tested the Sutherland peerage, and who was declared by
Lord Mansfield, delivering the judgment of the House
of Lords, to have proved his pedigree as heir-male; but
the peerage being a female fief, went to his niece, the
daughter of the then late Earl. Of the truth of this
my wife had no doubt, or she would have said so.
I received your note last Monday, and should have
answered it at once had I not hoped, by waiting a few
days, to be in possession of my wife's pedigree, for which
I had written to Mrs. Sharpe, my wife's cousin, who is
the daughter of Captain Donald Campbell, and of one of
the Digby family. Upon receipt of the pedigree, should
I obtain further information, I shall do myself the
pleasure of communicating it to you." No further com-
munication was received from Mr. Judge. Captain
Sutherland had certainly no legitimate issue, nor, in so
far as known, had he any family.
The modern estate of Langwell was formerly known
as "Berriedale," and was possessed by two families of
Sutherlands. Those of the first family, descended from
John Begg, son of Nicolas, Earl of Sutherland, were
styled "Sutherlands of Berriedale," and the other family,
whose immediate progenitors were the Sutherlands of
Forse, descended from Kenneth, a younger brother of
John Begg, were known as the "Sutherlands of Lang-
well." Berriedale originally belonged to the Cheynes,
and it, together with Duffus (Dove House), in Morayshire,
was acquired by the Sutherlands through the marriage of
one of the daughters and co-heiresses of Ranald, "Lord
Cheyne," to Nicolas Sutherland, brother to William, Earl
of Sutherland. From the Sutherlands the lands came,
also by marriage, into the family of Oliphant; and they
were thereafter acquired by the Caithness family of
Sutherlands. In the seventeenth century the estate then
known as Langwell was acquired from. Lord Breadalbane
by William M'Ian or Sutherland, grandson of Alexander
Sutherland of Forse.
Mr. Calder has a story of a "William Sutherland of
Berriedale, a young man of gigantic stature," who
accompanied John, Earl of Caithness, in his disastrous
expedition to Orkney, in 1529, and who, he says, was
proprietor of Berriedale, and ancestor of the Brabster
family. In 1451 there was a William Sutherland of
Berriedale, the son and apparent heir of Alexander
Sutherland of Duffus, and whose second son, William, was
laird of Quarrelwood. Quarrelwood had also a son,
William, who was fifth Baron of Duffus, and his son and
heir, William, was killed at Thurso in 1529, that being
the same year in which, according to Calder, William
Sutherland of Berriedale was slain in Orkney. But even
if there really had been a William Sutherland of Berrie-
dale in the Orkney expedition, he was not an ancestor of
the Sinclair-Sutherlands of Brabster, for, beyond ques-
tion, their Sutherland connection is derived from the
Forse branch of the Sutherlands of Langwell.
Alexander Sutherland, ninth laird of Forse,
who succeeded his father in 1602, had a son, John, in
Rangag, a township on the estate of Forse. John Suther-
land had at least two sons, William and David, of whom
the elder seems to have been William, commonly called
"M'Ian" (son of John), and in 1660 he and his father
were joint tacksmen of Langwell. In 1664 William
Sutherland obtained a wadset on Langwell from the Earl
of Caithness; in 1691 he got further wadset rights, in-
cluding therein the lands of Risgill, in favour of himself
and his son, James, from Lord Breadalbane; and in the
same year they acquired an absolute heritable right to
these lands. Thus William M'Ian or Sutherland was
the first Sutherland of Langwell.
David, the second son of John Sutherland in Rangag,
is designed "of Langwell," and he may have been a
wadsetter of these lands. He seems to have had several
children, but we find notice only of his "eldest son," John,
who was his executor, and who in 1678 granted an as-
signation in favour of James Sutherland of Ausdale, his
cousin-german, of a bond for 600 merks which had been
granted by his grand-uncle, James of Forse, to his "good
sir," John in Rangag, an.d by him assigned to his son,
David, the father of John Sutherland.
