Earl of Sutherland

“ The Earl of Sutherland, having arrived in Sutherland while the Earl of Caithness was thus employed, immediately assembled some of his countrymen, and, along with his brother Sir Alexander, went to the marches between Sutherland and Caithness, near the height of Strathully, where they waited the approach of the Earl of Caithness. Here they were joined by Mackay, who had given notice of the Earl of Caithness’s movements to the lairds of Foulis, Balnagown, and Assynt, the sheriff of Cromarty, and the tutor of Kintail, all of whom prepared themselves to assist the Earl of Sutherland. ”

“ EGERTON, FRANCIS, Earl of Ellesmere (1800–1857) , statesman and poet, was born at 21 Arlington Street, Piccadilly, London, on 1 Jan. 1800. He was the younger son of George Granville Leveson-Gower, second marquis of Stafford, who was created Duke of Sutherland in 1833, the year of his death, by Elizabeth, countess of Sutherland, only daughter of William Gordon, seventeenth earl of Sutherland. Francis was at Eton from 1811 to 1814, when he proceeded to Christ Church, Oxford. ”

“ On 15 July 1555 Sutherland received from the queen regent the government of the earldom of Ross in addition to that of Sutherland. In politics he uniformly supported his relative the Earl of Huntly, who made use of him frequently as his representative in diplomatic negotiations. ”

“ In the end of the seventeenth century the wealth of this family was greatly increased by marriage with the heiress of Leveson, of Trentham, in Staffordshire, and also in the year 1785 by the marriage of the Marquess of Stafford with Elizabeth, daughter and heir of William eighteenth Earl of Sutherland, mother of the present Duke. ”

“ Meantime affairs in Sutherland and Caithness had been pursuing an orderly course for nearly forty years. William, eldest son of Hugo Freskyn, had succeeded his father in Sutherland before 1214, the year of Earl David's death, and had in or after 1237 become its first Earl, and three years afterwards, according to tradition, though probably this event happened later, with the aid of Richard of Moray, Bishop Gilbert's brother, a Norse landing at Unes or Little Ferry is said to have been repulsed in a battle at Embo, near Dornoch in Sutherland. ”

“ Mackay says of Sutherland: 'He is a very honest man, a great asserter of the liberties of the people; hath a good rough sense, is open and free, a great lover of his bottle and of his friend; brave in his person, which he hath shown in several duels; too familiar for his quality, and often keeps company below it; is a fat, fair-complexioned man, forty-five years old' (Memoirs, p. 201) . He died in London on 27 June 1733.
Sutherland was thrice married: First, to Helen, second daughter of William, lord Cochrane, son of William, first earl of Dundonald. ”

“ John, thirteenth earl; 2. Hon. Sir Alexander Gordon; 3. Hon. Adam Gordon; 4. Hon. Sir Robert Gordon of Gordonstoun, the historian of the family of Sutherland, created a baronet of Nova Scotia, being the first of that order, 28th May 1625.
John, thirteenth Earl of Sutherland, was born 20th July 1576. Many details concerning him will be found in the former part of this work. He died at Dornoch, 11th September 1615, aged 40. By his countess, Lady Anna Elphinston, he had, with two daughters, four sons, namely—1. Patrick, master of Sutherland, who died young; 2. John, fourteenth earl; 3. Hon. ”

“ But Swart was killed in holmgang, or duel, by Thorgisl, who cut off his head and married Gudrun, by whom he had a son called Thorlaf. Thorgisl then tired of Gudrun, and gave her to Thorstan the White on the plea that he himself wished to go and look after his estate in Iceland, which he did. Can this Anlaf be the original of the legendary Alane, thane of Sutherland, whom Macbeth, according to Sir Robert Gordon in his Genealogie of the Earles of Southerland,32 put to death, and whose son, Walter, Malcolm Canmore is said to have created first Earl? ”

“ Robert, second earl, who is alleged to have founded "Dounrobin Castell" were purely fictitious persons. "Hugh Southerland, Earle of Southerland nicknamed Freskin" existed, but never was an earl, as Sir Robert well knew, because he quotes charters right up to his death, in which he was styled simply Hugo Freskyn. The Sutherland Book also wholly omits William MacFrisgyn, second Lord of Duffus and Strabroc, the son and heir of Freskyn I and the father [pg 92] of Hugo. ”

