William Gordon, 2nd Earl of Aberdeen

William Gordon, 2nd Earl of Aberdeen (1679 – 30 March 1746), known between c. 1691 and 1720 as Lord Haddo, was a Scottish peer, Tory politician and Jacobite.

Gordon was the second son of the 1st Earl of Aberdeen and following the Acts of Union 1707, was elected to the House of Commons for Aberdeenshire in 1708. As the eldest son of a peer, however, he did not take his seat and was replaced by Sir Alexander Cumming, 1st Baronet a year later. As his elder brother had died c. 1691, he succeeded to his father's titles in 1720 and a year later was elected as a representative peer for the House of Lords.

Lord Aberdeen had acquired the estates of Ballogie, Boddam, Crichie, Fedderat, Fyvie, Ruthven and Tarland in his lifetime and on his death in 1746, at Edinburgh (having travelled there to declare his support for the Jacobite Uprising), he was succeeded by his eldest son, George.

Family

In 1708, he had married Lady Mary Melville (the only daughter of the 5th Earl of Leven) and they had two daughters,

• Lady Anne (1709–1755, married the 5th Earl of Dumfries), and
• Lady Mary (born and died 1710).

Gordon's wife had died giving birth to their second child, and he then married Lady Susan Murray (the youngest child of the 1st Duke of Atholl) six years later and they had four children,

• George Gordon, Lord Haddo (1722–1801),
• Hon. John (d. 1727),
• Lady Catherine (1718–1799, married her distant cousin, the 3rd Duke of Gordon, and then married Staats Long Morris), and
• Lady Susan (d. 1725).

Lord Aberdeen's second wife also died giving birth to their last child and so he then married Lady Anne Gordon (a daughter of the 2nd Duke of Gordon) and they had six children,

• Gen William Gordon, (died 25 May 1816), Member of Parliament for Woodstock 1767 and for Heytesbury 1774, a Groom of the Bedchamber 1775,
• Col Hon Cosmo Gordon (d. after 1783)
• Hon Alexander Gordon, Lord Rockville (1739–1792)
• Capt Hon Charles Gordon (d. 13 December 1771)
• Lady Harriet Gordon, married as his second wife Robert Gordon, 15th of Hallhead on 2 March 1760, and had issue
• Lady Elizabeth Gordon