Elizabeth Leveson-Gower, Duchess of Sutherland

Elizabeth Sutherland Leveson-Gower, Duchess of Sutherland (née Gordon, 24 May 1765 – 29 January 1839), also suo jure 19th Countess of Sutherland, was a Scottish peer from the Leveson-Gower family, best remembered for her involvement in the Highland Clearances.

Biography

Elizabeth was born at Leven Lodge near Edinburgh,^[1] to William Gordon, 18th Earl of Sutherland and his wife Mary (c.1740–1766), daughter and coheir of William Maxwell. Her parents died of "putrid fever" in Bath in 1766, a few weeks after her first birthday. As the younger and only surviving child, ^[2] she succeeded to her father's estates and titles. Her title of Countess of Sutherland was contested by Sir Robert Gordon, Bart., a descendant of the 1st Earl of Sutherland, but was confirmed by the House of Lords in 1771.^[3]

Childhood and marriage

Elizabeth Sutherland spent most of her childhood living in Edinburgh and London, where she was educated between 1779 and 1782. On 4 September 1785, at the age 20, she married George Granville Leveson-Gower, Viscount Trentham, who was known as Earl Gower from 1786 until in 1803 he succeeded to his father's title of Marquess of Stafford. In 1832, just six months before he died, he was created Duke of Sutherland and she became known as Duchess-Countess of Sutherland.^[2]

Scottish clearances

Under the terms of the marriage contract, control, but not ownership, of the Sutherland estates passed from Elizabeth to her husband for life.^{[lower-alpha 1]} The couple also purchased additional land in Sutherland, so that by the 1820s they owned well over two-thirds of the county.^[2]

Interested in improving the yield that she could obtain from her estate, Lady Sutherland was the driving force behind notorious, large scale clearance that were to take place in Sutherland, in the name of modernisation and efficiency. She started gradually, but as the techniques proved to be financially beneficial for her family, she accelerated and intensified the process.^[2] She instigated the eviction of tenant farmers and crofters, who were moved to smaller, less-viable holdings on the coast, to make way for large sheep farms and other projects. Lady Sutherland visited her estates regularly and was fully aware of what her policies meant for the tenants dispossessed of land on which their families had lived for generations. She and her supporters "considered the changes necessary, inevitable, and benevolent ... endeavoured to counteract the adverse publicity surrounding the clearances, but with little success".^[2]

Lady Sutherland, along with her factor Patrick Sellar and auditor James Loch, had a reputation for being especially cruel and insensitive.^[5] The clearances brought widespread condemnation, and the Highland Land League eventually achieved land reform in the enactment of Crofting Acts. These measures could not bring economic viability, however, and came too late at a time when the land was already suffering from depopulation.^[6] For example, on seeing the starving tenants on her husband's estate, she remarked in a letter to a friend in England, "Scotch [sic] people are of happier constitution and do not fatten like the larger breed of animals".^[7]

Other interests

Lady Sutherland twice raised a volunteer regiment, the "Sutherlandshire Fencibles", in 1779 and 1793, which was later deployed in suppressing Irish rebellion of 1798.^[1]

In 1790 her husband was appointed Ambassador to France and she accompanied him to Paris. She was able to witness the revolutionary events first-hand and wrote descriptions about the political turmoil in France at that time.^[2] Lady Sutherland and her husband had difficulty obtaining permission to leave Paris and did not finally travel to London until 1792.

During the 1790s, Lady Sutherland became a leading figure of the social season in London. Her dinner parties and balls were attended by royalty, nobility and leading politicians, both foreign and domestic. She and her husband became close friends with George Canning who considered her beautiful, intelligent, and charming - a view not shared by members of her own class and sex, who thought her overbearing.^[2]

When not in public, Lady Sutherland's interests included corresponding with Sir Walter Scott and, as she was a gifted artist, painting watercolour landscapes of the Sutherland coast and of Dunrobin Castle, among other subjects.^[2] She was also an accomplished oil painter. She drew and etched a series of views in the Orkney Islands and north-east coast of Scotland, which were published between 1805 and 1807.^[1]

Lady Sutherland spent a lot of time raising her four children. She placed a special emphasis on maximising the wealth of her sons and (as was common at the time) obtaining the best possible marriages for her daughters. Eric Richards observes that she "dominated her sons and probably her husband as well".^[2]

Shortly before his death in July 1833, her husband was created Duke of Sutherland and Lady Sutherland became the Duchess of Sutherland. After her husband's death her Scottish estates were managed for her on her behalf. She died, aged seventy-three, on 29 January 1839 at Hamilton Place, Hyde Park, London. She was buried on 20 February 1839, with great pomp at Dornoch Cathedral, in Sutherland.^[1][2] Her comital title passed to her eldest son, George.^[1]

Family

On 4 September 1785, Lady Sutherland married Lord George Leveson-Gower and they had four surviving children:

• George Granville Leveson-Gower, later Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, styled Earl Gower, later styled Marquess of Stafford, later 2nd Duke of Sutherland (1786–1861)^[2]
• The Lady Charlotte Sophia Leveson-Gower (c. 1788–1870), married Henry Fitzalan-Howard, 13th Duke of Norfolk^[2] and had issue.
• The Lady Elizabeth Mary Leveson-Gower (1797–1891), married Richard Grosvenor, 2nd Marquess of Westminster^[2] and had issue.
• The Lord Francis Leveson-Gower, later Egerton, later 1st Earl of Ellesmere (1800–1857)^[2]

Notes

References

•  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Sutherland, Earls and Dukes of". Encyclopædia Britannica. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 
• Lundy, Daryl (10 May 2003), William Gordon, 18th Earl of Sutherland, The Peerage, p. 995, § 9943 
• Prebble, John (1963), "Chapter 2 – The Year of the Burnings"", The Highland Clearances, Secker & Warburg 
• Richards, Eric (2004). "Elizabeth Leveson-Gower (1765–1839)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/42000.  (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• White, G. H., ed. (1953) [1949], The Complete Peerage, XI, St Catherine's Press, p. 563 

External links

• The Duchess of Sutherland and Slavery (Karl Marx, 1853)
• Tate Art Gallery