“ We come to another Sutherland event, historically of the first importance to us, in 1154.32 "Jarl Ragnvald was then up the country in Sutherland, and sat there at a wedding at which he gave his only daughter and child Ingirid or Ingigerd, to Eric Stagbrellir," who, [pg 69] as we have seen, as Audhild's son, had been brought up in Kildonan. "News came to him at once that Earl Harold was come into Thurso. Jarl Ragnvald, rode down with a great company to Thurso from the bridal.33 Eric was Harold's kinsman and tried to reconcile the earls." ”

“ Philip, Duke of Anjou, was declared King of Spain: but, to prevent that kingdom and France from ever being united under one head, Philip was obliged to renounce every future claim to France; whilst the Dukes of Berry and Orleans were obliged to do the same by Spain.
I wish much to enlarge on the gallant exploits of the Earl of Peterborough, the heroic defence of General Richards, and the noble spirit of the Catalonians after they were abandoned by the Emperor and Queen Ann to the chastisement of Philip ”

“ Thence he fared next of all to Athole to Earl Maddad, and lay at the place called Elgin and obtained guides, who knew the paths over fells and wastes whither he wished to go.19 Thence he fared the upper way over fells and woods, above all places where men dwelt, and came out in Strath Helmsdale near the middle of Sutherland. ”

“ Earl Harold had put his wife Afreka away, and probably after Sweyn's death formed a union, at a date which it seems impossible to fix, with Hvarflod or Gormflaith, daughter of Malcolm MacHeth of Moray, who was in rebellion in 1134, and was imprisoned in Roxburgh Castle until 1157, when he was released and created Earl of Ross, so that Gormflaith, who could hardly have been born during her father's imprisonment, must have been born either before 1135 or after 1157. ”

“ Thorfinn Sigurdson, first Scottish earl, 38;
Skuli cr. earl by Scots king, 144 (n. 4) ;
Moddan cr. earl by Scots king, 36, 59;
Crichton and Sinclair earls, 108;
earl's office descended to females, 15;
Norse and tribal land-owners, 15;
Scottish policy in regard to succession in C., 91, 92.
Caithness, Inventory of Monuments and Constructions in the County of, 2, 141 (n. 2) ; 9, 141 (II, n. 5) ; 147 (n. 6) .
Caithness, Prehistoric Remains of, (S. Laing and T.H. Huxley) , 2,141 (n. 2) ;
5, 141 (n. 8) .
Caithness and Sutherland Records, Viking Society, 146 (n. 20) ; 151 (n. 33) ; 155 (n. 7) . ”

“ Whatever the Sutherland family may have been in local position and history in past centuries, one of the noblest women that ever ennobled the nobility of Great Britain, has given the name a celebrity and an estimation in America which all who ever wore it before never won for it. The Duchess of Sutherland, the noble and large-hearted sister of Lord Morpeth-Carlisle, has given to the coronet she wore a lustre brighter to the American eye than the light of diadems which have dazzled millions in Europe. ”

“ I say, his Grace, the present Duke of Sutherland, and his beautiful Duchess, would be without compeers in the British dominions, their rents, at least doubled; would be as secure from invasion and annoyance in Dunrobin Castle as Queen Victoria could, or can be, in her Highland residence, at Balmoral, and far safer than she is in her English home, Buckingham Palace; every man and son of Sutherland would be ready, as in the days of yore, to shed the last drop of their blood in defence of their chief, if required. ”

“ What a pity it is that differences such as these the Duke of Sutherland cannot see!
The marriage of the young countess into a noble English family was fraught with further disaster to the county. There are many Englishmen quite intelligent enough to perceive the difference between a smoky cottage of turf and a whitewashed cottage of stone, whose judgment on their 418 respective inhabitants would be of but little value. Sutherland, as a country of men, stood higher at this period than perhaps any other district in the British empire ”

