Catherine Tollemache, Countess of Sutherland

This article is about Anglo-Scottish aristocrat. For the writer of recipes, see Catherine Tollemache.

Catherine or Katherine Tollemache, Countess of Sutherland (died 1705) was an English aristocrat.^[1]

Portrait of Catherine, Lady Doune, at Ham House, inscribed "Lady Doune" but also said to be a portrait of her mother, Elizabeth Maitland, Duchess of Lauderdale

Life

Castle Stuart

She was a daughter of Lionel Tollemache (sometimes spelled "Talmash") and Elizabeth Murray. Her great-grandmother, Catherine Tollemache née Cromwell (died 1621), is known for her recipe books.^[2]

Her mother, and her stepfather, John Maitland, 1st Duke of Lauderdale, came to Edinburgh in July 1677, with Catherine and her sister Elizabeth. Her mother hoped Catherine would marry a son of the Earl of Atholl.^[3] However this plan came to nothing, and after making a marriage contract in December 1677, Catherine Tollemache married James Stuart or Stewart, Lord Doune. He was the eldest son of Alexander Stuart, 5th Earl of Moray and Emilia Balfour.^[4] Lauderdale was Margaret Home's brother-in-law by his first marriage to Anne Home. Elizabeth Tollemache married Archibald Campbell, 1st Duke of Argyll.^[5]

In Scotland, Catherine lived at Moray House in Edinburgh's Canongate, and at Castle Stuart near Ardersier.^[6] She wrote letters to the steward of the Earl of Moray at Earlsmill near Darnaway Castle, which she signed with her initials "CD", as Catherine, Lady Doune.

In 1702, she commissioned silver gilt tableware from an Edinburgh goldsmith, Robert Bruce, including a dozen forks and knives, a comparatively early mention of forks (other than forks for dessert) in Britain. The bill was paid in 1706 by her second husband, John Gordon, 16th Earl of Sutherland. Their home was Dunrobin Castle.^[7]

She died in 1705.^[8] The Earl of Sutherland subsequently married Frances Hodgson (died 1732), a daughter of Thomas Hodgson of Bramwith Hall and former wife of Sir Thomas Travell.^[9][10]

Portrait

An inventory of Ham House, the home of her mother, mentions a portrait of Katherine, Lady Doune, as the work of Lodewijk van der Helst,^[11] and a portrait labelled "Lady Doune", possibly by John Weesop survives at Ham.^[12][13]

Children

She was the mother of:^[14]

• Elizabeth Stuart (died 1708), who married Alexander Grant of Grant.
• Emilia Stuart (died 1711), who married (1) Alexander Fraser of Strichen, and (2) John Lindsay, 19th Earl of Crawford

References

1. Olive Geddes, The Laird's Kitchen (Edinburgh, 1994), p. 15.
2. Moira Coleman, Fruitful Endeavours: The 16th-century Household Secrets of Catherine Tollemache at Helmingham Hall (Phillimore, 2012).
3. Mark Napier, Memorials and Letters Illustrative of the Life and Times of James Graham of Claverhouse, Viscount Dundee (Edinburgh, 1859), pp. 356-362: M. J. Routh, Bishop Burnet's history of his own time 2 (Oxford, 1823), p. 125.
4. "James Stewart, Lord Doune". geni_family_tree. 2022-04-30. Retrieved 2024-09-02.
5. Charles Avery, 'Sculpture at Ham House', in Christopher Rowell, Ham House (Yale, 2013), pp. 171-2.
6. Scots Peerage, 6 (Edinburgh, 1909), p. 323.
7. Olive Geddes, The Laird's Kitchen (Edinburgh, 1994), pp. 15-16.
8. William Fraser, Sutherland Book, 1 (Edinburgh, 1889), p. 324-5, and vol. 2, p. 200.
9. Peerage of England, Scotland, and Ireland, 2 (London, 1790), p. 47.
10. 'TRAVELL, Sir Thomas (c.1657-1724), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1690-1715, ed. D. Hayton, E. Cruickshanks, S. Handley, 2002
11. Peter Thornton & Maurice Tomlin, The Furnishing and Decoration of Ham House (London, 1980), p. 137.
12. Alastair Laing, 'Fitting Rooms to Pictures', in Christopher Rowell, Ham House (Yale, 2013), pp. 408, 412, 422, 425: Mrs Charles Roundell, Ham House: Its History and Art Treasures, 1 (London, 1904), p. 39.
13. Katherine Tollemache, National Trust Collections
14. James Balfour Paul, Scots Peerage, 6, p. 323