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Earl of Aboyne

The titles of Earl of Aboyne in the Peerage of Scotland and Earl of Aboyne in the Baronage of Scotland are two different, but related titles that have been held separately. The peerage title is held by the Gordon family, with the heir apparent to the Marquessate of Huntly using it as a courtesy title. The baronage earldom is currently held by Christiano Amhold Simoes, Earl of Aboyne.^[1][2][3][4]

The peerage title of Earl of Aboyne was originally created in September 1660 for Lord Charles Gordon. At the time, he was the fourth son of George Gordon, 2nd Marquess of Huntly, and younger brother to James Gordon, 2nd Viscount Aboyne. Charles Gordon was also made Lord Gordon of Strathaven and Glenlivet on the same occasion, with both titles being in the Peerage of Scotland.^[5]

The title descended from father to son for several generations. Charles Gordon's great-great-grandson, the 5th Earl, eventually succeeded to the higher title of Marquess of Huntly in 1836. Since then, the peerage earldom of Aboyne has been a subsidiary title held by the holder of the marquessate.^[6]

There is some contemporaneous evidence that suggests the title may have originally been created during the Civil War for Viscount Aboyne. However, this alleged prior creation is not substantiated in the primary sources on British and Scottish peerage.

• Charles Gordon, 1st Earl of Aboyne (died 1681)
• Charles Gordon, 2nd Earl of Aboyne (died 1702)
• John Gordon, 3rd Earl of Aboyne (died 1732)
• Charles Gordon, 4th Earl of Aboyne (c. 1726–1794)
• George Gordon, 5th Earl of Aboyne (1761–1853) (succeeded as 9th Marquess of Huntly in 1836)

see Marquess of Huntly for further succession

• Viscount Aboyne

• Cokayne, George E. (1910). Gibbs, Vicary (ed.). The complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct, or dormant. Vol. I, Ab-Adam to Basing. London: St. Catherine Press. pp. 53–54.
• Gordon of Gordounston, Robert, A Genealogical History of the Earldom of Sutherland (Edinburgh 1813), p. 528 (the continuation by Gilbert Gordon of Sallagh, concluded in 1651, provides the most explicit evidence that the 2nd Viscount was "created earl by the king's patent" around 1645).