[3] When Arthur Gordon, a well-respected advocate in the Edinburgh courts, died in 1680, he left his twelve-year-old son the sum of 20,000 merks (about £1,100, equivalent to £224,931 in 2023).

Soon after graduating, he left Aberdeen, travelling far and wide around Northern Europe before finally settling in Gdańsk (also known as Danzig) where he established himself as a merchant trader.

[1] By 1692, he was rich enough to donate a large sum of money to his old college and by 1699, it appears that he was providing low interest loans to landowners in Aberdeenshire who needed working capital.

Gordon was a loyalist to the early Jacobite cause in Scotland and at times, gave significant financial support to the Stuart court in exile.

However, before it could be used for its intended purpose, it was taken over by the Duke of Cumberland to use as a barracks for the Hanoverian troops on his visit to Aberdeen in 1746 to put down the Jacobite rising, and so the hospital did not open until 1750.