ALEXANDER GORDON, THE ANTIQUARY, 31 



Unfortunately my enquiries after traces of the old Scottisli anti- 

 quary in his new home beyond the Atlantic were delayed till after 

 the close of the great Southern War, which has led to the destruc- 

 tion of records that might have thrown further light on his own 

 career and on that of his descendants. Nevertheless, research 

 has been rewarded far beyond my expectations, mainly through the 

 kind and zealous co-opei-ation of General Wilmot G. de Saussure, of 

 Charleston, South Carolina, President of the St. Andrew's Society 

 of that city, and one who prizes his claims to Scottish descent 

 through a maternal ancestress. Alexander Gordon became a member 

 of that Society shortly after his settlement in Charleston, as appears 

 from its historical roll ; but unhappily the original records, which 

 should have told of the part he played in its proceedings, perished in 

 the late war. In its original constitution the Society is styled the 

 St. Andi'ew's Chib, and as such flourished till the War of Independ- 

 ence. In an address delivered before the Society by Mitchell King, 

 Esq., when celebrating its centennial anniversary, on St. Andrew's 

 Day, the 30th of November, 1829, the speaker remarks: " In ex- 

 amining the earlier records of the Society, it is interesting, and 

 sometimes curious, to read the petitions, and see the various applica- 

 tions made to them. If a poor man had been oppressed by a rich 

 neighbour, if he had lost his little crop, or stood in need of necessaries 

 for his family, he applied to the St. Andrew's Society. One tells 

 that his neighbours have trespassed on his land, and that he has been 

 harassed and ruined by lawsuits. Another says that after he had 

 made a good crop a pai't of it was destroyed by the bears, and the 

 rest stolen by negroes. In 1747, the sister of a Scottish Baronet, on 

 her third application for further relief, informs them that she believes 

 the recent troubles in Scotland (i.e. the rebellion of 1745,) had pre- 

 vented her brother from sending her assistance :" and so the narrative 

 proceeds. But for the ravages of more recent troubles, we might 

 have recovered some gi-aphic touches illustrative of the share which 

 Alexander Gordon took in the good work of the St. Andrew's Club 

 of Charleston, the oldest chaiitable society of Soutli Carolina. From 

 the imprint of the oiiginal rules of the club — " London : printed by 

 James Crokatt, printer and bookseller to the Society, at the Golden 

 Key, next the Iimer Temple Gate, in Fleet Street, 1731," — it seems 

 doubtful if a printing press had been set up in South Carolina within 

 ten years of the. arrival in that scene of his latest achievements, of 



