He was the only son of William Gordon, a West Indies planter, of Auchendolly in Kirkcudbrightshire, and his wife Anna Nash, daughter of Stephen Nash of Bristol, and was educated at Eton College from 1799 to 1803.
He entered Lincoln's Inn in 1803, and matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford in 1804, graduating B.A.
[1][2][3] Gordon succeeded his father in 1802, inheriting the West Indies plantation, and estates in Sherborne, Dorset and Cricklade, Wiltshire.
[2] Appointed High Sheriff of Gloucestershire for 1811–12, Gordon served as MP for Wareham from 1812 to 1818.
Gordon married his cousin Elizabeth Anne, the daughter of Charles Westley Coxe of Kemble House, Gloucestershire.