I. William Sutherland or M'Ian had several
children:-
1. James, his eldest son and successor.
2. Adam, in Langwell, who married Janet, daughter
of Donald Henderson, sometime in Sibster, there-
after in Achalibster, and his wife, Elizabeth
Sinclair, the grand-daughter of James Sinclair of
Borlum and Thura. His eldest son, James, mar-
ried, in 1703, Beatrice, daughter of James Sinclair
of Lybster. His second son was John; and he
had a daughter, Esther, who married, in 1716,
Benjamin Henderson in Achalibster.
3. David, in Ausdale, the third son of William Suther-
land, married twice. By Catharine Polson, his
first wife, he had two sons, William, wadsetter of
Westerloch, and first of that family, and Angus.
These two sons are described as his eldest and
second sons by Catharine Poison, in a bond of
provision by their father, dated in 1697, by which
he assigns to them 2000 merks, part of 4000
merks due to him by his elder brother, James of
Langwell. David Sutherland's second wife was
Mary Sutherland, of a family of Sutherlands,
tacksmen of Latheron. By her he had a daughter,
Elizabeth, who married, in 1720, Donald Calder
of Strath. One of the witnesses to her contract
of marriage was her relative, "Francis Suther-
land, fiar of Forse."
4. George Sutherland, in Ausdale and in Braehig-
lish, is mentioned as the brother of David in
Ausdale.
5. Anne, the only daughter of William Sutherland,
in so far as is known, married, first, John Innes of
Oust, and, secondly, Alexander Calder of Achin-
gale. She had a son, John Innes, to whom his
uncle, James Sutherland of Langwell, was tutor-
dative, and a daughter, Marion Innes, who was
married in- 1703, with consent of her mother and
her mother's then second husband, to John Cal-
der, son of Alexander Calder in Winlass. For her
tocher she had 2800 merks liferented by her
mother, and which was in the hands of James
Sutherland of Langwell.
II. James Sutherland of Langwells, alias "Meikle
James," had no less than four wives.
In 1669 he married his cousin, Elspeth, daughter of
James Sutherland of Forse, and widow of John Suther-
land of Ausdale, and she having had the liferent of this
place, James Sutherland was after his marriage designed
"of Ausdale." By this marriage he does not seem to
have had any issue.
His second wife was Anne, daughter of Patrick
Sinclair of Ulbster, and widow of Francis Sinclair of
Stirkoke. By her he had a daughter:-
Esther, afterwards of Langwell.
His third wife was Elizabeth, daughter of William
Sinclair of Dunbeath, by whom he had no family.
He married, lastly, Anne, daughter of Robert Sinclair
of Durran, and had by her two daughters:-
1. Anne, afterwards of Risgill or Swiney.
2. Janet, who married George Sinclair of Brabster.
This marriage was the first connection between
the Sinclairs of Brabster and the Sutherlands.
James Sutherland died in 1708, and was succeeded in
Langwell by his daughter, Esther; and in Risgill by her
sister Anne.
III. Esther Sutherland of Langwell was twice
married.1 Her first husband was William son of Donald
Budge of Toftingall, by whom she had a son, James.
She married thereafter, in 1708 Robert Sutherland of
Achastle, immediate younger brother of George, twelfth
laird of Forse; and he was after his marriage styled "of
Achinarras," in which lands his wife was liferented as the
widow of William Budge. She had two sons and two
daughters:-
1. James, her successor.
2. Major George Sutherland, Midgarty, Sutherland-
shire, who had two sons and eight daughters;
Lieutenant-Colonel George, 15th Regiment of
Foot; Robert; Esther, who married Captain
William Sutherland, Shibbereross; Janet who
married John Gray of Jamaica Jane, who mar-
ried the Reverend Alexander Sage, Kildonan;
Elizabeth, who married Joseph Gordon, Navi-
dale; Charlotte, who married Mr. M'Farquhar
of Jamaica; Williamina, who married Robert
Baigrie, Midgarty; Roberta, who married Robert
Pope, Navidale; and by a second marriage,
Janet, who married Kenneth M'Kay, Torball.
