Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 35 on 15/11/2007.

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The most ancient earldom in Scotland

James Irvine Robertson turns his attention to the Clan Sutherland, one of the country’s most ancient (and notorious) clans

Like all clans, the Sutherlands have had their ups and downs. For the best part of two centuries, they were cadets of the Gordons.

The horrors of the Sutherland Clearances are part of the folklore of the Highlands, spread around the world by those forced from their homes. And yet, Lord President Forbes in his memorial to the Government before the 1745 Jacobite Rising, stated that the clan could field 2,000 men, a figure beaten by only the dukes of Argyll and Atholl.

The remarkable honour of the clan – and what led to its difficulties – lies in its Chief holding the most ancient earldom in Scotland. Such earldoms can, uniquely, be inherited through women should the male line fail.

And three times in its history has this happened to the earldom of Sutherland, allowing the title to pass to the Countess’s sons of another surname. Such a marriage by Elizabeth, the 10th holder of the title in 1500 to Adam Gordon, second son of the 2nd Earl of Huntly, gave their son Alexander overwhelming power in clan country and this was confirmed by James VI, who decreed that the earldom should never leave the surname of Gordon. However, this changed when the 18th Earl took the name of Sutherland and, in 1766, the House of Lords decreed that the earldom should pass once more to his daughter and out of the Gordon family.

Sutherland is a Scottish county – the sudrland (southland) of the Norse – as well as a clan. Its people are said to originate in the Catti tribe who inhabited the region in pr.....

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By James Irvine Robertson

Section : Scottish Clans

Page number : 52