John Gordon was the natural son of
Alexander Gordon (c. 1516–1575),
Bishop of Galloway and former
archbishop of Glasgow, and Barbara Logie; his parents married, perhaps clandestinely, only in 1546, before Alexander obtained ecclesiastical preferment (for this, see his new
DNB entry). Gordon first studied at
St Leonard's College,
St. Andrews. In June 1565 he was sent to pursue his education in France, having a yearly pension granted him by
Mary, Queen of Scots, payable out of her French dowry. He spent two years at the
universities of Paris and Orleans. On 4 January 1568 he was confirmed by royal charter in the bishopric of Galloway and
abbacy of
Tongland, vacated in his favour by his father; the charter specifies his skill in classical and oriental tongues. At this time he was in France, in the service of the Protestant leader, Prince
Louis of Conde, but he soon came to England, entered the service of
Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, and attended him at the conferences of York (October 1568) and Westminster (November 1568), held for the purpose of considering Mary's guilt. When Norfolk was sent to the
Tower (October 1569), Gordon transferred his services to Mary herself. In August 1571, he was excluded from her household at
Sheffield Castle and wrote a letter of complaint to
William Cecil mentioning an unfinished work on the history of rebellion. Mary sent him to join
Archbishop Beaton in Paris. In September 1571, Mary wrote a letter to her banished servants including her hopes to inspire the hearts of "maistre Jehan Gordon and Guillaume Douglas". Willie Douglas had helped her escape from
Lochleven Castle. Mary commended him to the French king, and he enjoyed the post of gentleman ordinary of the privy chamber to
Charles IX,
Henry III, and
Henry IV, with a yearly pension of four hundred crowns. He saved the lives of several countrymen at the
St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, but never renounced Protestantism. In 1574 he exhibited his
Hebrew learning in a public disputation at
Avignon with the chief rabbi Benetrius. By his marriage in 1576 with Antoinette, widowed daughter of
Rene de Marolles, he acquired an estate which gave him the style of "Sieur of Longorme". With the
see of Galloway his connection was never more than nominal, the revenues going to his father or to his brother George. Some of Gordon's books survive with his annotations in Greek and Latin. Around 1582, Gordon contributed a Latin poem on good rule which was added to a book commissioned as a present for James VI by Mary, Queen of Scots and
Archbishop Beaton. The book, Xenophon's
Xenophontis quae extant opera Annotationes Henrici Stephan, survives. It is unclear if James received it. The decoration includes references to the "
association", Mary's project for a return to Scotland in joint rule with James. In June 1583, Gordon was in Paris and approached the English ambassador
Henry Cobham. This time he wanted to go to Scotland at the request of Catherine de Balsac and escort her son
Ludovic Stewart, 2nd Duke of Lennox to Scotland where he would be brought up as a Protestant. Instead, the
Master of Gray brought the young duke to Scotland. Gordon told Cobham that Mary had paid for his education in France. Cobham heard that Gordon had ambitions to negotiate for a marriage between James VI and
Catherine of Bourbon, but it was suspected he would secretly work to reveal the plans of
Henry of Navarre to Catherine de' Medici. At this time,
Christina of Lorraine, was suggested as a Catholic bride for James VI. In December 1583, Gordon applied to another English diplomat in Paris for a passport to travel to Scotland via England. He was said to often be in the company of the
Duke of Guise and
Catherine de' Medici.
Edward Stafford forwarded Gordon's letter to
Francis Walsingham, in which he claimed to be happily settled in France but anxious to return briefly to Scotland to do
James VI some good service. He stated his employment had only ever been in literary matters, "
es bonnes lettres". Gordon is mentioned in 1588 as Bishop of Galloway; but he resigned his rights before 8 July 1586. His first wife died in 1591. He married in 1594 a strong Protestant,
Genevieve, daughter of François Petau, sieur of
Maulette. On 18 July 1594 in Paris, he signs the marriage contract between Suzanne Hotman and her first husband John Menteith, calling himself "Gentleman of the Bedchamber of the King [and] Seigneur of Boullay-Thierry". According to a family history, in 1601, Gordon was selected by the Duchess of
Lorraine, sister of Henry IV, to take part with
Daniel Tilenus and
Pierre Du Moulin in a public disputation against
Du Perron (afterwards cardinal), who had been charged with the task of converting her to the Roman Catholic Church. The traditional may be unreliable. On 8 July 1601, James VI sent
William Schaw to consult with Master John Gordon on the construction of a monument to the King's rescue from the
Gowrie House conspiracy the previous year. James VI wrote to Gordon that William would "conferre with yow thairanent, that ye maye agree upon the forme, devyse, and superscriptionis". On the accession of
James I to the English throne (1603), Gordon published in French and English a strongly Protestant
panegyric of congratulation and, in the same year, a piece in Latin
elegiacs addressed to Prince Henry. James called him to England and nominated him in October to the deanery of Salisbury, whereupon he was ordained in his 59th year. He was present at the
Hampton Court conference in January 1604 as "deane of Sarum", though he was not confirmed until 24 February. In the second day's conference, James singled him out "with a speciall
encomion, that he was a man well trauailled in the auncients." He approved of the ring in marriage, but doubted the cross in baptism. Gordon preached often at court and
John Chamberlain wrote in April 1605, "Deane Gordon, preaching before the kinge, is come so farre about the matter of ceremonies, the out of Ezechiell and other places of the prophets, and by certain Hebrue characters, and other cabalisticall collections, he hath founde out and approved the use of the crosse, cap surplis et ct." During James' visit to
Oxford in 1605 he was created a Doctor of Divinity (D.D.) on 13 August "because he was to dispute before the king his kinsman." He is described as of
Balliol College. His second wife
Geneviève Petau de Maulette taught French to
Princess Elizabeth (1596–1662), afterwards queen of
Bohemia. In 1611 the barony of
Glenluce, which had belonged to his brother Lawrence, was bestowed on him by royal charter. During the ten years 1603-13 Gordon produced a number of
quartos notable for obscure learning, Protestant fervour, controversial elegiacs, and prophetic anticipations drawn from the wildest etymologies. He was assiduous in his ecclesiastical duties, which included a quasi-episcopal supervision of some eighty
parishes. He procured an act of the chapter devoting one-fifth of the revenue of every prebend for seven years to
cathedral repairs. While on a
triennial visitation he died at
Lewesdon,
Dorset, in his seventy-fifth year. He was buried on 6 September in the morning chapel or quire of
Salisbury Cathedral, where an inscribed stone marks his grave. ==Legacy==