ABERDEEN, _July_ 8, 1637.
CCXVII.--_To ALEXANDER GORDON of Garloch._
[ALEXANDER GORDON was proprietor of Garloch, an estate lying in Kells, about five miles N. W. of New Galloway. It is often corrupted into "Garroch." He was brother to Robert Gordon of Knockbrex, formerly noticed. He was a warm promoter of the Presbyterian cause in his day. Livingstone describes him as a "very gracious person;" and mentions him as present at a private meeting for prayer and Christian conference, with a number of "eminent Christians." John Gordon of Knockbrex, and his brother Robert, who were publicly executed in 1666, for being concerned in the insurrection at Pentland Hills, were the grandchildren of the subject of this notice. See Letter LXV. They were tried for high treason and rebellion, and sentenced to be hanged at the Cross of Edinburgh upon the 7th of December that year, their goods confiscated, their bodies thereafter dismembered, and their heads fixed on the gate of Kirkcudbright. Other eight were at the same time condemned; and the arms of all the ten (because they had with uplifted hands renewed the Covenant at Lanark, previous to the engagement) were to be cut off and sent to that town, to be fixed on the top of the prison. This sentence was executed in all its parts. The case of all the sufferers, but particularly that of the Gordons, who, as Wodrow informs us, "were youths of shining piety, and good learning and parts," excited much sympathy. When turned off the ladder, the two brothers clasped each other in their arms, and in this affectionate embrace endured the pangs of death. "They were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided."
Livingstone, in the beginning of his "Historical Relation of his Life," mentions meetings which he used to hold at Airds (where Gordon of Earlston at one time resided), and at _Garloch_, or, as it is printed in different editions, Gairleuch or Garleuch. Gordon of Garloch was a warm friend to the truth. Gordon, the "translator of Tacitus," was a descendant of this family.]