GORDON, HENRY WILLIAM [SSNE 4851]
- Surname
- GORDON
- First name
- HENRY WILLIAM
- Title/rank
- REV.
- Nationality
- SCOT
- Social status
- CLERGYMAN
Text source
Reverend Henry William Gordon arrived in Batavia in January 1691 and thereafter moved to Ambon. Soon after arrival, Gordon found himself in jail accused by Governor Schagen of uttering slanders against the governor. The Court of Justice met to hold the trial in the governor's house. Gordon refused to answer the Court's questions, for which act of contempt he was locked up in a dark hole for a week, in chains, on a diet of water and rice. The Court eventually found Gordon guilty. From the scaffold he had to apologise and ask forgiveness from God, the governor, the Court and everyone else he had offended. Only months after his recantation, Gordon started a process of retaliation against Schagen. Already in February 1694, it had been agreed that the treatment of Gordon had been unfair and would not be repeated in the future. Gordon travelled to Batavia where he appealed at the Court of Justice for more formal punishment. Schagen admitted to having put Gordon in chains, but claimed he had a warrant to do so from the Court. He could not produce a copy of it and so Schagen had to beg forgiveness for his actions. Gordon remained unsatisfied and later appealed to the Lords of the States General of the Netherlands to repatriate Schagen and bring him before the Court of Holland. This request was not accepted but Gordon remained in Batavia pursuing his case and he was deported in 1697. It is not clear if Gordon was a Scot by birth, or simply of Scottish origins.
See RPG 'General Missiven der VOC', V, 1686-1697, pp.388, 426, 514-5, 606-8, 656, 673, 712-3, 850; S. Murdoch,'The Good, the Bad and the Anonymous: The First Scots in Indonesia 1612-1707' in the Jakarta Highland Gathering Magazine, (Jakarta, 2000).
Service record
- THE DUTCH REPUBLIC, DUTCH EAST INDIES [VOC, AMBON]
- Arrived 1691-01-01, as REVEREND
- Departed 1697-12-31, as REVEREND
- Capacity REVEREND, purpose ECCLESIASTICAL