Patrick Gordon ( – August 17, 1736) was Deputy governor of the

Province of Pennsylvania The Province of Pennsylvania, also known as the Pennsylvania Colony, was a British North American colony founded by William Penn, who received the land through a grant from Charles II of England in 1681. The name Pennsylvania was derived from ...

and the Lower Counties on the Delaware from 22 June 1726 to 4 August 1736. He was deputy to the Proprietors of Pennsylvania, the heirs of

William Penn William Penn ( – ) was an English writer, religious thinker, and influential Quakers, Quaker who founded the Province of Pennsylvania during the British colonization of the Americas, British colonial era. An advocate of democracy and religi ...

, rather than to a governor. Since the proprietors were usually in England, he was essentially the governor.

Biography

Gordon had a military, rather than political background. He was a major in the regular army. He resided in what is present-day

Mont Clare, Pennsylvania Mont Clare is a village in Upper Providence Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Upper Providence Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. The village is located on the left bank of the Schuylkill River o ...

, and had at least seven children: Charles, Army, Archibal, Henrietta, Philadelphia, Elizabeth, and Agatha Harriot. Peace and prosperity reportedly prevailed during Gordon's administration as deputy governor. In 1732, a lawsuit was settledPennsylvania Archives, Second Series, The Breviate in the Boundary Dispute between Pennsylvania and Maryland, Edited by William Egle, 1890, p. 449 that temporarily defined the boundaries between the colonial-era provinces of

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

and

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

. Chester County was also split during his term as governor, creating Lancaster County, and construction of the first State House, today's

Independence Hall Independence Hall is a historic civic building in Philadelphia, where both the United States Declaration of Independence, Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States were debated and adopted by the Founding Fathers of ...

, began in 1732. Prior to 1735, members of the state Assembly met in private homes or at

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

meeting houses.

References

External links

"Patrick Gordon's second Royal Commission as Deputy Governor"
at

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gordon, Patrick (governor) 1736 deaths Colonial governors of Pennsylvania Year of birth uncertain