Robert Sutherland

Son of Lt Col. James Sutherland of Uppat and Elizabeth Baillie, brother of Katherine Mackenzie, uncle of Sir Alexander McKenzie (q.v.), Duncan Forbes Sutherland (q.v.), James and Robert Sutherland. Owner of Waterloo (St Vincent No. 450) and a moiety of Orange Hill (St Vincent No. 449) until his death in 1828.  In 1810 Robert Sutherland conveyed land and 400 named enslaved people on St Vincent to Hon. Simon Fraser and James Henry Houstoun to secure his debt to them.

1. Will of Robert Sutherland of the island of St Vincent and Millmount Rosshire [made 11/09/1824] proved 02/12/1828. Under the will he left an annuity of £400 p.a. to his mother Elizabeth Sutherland, and £200 p.a. each to his sisters Katherine Mackenzie and Mary Maxwell Sutherland commencing on their mother's death, £200 p.a. to his sister-in-law Jean Sutherland starting at his death, and £30 p.a. to each of his nephews George Mackay Sutherland and Evan Baillie Sutherland until he [sic] should obtain a Lieutenant's commission in the Service in which he is engaged, or leave the service or gain an interest in Robert Sutherland's West India estates. He released his nephew Duncan Forbes Sutherland from a debt of some £1200 he owed to Robert Sutherland. He left £6000 to his wife and sister from which [oddly] the income was to support his two reputed daughters Elizabeth and Mary Sutherland now at school in England, and he left £1000 each to his nephews and nieces. He left the Waterloo sugar estate and his moiety of the Orange Hill estate (which he had formerly contracted to sell to Thomas Patterson the owner of the other moiety, which contract Robert Sutherland said he now considered to be at an end) to the three eldest of his seven nephews, the sons of his late brother George Sackville Sutherland, as tenants in common, on the proviso that he himself had no legitimate children at death. The three eldest were nephews presumably the three appointed among his executors: James Sutherland, George Mackay Sutherland and Duncan Forbes Sutherland. Other executors were his brother-in-law Rodney Impey Murchison, Thomas Patterson, Mungo Nutter Campbell, John Hopton Forbes and John Gordon of Edinburgh WS.

2. Disposition to trustees mentions his will leaving his English and West Indian property but adds that he owns property in Scotland as well and therefore executes a separate disposition 'in Scotich form'. The deposition conveys property in favour of his nephews James Sutherland of the Island of St Vincent, planter, George Mackay Sutherland ensign in the 93th regiment and Duncan Forbes Sutherland merchant partner in the House of Brown Sutherland and Company in St Vincent, his brother-in-law Roderick Murchison Esquire late of Tarradale now of [blank] in Yorkshire and his friends Thomas Patterson of St Vincent planter, Mungo Nutter Campbell esquire of the House of John Campbell Senior and Company merchants in Glasgow, John Hopton Forbes of Ely Place in Middlesex gentleman and Joseph Gordon writer to the signet as trustees. Beneficiaries to be his beloved wife Jennetta Catherine Sutherland; the three eldest sons of his brother George Sackville Sutherland. Signed at London 14/09/1824.

3. There is some confusion over the identity of his wife Jennetta [sic] Catherine. He may have married his great-niece, thirty years his junior, the daughter or step-daughter of his niece Barbara Murray McGrigor, the mother of Roderick Murchison (q.v). However, Alexander Mackenzie's History of the clan Mackenzie gives him as the first husband of Janetta Catharine Mackenzie, daughter of Roderick Mackenzie, 9th of Fairburn and his wife Catharine nee Baillie; this second one seems more likely given the age difference and family connections of the first. The same source gives Janetta's second husband as Lieutenant Hull (viz. William Darley Hull) but this Janetta is in fact Janetta Catherine MacGregor.

Deed Book 1810, British Library, EAP688/1/1/21, https://eap.bl.uk/archive-file/EAP688-1-1-21 pp.77 et seq.

1. PROB 11/1749/290.

2. Email from Paul Kay Foster Mackenzie 17/01/2017 sourced to Scottish Record Office RD 5 382 180.

3. Alexander Mackenzie, History of the clan Mackenzie (1879) o, 385.

We are grateful to Paul Kay Foster Mackenzie and Barry Davidson for their assistance with compiling this entry.