“ In Canada, where the Scotch form a great and influential part of the most thriving community, the Duke of Sutherland was, of course, received with enthusiasm, and the interest in his visit was not diminished by the fact that he is uncle to a Governor who, succeeding one of the ablest and most popular administrators that ever crossed the seas, has managed to wear the mantle of his predecessor with dignity and grace, and to secure an extraordinary measure of respect and goodwill from all classes of the Queen's subjects in this vast Dominion. ”

“ A man less staunch and loyal might have thrown over so profitless a service. He had talents that would have commanded a price in the Roundhead market. Yet staunchly adhering to the Stuart fortunes, labouring ceaselessly and shrewdly in the Stuart interest, employing his great ability and statecraft, he achieved at long length the restoration of the Stuarts to the Throne of England. And for all those loyal, self-denying labours in exile on the Stuart behalf, all the reward he had at the time was that James Stuart, Duke of York, debauched his daughter. ”

“ From this long epitome you can gather the following results; first, if the system were a bad one, the Duchess of Sutherland had nothing to do with it, since it was first introduced in 1806, the same year her grace was born; and the accusation against Mr. Sellar dates in 1811, when her grace was five or six years old. The Sutherland arrangements were completed in 1819, and her grace was not married to the duke till 1823, so that, had the arrangement been the worst in the world, it is nothing to the purpose so far as she is concerned. ”

“ She is sister to the Emperor of Germany, and to the Queen of France, and is accused of being extremely ambitious, which the King's easy temper, by giving her the ascendency in politics, rather increases. In her youth she must have been amazingly handsome; for notwithstanding her having eight children living, there is still something very striking about her; and her charms, it is said, are as powerful as ever on the King. There is no believing half the stories one hears; and when they tend to scandal or immorality, it is unjust to repeat any on mere report. ”

“ The Stuart blood, it would seem, enriches the veins of every Christian sovereign of Europe, and among the European noble families will be found many princes who, by the now ignored and we hope never to be revived, principle of divine hereditary right, are nearer heirs to the British throne than the Prince of Wales. The heir-of-line of the Stuarts is, we believe, Francis, ex-Duke of Modena, the heiress presumptive being his niece, Maria Theresa, wife of Prince Louis of Bavaria. ”

“ After what manner may his Grace the Duke of Sutherland be most effectually met in this matter, so that the 443 cause of toleration and freedom of conscience may be maintained in the extensive district which God, in His providence, has consigned to his stewardship? We shall in our next chapter attempt giving the question an answer. Meanwhile, we trust the people of Sutherland will continue, as hitherto, to stand firm. The strong repugnance which they feel against being driven into churches which all their better ministers have left, is not ill founded. ”

“ He hates him for his political opinions, for his principles, and, more than all, for having had the power to give up the beautiful India. Clement Sutherland worships his beautiful daughter; and he hates Mark for not having laid upon her shrine the most precious jewel of his soul—his integrity. And now, with the opposition of your guardian, who is invested with such power over your fortune, what have you to expect in giving yourself to Mark Sutherland? ”

“ The principles advanced by him had taken such root in the minds of many that it seemed impossible for them to lay the doctrine aside. Among this class were the Marshalls, who, by the way, had increased their family by the addition of a son-in-law, their daughter Claire having, as was anticipated, changed her name from Marshall to Sutherland.
Herbert Sutherland was a rising young man of Westminster, well and favorably known to most of the people. ”

“ Mark Sutherland’s plans the only condition upon which their marriage should proceed. And so the interview between father and daughter had closed; and Miss Sutherland had returned to her room with little disposition to be amused by the variety and splendour of her newly-arrived trousseau. And, by seeming lassitude and nonchalance, she had drawn upon herself the unjust censure of Mrs. Vivian, and the wondering compassion of the more sympathetic Rosalie.
India never for an instant doubted her power over Mark Sutherland; nay, she never mentally even limited the extent of that power. ”

“ He raised large levies of men from his estates, sending many to join the military operations in England, while he upheld the authority of parliament in the north. He was one of the leaders at the battle of Auldearn in 1645. His estates suffered severely from ravages made upon them by Lord Reay and the clan Mackay, who took the royalist side, and had a special feud with Sutherland on account of his acquisition of the territory of Strathnaver. Sutherland invoked the aid of parliament, and at length surprised Lord Reay in the castle of Balveny, Banffshire, and sent him a prisoner to Edinburgh. ”