Works
In 1641, Charles I wrote a letter, in which he entreated Gordon 'to reveis the saidis cairtiss', to complete the publication of an atlas of Scotland, which had been projected by Timothy Pont. By two Acts of the Scottish Parliament he was exempted from any form of military service, while the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland published a request to the clergy, to afford him assistance. The undertaking was completed in 1648 and was published by Joan Blaeu of Amsterdam, under the title of Theatrum Scotiae. A second edition was published in 1655 and a third in 1662. This atlas was said to be the first delineation of Scotland made from actual survey and measurement.
Gordon made other maps, and revised many others, adding geographical descriptions, and prefixing an introduction in Blaeu, in which a comprehensive view is given of the constitution and antiquities of the country. These dissertations were one of the first attempts to settle the ancient history of Scotland.
He contributed other essays, many of which are still in manuscript form, some mentioned with much approbation by Bishop Nicolson in his Scottish Historical Library; the principal of which is a Latin manuscript History of the Family of Gordon from the earliest period to the year 1595, bearing the Latin title: Origo et Progressus Familiae illustrissimae Gordoniorum in Scotia.
He also wrote a preface to Archbishop Spottiswoode's History of the Church of Scotland, and translated into Latin the controversy between John Knox and Wolfram, sub-prior of St. Andrews. A critical letter of his on Scottish historians, which he addressed to the antiquarian David Buchanan, is inserted in Leyland's Collectanea; some of his poems have been printed in Bishop Forbes' Funerales (Aberdeen, 1635).
Read more about this topic: Robert Gordon Of Straloch
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