1. Margaret, married in 1732 to Alexander M'Kenzie,
younger of Ardloch, whose father, John, second
of Ardloch, was cousin-german of John, second
Earl of Cromarty.
2. Elizabeth, who married Benjamin Williamson,
second of Banniskirk.
IV. James Sutherland of Langwell, "a jovial,
hearty man, who liked a glass of good claret at home and
abroad, and was exceedingly merry over it," married,
in 1738, Rachel, daughter of Sir James and Dame
Elizabeth Dunbar of Hempriggs, and had a son and a
daughter:-
1. Robert of Langwell.
1. Elizabeth, who married, in 1761, Walter Gray, son
of Patrick Gray of Easter Lairg.
William Sinclair of Freswick, writing to Budge of
Toftingall in 1741, mentions that Lord Duffus, Sir
William Dunbar, Durran, and Scotscalder, had gone to
Thurso East, and that Lady Janet, believing that they
had done so, not so much out of kindness "as to get a
sett of drink" and to see how political matters were going,
made Langwell-who had also arrived at the castle-
landlord at dinner (Ulbster being from home), "with
orders to make an example of them." These he obeyed.
punctually, so that some of the party had to be "oxter-
handed," or supported from the boat by which they
crossed the Thurso river to Bowermadden's house in
Thurso, where they lodged.
V. Robert Sutherland, last of Langwell, mar-
ried, in 1762, his cousin, Anne Sinclair, heiress of
Brabster. For the issue of this marriage vide Brabster.
In 1775 Langwell was sold to William Gray, Iter
Boreale, Jamaica, Provost-Marshal of that Island.
It is believed that Robert Sutherland had a brother
who resided in Brechin, but his name and history are not
known.
In the following description of this last laird of Lang-
well, written in 1769, will be recognised the hand of the
late William Sinclair of Freswick:-
"Langwell was in town at our market, or, as he
designs himself, Captain Robert Sutherland of Langwell
and Brabster, Esq. His inconsistencies you have heard
on several occasions long ere now: I shall therefore give
you an account of his procession at Freswick's burial.
First comes himsell, mounted on a gray nag so and so
shaped, low-sized crape hat-band, and a streamer from
each cock of the back part, red coat and vest, white
breeches, mounted with black, lappels and cuffs to the
coat of that color; on the right and left about a yard
behind him, and as much to the right and left of the line
in which he rode, two gily-weet-feet, each with a leashed
grayhound; then followed three old-looking footmen in
abrest of the line in which the first three stood. Captain
John Sinclair told me that he saw him at Wick, his
machine drawn by four horses of different sizes and colors,
each of his postillions in long black cloaks, hats with
cockades to 'em, hunters' whips, a sword on one side and
a pistol on the other; furnish me with such an equipage
galloping thro' a street. I had forgot to say, in his proces-
sion at the burial, in a cold rainy day, he had his horse
covered with a net made of white, red, and green silk."
On the death of James Sutherland, of Langwell, in
1708, his second daughter, Anne, succeeded to the estate
of Risgill. In 1717 she married Alexander Sinclair of
Swinzie, now called Lochend, a property which he got
from his father, George Sinclair of Barrock, he being the
eldest son of Barrock's second marriage to Elizabeth,
daughter of David Murray of Clairden. After Anne
Sutherland's marriage, the estate of Risgill was called
Swinzie, and the family took the name of Sutherland,
or Sinclair Sutherland. Alexander Sutherland died in
1738, leaving a son, James.
James Sutherland of Swinzie is mentioned as
being a "very facetious, entertaining man, who loved to
pass his jokes." In 1739 his mother disponed the estate
to him, and in 1743 he married his cousin-german, Jean,
daughter of John Sinclair of Durran. She was known
as "Lady Swinzie" and resided during the latter
part of her life in Thurso, where she died, a very old