The First Muster Roll
The following pages are a transcript of the first recorded muster roll
of the Gordon Highlanders, this list does not pertain solely to the
year 1794. For easy reference they have been arranged
alphabetically, the original list also included the colour of eyes of
the recruits, however this has been omitted from this list. In the
register it is found that 879 men 'listed in 1794 the rate of progress
being :-
Feb
March April May June
33
204 249 269 87 men
leaving 37 for the other months of that year. From the muster
roll it was found that 539 of the recruits were born North of the
Grampians, and that every county in Scotland except Roxburgh,
Berwick and Selkirk contributed men.
245 Inverness 8 Fife 53 Ireland 118 Aberdeen 8 Nairn 9 England :- 77 Banff 7 Linlithgow Cumberland 58 Lanark 6 Dumfries Falmouth 38 Stirling 5 Elgin Gloucestershire 37 Midlothian 5 Forfar Gravesend 33 Argyll 4 Kincardine Newcastle 26 Caithness 3 Dumbarton Portsmouth 25 Moray 3 Haddington Southampton 23 Renfrew 3 Peebles Stafford 21 Perth 2 Wigton Yorkshire 20 Ross 1 Bute 3 Wales 15 Ayr 1 Kinross 1 Germany 14 Clackmannan 1 Orkney
There are also 357 different surnames in the list of which 247
begin with the prefix Mac. Almost one half of the men were
unskilled, being described as labourers. The youngest recruits
were 9 years of age, while the oldest was 47.