Duke was reputed one of the handsomest men of his day". He raised the 92nd (Gordon Highlanders) Regiment of Foot in 1794 for the French Revolutionary Wars. He was responsible for establishing the new village of Fochabers as well as those of Tomintoul and Portgordon in Banffshire. He is also credited as the founder of the Gordon Setter breed of dog, having popularised a 200-year-old breed during the 18th century and then formalised its breed standard in 1820. He was an enthusiastic supporter and patron of the music of William Marshall (1748–1833), a Scottish fiddler and composer, and famous for his many strathspeys, who acted as steward of the Gordon household. Marriage and family Gordon married firstly on 23 October 1767 at Ayton, Scottish Borders, and again at Mr. Fordyce's house in Argyll Street, Edinburgh, Jane, the daughter of the late Sir William Maxwell, 3rd Baronet of Monreith, by his wife, the Lady Magdalen Maxwell, daughter of William Blair, of Blair, Ayrshire. Jane was described by the diarist Sir Nathaniel Wraxall as a celebrated beauty. From 1787 she was part of the social centre of the Tory party and was described in the Female Jockey Club of 1794 as possessing "an open ruddy countenance, quick in repartée, and no one excelling her in performing the honours of the table, her society is generally courted". It went on to say that "The Duchess triumphs in a manly mien; Loud is her accent, and her phrase obscene." She resided for some years in Edinburgh, but eventually refused to renew her residence at George Square, Edinburgh, because it was "a vile dull place". The Hon. Henry Erskine is said to have written the following lines to her: "That is, quoth he, as if the Sun should say, A vile dark morning this – I will not rise to-day." The Duke and Duchess's marriage was tempestuous from the start and neither made any particular effort to be faithful to the other. For some years before her death, she was bitterly estranged from the Duke. While the Duchess circulated at the centre of society, the Duke lived in retirement at Gordon Castle. Elizabeth Grant mentions "The great width of the Spey, the bridge at Fochabers, and the peep of the towers of Gordon Castle from amongst the cluster of trees that concealed the rest of the building....the Duke lived very disreputably in this solitude, for