Captain James Sutherland of Duffus

Abstract

James Sutherland (1747-1827) styled himself ‘of Duffus’, and Captain long after leaving the army, and in his last days was Lord Duffus. He perpetrated one of the most scandalous elopements of the eighteenth century with the 17 year-old wife of his commanding officer, only to abandon her three days later when confronted by General Scott. Over the decades he committed numberless adulteries and fathered a great many children, never marrying any of their mothers. He forced his brother-in-law to sign a lease or tack on his estates in Caithness, milking them for fourteen years until his nephew was old enough to inherit. At his next tack he was known as the Tyrant of Burray, one of the Orkney Isles. Miraculously, the title of his rebellious grandfather was restored and when he died he was able to leave substantial sums to a handful of his ‘natural’ children and to their children.