William Sutherland, 9th of Duffus

William Sutherland, 9th of Duffus

William Sutherland, 9th of Duffus (son of Alexander Sutherland, 8th of Duffus)

William Sutherland of Duffus was in 1579 infeft in the lands of Duffus and Greschip, near Elgin, as heir of the deceased Alexander Sutherland, his father, the lands having been in non-entry for eight years and a half. At the same time he received formal possession of Quarrelwood and some other lands in [the] same neighbourhood, which had been in non-entry since the death of his grandfather William Sutherland, who died in 1543.[1]

He had previously, however, succeeded by right, if not formally, as he is referred to as 'now of Duffus' on 18 June 1574, when he was directed by the Lords of Session to fulfil the terms of the marriage-contracts entered into by his father and elder brother with the Earl of Caithness.[2]

A reasonable period after he had made up his title to his estates he ratified the bond, already cited, granted by his great-grandfather, William Sutherland of Duffus, to the Master of Sutherland.[3] That writ related to the barony of Skelbo, which he held from the Earls of Sutherland, but in 1588 he procured the erection of the lands of Duffus, Quarrelwood, Greschip, and others, near Elgion, into a barony, to be called the barony of Duffus.[4]

He was, later, appointed one of the council of the Earl of Atholl to keep order in the North, although in 1587 he is declared to have reset 'broken men,' or outlaws, on his lands.[5]

In 1606 he entered into an agreement and arbitration with the burgh of Dornoch, in terms of which the boundaries between the town's land and his lands of Skelbo and Pronsy were fixed and amicably settled.[6]

He died in 1616.

His first wife, whom he married about 13 October 1579, was Margaret, a younger daughter of George Sinclair, Earl of Caithness. When she deceased is not certain, [7] but he married, secondly, before 1604, as her fourth husband, Margaret, daughter of William Mackintosh of Dunachton, widow successively of Duncan Grant, younger of Freuchie, Alexander Forbes of Pitsligo, and of Alexander Gordon, younger of Abergeldie.[8]

He had issue:--

• *1. William Sutherland, who succeeded.
• *2. James Sutherland, of Kinminitie.
• *3. John Sutherland, of Clyne.
• *4. Margaret, married (contract dated 24 November 1610)[9] to Colonel Robert Monro of Fowlis. She died in 1616, 'in the flower of her age,' after giving birth to a daughter.[10]
• *5. Janet, married as his second wife, to George Ogilvy, first Lord Banff.[11]
• [1] Exch. Rolls, xx. 551, 552.
• [2] Reg. of Deeds, xiii. f. 168.
• [3] 15 March 1580-81; Sutherland Book, iii. 151; cf. ibid., i. 165, for other arrangements between the Laird and the Earl of Sutherland.
• [4] Reg. Mag. Sig., 3 August 1588.
• [5] Acta Parl. Scot., iii. 466a.
• [6] Origines Parochiales, ii. 637.
• [7] Confirmation of her executry was granted on 19 October 1607 (Minute Book of Edinburgh Commissariot), but the record for the date is missing, and the date of her death cannot be ascertained.
• [8] The Macintoshes and Clan Chattan, ed. 1903, 140.
• [9] Sutherland Book, i. 513.
• [10] Sir Robert Gordon's Genealogy, etc., 328.
• [11] P. C. Reg., 2nd ser., iii. 263.

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

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