William Sutherland, 5th Earl of Duffus

William Sutherland, 5th of Duffus

William Sutherland, 5th of Duffus (son of William Sutherland, 4th of Duffus)

William Sutherland, who succeeded his father in the lands of Duffus, and probably Quarrelwood also, in or before February 1513-14; while he was in February 1519-20 infeft also in his father's lands of Brichmond or Brichtmony.[1] He had in 1524 a grant from King James V. of the lands of Kinstearie.[2] On 26 March 1525, Adam, Earl, and Elizabeth, Countess, of Sutherland, the superiors of the lands, granted to him the lands of Torboll and Pronsy which had belonged to the late Hugh Sutherland of Pronsy, and which had come into their hands through his deceased withiut heirs-male, as already noted. The reasons given for the grant are of some importance. First, lest lands in their lordship should pass to strangers or to those having no title; and second, having fully considered the right of succession of William Sutherland, Lord of Duffus, to the lands of Pronsy, by reason of tailzie and old infeftment granted thereon, they give and grant the lands and lordship to him in usual form.[3] As any entail, failing the heirs of Angus Sutherland, formerly named, was to the first Alexander Sutherland and the heirs-male of his body,[4] this clause seems to corroborate the vieew that this William and his father were direct heirs-male of the body of that Alexander. In 1527 William Sutherland resigned his lands of Duffus and Quarrelwood, in the shire of Elgin, and Brichtmony, Kinstearie, and the mill of Auldearn in co. Nairn, in favour of his eldest son,[5] and he died before 1 June 1529, when his widow resigned her liferent in Quarrelwood and other lands also in favour of her first-born.[6] He married Janet Innes, daughter of Alexander Innes of Innes, who survived him. They had issue:--

• 1. William Sutherland, 6th of Duffus.
• 2. Alexander, who obtained the rectory of Duffus in 1512, was, in 1524, made perpetual chaplain of the chapel of the Virgin Mary of the Castle of Duffus, and about 12 June 1529 was appointed Dean of Caithness.[7] On 14 August 1528 he founded two anniversaries on behalf of his father and mother, and of his elder brother William and others. In 1549 he was curator of his grandnephew, Alexander Sutherland of Duffus, and he was still alive in 1551.[8]
• 3. Elizabeth, who was married to John, third Earl of Caithness, and had issue.
• [1] Exch. Rolls, xiv. 541, 627.
• [2] Reg. Mag. Sig., 29 November 1524.
• [3] Sutherland Book, iii. No. 73.
• [4] Ibid., Nos. 28, 38, 49.
• [5] Reg. Mag. Sig., 22 July 1527.
• [6] Reg. Morav., 415. He was probably dead before 1 April 1529, as it was apparently his son who made the contract of that date as to Skelbo. See infra.
• [7] Origines Parochiales, ii. 616 and authorities cited.
• [8] Ibid., 616, 617, 631; Sutherland Book, i. 514.

Sources: Balfour Paul, J. (1906) The Scots Peerage, vol. 3. Edinburgh: David Douglas.

https://sites.google.com/site/fivegateways/alphabetical-index-s/sut... 9 No 46

(46) William Sutherland of Duffus, died before 1st June 1529. He married Janet, daughter of Alexander Innes of that Ilk, and had;

• 46(a) William (No. 47).
• 46(b) Alexander Sutherland, Dean of Caithness 1529, still alive 1551.