The Dukes and Duchesses of Sutherland, 1758-1955

By the middle of the eighteenth century the Leveson-Gower family had acquired through marriage high social standing and considerable influence in the social, economic and political life of Britain. The marriage, by Granville Leveson-Gower (1721-1803) the first Marquis to Lady Louisa Egerton, the daughter of the 1st Duke of Bridgewater made his children the heirs to the enormous industrial fortune of the Bridgewater family. The family’s status increased similarly spectacularly in 1785 when George Granville Leveson-Gower (1758-1833) married Elizabeth, Countess of Sutherland, adding almost one million acres of land in the Scottish Highlands to the family’s estates in England. Described by his contemporaries as a ‘leviathan of wealth’, George Granville was instrumental in the development of inland transport in the early nineteenth century. Documents in the Sutherland Papers provide an insight into his service as Ambassador to Paris in revolutionary France. An enthusiastic art collector, George Granville was created Duke of Sutherland shortly before his death in 1833.

The Duke’s son George Granville added ‘Sutherland’ to his surname in 1841 becoming George Granville Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, the second Duke of Sutherland (1786-1861). In 1823 he married Lady Harriet Howard one of the most influential women of her time. Documents survive in the Sutherland Papers relating to her service as Mistress of the Robes to Queen Victoria, her support of social reform and her enthusiasm for developing the family’s many properties.

When the second Duke died in 1861 his son George Granville William Sutherland-Leveson-Gower succeeded his father as the third Duke of Sutherland. The third Duke was involved with many voluntary associations, supporting philanthropic work and the development of the British Empire. His first wife Duchess Anne, Countess of Cromartie was closely associated with Queen Victoria, succeeding her mother-in-law as Mistress of the Robes and maintaining a close friendship with the Queen throughout her life. The history of the Sutherland-Leveson-Gower family at the end of the nineteenth century is overshadowed by the controversy between the third Duke’s eldest son Cromartie and the Duke’s second wife Mary Caroline Blair. The Sutherland Papers contain legal papers and media reports relating to this family dispute which Professor Eric Richards describes as ‘one of the great scandals of the late Victorian age’.

Cromartie Sutherland-Leveson-Gower (1851-1913), the fourth Duke of Sutherland, married Lady Millicent St. Clair-Erskine in 1884. The Duke’s enthusiasm for motorcars is represented in the Sutherland Papers, providing a fascinating insight into the history of the automobile in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Duchess Millicent was famous for her philanthropic work in Belgium and France during the First World War. The Sutherland Papers contain a wealth of documents telling us about the many projects and people who were influenced by their association with this extraordinary lady.

Biographical information taken from Eric Richards, ‘Gower, George Granville Leveson-, first duke of Sutherland (1758–1833)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/16539]

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