Career
He was imprisoned at Tothill Field outside London over the winter of 1651–1652. He was transported to the New World in 1652 and entered into indentured servitude. His later victory over servitude became the legal precedent in Massachusetts.
The Alexander Gordon line is the earliest Gordon family in the New World according to the Gordon Genealogy deoxyribonucleic acid Project, and descends from Adam de Gordoun through Sir William Gordon 1265 Laird of Strathbogie (now Huntly).
Along with many other Scottish prisoners, he sailed on the ship "Liberty", commanded by Captain James Allen to Boston, and was confined at Watertown as a prisoner of war.
Foreign a year or more Alexander remained with John Cloyes, a boatswain, or mate, of the vessel living in Cambridge on the road to Watertown—near the site of Cambridge Hospital today. This contract should have ended in 1659, but after a year"s work without pay, Cloyes sold Alexander, like chattel, to Samuel Stratton in Watertown as a "husbandry apprentice."
The term apprentice was used in name only.
As news of the first consignment spread, further consignments of this virtually free workforce were shipped to America and used in the towns of Massachusetts and adjacent provinces.
These "apprentices" were sold to planters and mill owners. The usual term of service was six years. Those who engaged in such traffic obscured it with the euphemism "apprenticeship." The idea was that this label would encourage the masters not to drive their helpless servants to the point of ill treatment.
On 3 November 1663, through the kindness of a resident of Cambridge, Alexander appealed again to the court in Massachusetts and was released from his contract.
His six-year contract with Samuel Stratton ended on paper in 1659. Alexander made his way to New Hampshire, where in the company of other Scots ex-prisoners, he helped found the town of Exeter.
He found employment at the sawmill of Nicholas Lisson. At 28, Alexander Gordon married the owner"s daughter, Mary Lisson(19) and became the forefather of the extensive Gordon family in New England.
Notable New Hampshire Gordons descending from Alexander include United States. Representative for New Hampshire William Gordon Rhode Island State Representative Daniel P. Gordon Junior., and philanthropist Nathaniel Gordon.
Alexander Gordon died in 1697.
