Description:Born on the 19th December 1828, George Granville William Sutherland-Leveson-Gower succeeded his father George Granville Leveson-Gower (1786-1861) as the third Duke of Sutherland in 1861.
The third Duke was an extremely prominent national figure who established numerous social and charitable committees which had an international impact. Stafford House, the Leveson-Gower family's prestigious London residence, hosted many receptions for international royals and politicians, including Giuseppe Garibaldi in 1864. The third Duke also accompanied the Prince of Wales on his tour of India in 1876.
The Duke's most famous philanthropic work was under the guise of the Stafford House Committee which he established to provide overseas aid to Turkish soldiers in the Russo-Turkish War in 1878. The Duke was also a founding figure of the Mansion House Committee which campaigned for a government enquiry into Britain’s food supply in the time of war.
The Duke lived a lavish lifestyle, enthusiastic about travel, sport and railways. In 1849 he married Anne Hay-Mackenzie who became the Countess of Cromartie in 1861. Anne was a close friend of Queen Victoria and was appointed Mistress of the Robes following in the footsteps of her sister and mother-in-law.
However, towards the end of his life, the Duke’s family life was turbulent, particularly his relationship with his eldest son Cromartie. The family disputes escalated when the third Duke remarried shortly after Duchess Anne’s death in 1888. The Duke’s new wife, Mary Caroline Blair, widow of Arthur Kindersley Blair, was never accepted by the Duke’s family.
The Duke died on the 22nd September 1892 leaving much of his wealth to his second wife, the Dowager Duchess Mary. His will was publiclly contested, culminating in legal action between the Duchess and the Duke's eldest son Cromartie who became the fourth Duke of Sutherland on his father's death in 1892. Eric Richards refers to the court case as ‘one of the great scandals of the late Victorian age.’
Click on the images on the left to learn more about the third Duke's life in the Sutherland Papers.
Biographical information taken from Eric Richards, ‘Gower, George Granville Leveson-, first duke of Sutherland (1758–1833)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/16539]
An Overview of Volumes relating to the third Duke in the Sutherland Papers
The Sutherland Papers include the Duke’s personal diaries, kept, with a few exceptions, annually from 1851 until 1890. The diaries contain brief entries, providing details about the Duke’s social engagements and noting the arrival and departure of guests. The diaries also include occasional references to business on the Duke’s estates and remark on sporting events and Parliamentary debates.
In addition to his personal diaries, the Duke also kept a number of scrapbooks, valuable for the variety of contemporary material contained within them. Newspaper cuttings, letters, printed notices, verses, pictures and photographs survive in scrapbooks relating to family marriages, visits of the Prince of Wales to Lilleshall and Trentham and sea monsters in Scotland. The Sutherland Papers also include scrapbooks containing contemporary newspaper cuttings about the Potteries, political affairs and proposals to abolish the tartans of the Highland regiments.