diff --git a/libs/pbd/xml++.cc b/libs/pbd/xml++.cc
index 598a7684b3..e09af7602b 100644
--- a/libs/pbd/xml++.cc
+++ b/libs/pbd/xml++.cc
@@ -770,16 +770,16 @@ static XMLSharedNodeList* find_impl(xmlXPathContext* ctxt, const string& xpath)
 	xmlXPathObject* result = xmlXPathEval((const xmlChar*)xpath.c_str(), ctxt);
 
 	if (!result) {
-		xmlXPathFreeContext(ctxt);
 		xmlFreeDoc(ctxt->doc);
+		xmlXPathFreeContext(ctxt);
 
 		throw XMLException("Invalid XPath: " + xpath);
 	}
 
 	if (result->type != XPATH_NODESET) {
 		xmlXPathFreeObject(result);
-		xmlXPathFreeContext(ctxt);
 		xmlFreeDoc(ctxt->doc);
+		xmlXPathFreeContext(ctxt);
 
 		throw XMLException("Only nodeset result types are supported.");
 	}