William Sutherland, 18th Earl of Sutherland (1735–1766) was a Scottish hereditary peer.

Life

He was born on 28 May 1735 the son of

William Sutherland, 17th Earl of Sutherland William Sutherland, 17th Earl of Sutherland, previously named William Gordon, 17th Earl of Sutherland,56th Regiment of Foot The 56th (West Essex) Regiment of Foot was an infantry regiment in the British Army, active from 1755 to 1881. It was originally raised in Northumbria as the 58th Regiment, and renumbered the 56th the following year when two senior regiments we ...

he raised a regiment from his own clan,

Clan Sutherland Clan Sutherland is a Highland Scottish clan whose traditional territory is the shire of Sutherland in the far north of Scotland. The chief of the clan was also the powerful Earl of Sutherland, however in the early 16th century this title passed ...

, to resist the threatened invasion from France. In the summer of 1761 at the house of Lord Alva in Mylnes Square in Edinburgh, he married sixteen year old Mary Maxwell of Reston (b.1745) in

Kirkcudbright Kirkcudbright ( ; sco, Kirkcoubrie; gd, Cille Chùithbeirt) is a town, parish and a Royal Burgh from 1455 in Kirkcudbrightshire, of which it is traditionally the county town, within Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. The town lies southwest of C ...

the daughter of the late William Maxwell (1711-1760) and his wife Elizabeth Hairstares (who had remarried

Charles Erskine, Lord Tinwald Charles Erskine also spelled Areskine (1680 – 5 April 1763), of Tinwald and Barjarg, Dumfries, and Alva, Clackmannan was Lord Advocate, a Scottish judge, and a politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1722 to 1742. Life Erskine ...

aka Lord Alva). Her sister Wilhelmina married John Campbell, Lord Glenorchy. The couple attended the coronation of

George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...

in London on 22 September 1761 and all remarked on the beauty of his wife. In May 1765 they had a daughter Elizabeth whom William dropped on her head whilst playing, causing serious and permanent injury. William became very ill and went to Bath to recover. The countess visited him there for 21 days (whilst pregnant with a second child). She caught the same fever and died on 1 June 1766. He was not told of her death. He died of malignant fever a few days later on 16 June 1766. He seemed to know his wife was dead and his last words were "I am going to join my own dear wife". The couple were buried together in a single ceremony in the family plot in

Holyrood Abbey Holyrood Abbey is a ruined abbey of the Canons Regular in Edinburgh, Scotland. The abbey was founded in 1128 by David I of Scotland. During the 15th century, the abbey guesthouse was developed into a royal residence, and after the Scottish Ref ...

in Edinburgh on 9 August 1766.

Trivia

A pair of

flintlock Flintlock is a general term for any firearm that uses a flint-striking lock (firearm), ignition mechanism, the first of which appeared in Western Europe in the early 16th century. The term may also apply to a particular form of the mechanism its ...

pistols gifted by William in his role as commander of the 56th Foot to Captain James Sutherland in 1763 sold for £44,000 in 2021.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sutherland, William 1735 births 1766 deaths Earls of Sutherland Peers of Scotland