Description:1889 saw a flurry of correspondence between Lord Stafford and his father, the 3rd Duke, over the (forced) resignation of the Commissioner, R. M. Brereton. Brereton had been unable to work with the longest serving factor on the Sutherland estate, Evander McIver, as well as making other mistakes in his management and lacking land management expertise (he was an engineer by training): it was an acrimonious split. Lord Stafford suggests abolishing the post of Commissioner, as being too dependent upon one man alone, for better or worse, and to set up a Committee of management to arrange all financial and administrative business to do with the estate.
These pages have been researched and written by Dr. Annie Tindley, Lecturer in History at Glasgow Caledonian University.