Captain Gordon was Sir William Gordon, 7th Baronet of Embo, in Scotland. The family seat, Embo House, had suffered a very serious fire towards the end of the eighteenth century and the last of the Gordons to live there was Sir William Gordon’s father, Sir John Gordon, 5th baronet, who died at Embo on January 24th, 1779, with mountainous debts.
The 6th baronet, William’s older brother John, had died in Belgium in 1786, a Colonel in the service of the States of Holland.
William Gordon was a captain in the West Norfolk Militia and lived for twenty years at 25 or 21 Hungate Street from around 1783, in a property owned by Robert Harvey. He and his wife Sarah had ten surviving children by 1783, ranging in age from two to twenty-two.
It seems his wife at least and presumably the younger children were living with him at Hungate Street, as his youngest son Orford (named after the commander of the West Norfolk Militia, the Earl of Orford) was baptized at St George Tombland in 1786. His daughter Irving Gordon died at the age of seven in 1788 and was buried at St George Tombland and his daughter Christian, who died in 1795 at the age of 21, was also buried at St George Tombland. Gordon died in Colchester in 1804 at the age of 68 of inflammation of the bladder.
His son, John Gordon, was only 8th Baronet for a few months, as he also died, unmarried, in 1804, in Penang (then known as Prince of Wales Island), serving with the Bengal Engineers. William’s only surviving son Orford became the 9th Baronet.
1783 Chase’s Norwich Directory – Captain Gordon at 25 Hungate Street (not on Excise Office Street)
1798 Land Tax Redemption – Robert Harvey esq owner, Captain William Gordon occupier
1800 Land Tax Redemption – Robert Harvey esq owner, Captain William Gordon occupier
1802 Norwich directory – 21 Hungate Street – Capt Gordon
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