
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1784-1860
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Epithet
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Prime Minister
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Activity
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George Gordon was born in 1784 and was educated at Harrow and Cambridge. By 1795 he was an orphan and his guardians were William Pitt (1759-1806) and Henry Dundas (1742-1811), both powerful politicians. He inherited the title of Earl of Aberdeen from his grandfather in 1801 and improved the Haddo estate by planting vast numbers of trees. His main interest was politics. Gordon spoke in the House of Lords for the first time in 1807. In 1813 he became Ambassador Extraordinary and Minister Plenipoteniary to Vienna, and signed an alliance with Austria (Treaty of Toeplitz). In 1814 he signed the Treaty of Paris and for his diplomatic skill became Viscount Gordon. When the Duke of Wellington formed an administration in 1828, Lord Aberdeen became Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster with a seat on the Cabinet and later that year he was made Foreign Secretary. In the intervening period he had served as Secretary for War and the Colonies from 1834 to 1835. In 1852, Lord Aberdeen became Prime Minister within a 'coalition ministry' of Lord John Russell, Palmerston, Gladstone, and the Duke of Argyll. His government became embroiled in the Crimean War and he resigned in 1855. He spoke for the last time in the Lords in 1858.
Aberdeen married Lady Catherine Elizabeth Hamilton (d. 1812), daughter of John, 1st Marquis of Abercorn, in 1805, and then Harriet, daughter of the Hon. John Douglas, in 1815. He had several sons by his second wife. He died in 1860.
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Associated records
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GB231/MS 2561 | George Hamilton Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen: correspondence | 1827 - 1854 | GB237/Coll/873 | Letters of George Hamilton Gordon (1784-1860), 4th Earl of Aberdeen | 1832-1849 |
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