James Gordon of Neeve Hall in County Londonderry; he entered Trinity College Dublin in 1768, and graduated B.A.
On leaving college he was ordained in the Church of Ireland in 1773, and in 1776 became tutor to the sons of Lord Courtown.
[2] He married in 1779 a daughter of Richard Bookey of Wicklow, and they had several children; his eldest son, James George, entered the army, and was killed at Fort Sandusky in Canada on 25 August 1813; another son, Richard Bentley, was prebendary of Ferns and Leighlin from 1819 to 1823; a daughter was married to his biographer, Thomas Jones.
[1] He published: Gordon also left copious manuscripts, chiefly in continuation of his Terraquea, of which a portion was printed in 1820 as An Historical and Geographical Memoir of the North American Continent.
Another work left in manuscript was An Historical Memoir of the Church of Ireland; a summary of this is given in Jones's Account.