Catherine Tollemache, Countess of Sutherland


Catherine or Katherine Tollemache, Countess of Sutherland was an English aristocrat.

Life

She was a daughter of Lionel Tollemache and Elizabeth Murray. Her great-grandmother, Catherine Tollemache née Cromwell, is known for her recipe books.
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. 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. Lauderdale was Margaret Home's brother-in-law by his first marriage to Anne Home. Elizabeth Tollemache married Archibald Campbell, 1st Duke of Argyll.
In Scotland, Catherine lived at Moray House in Edinburgh's Canongate, and at Castle Stuart near Ardersier. In the 1690s, she wrote letters to James Cristie the steward of the Earl of Moray at Earlsmill near Darnaway Castle, which she signed with her initials "CD" and "CDoune", as Catherine, Lady Doune. A carpenter in Elgin, William Sinclair, built a barn for her. Timber was sent to her from the Darnaway forests. These were times of poor harvest and famine and are known as the Seven ill years. Cristie kept her letters to account for grain and meal sent to Castle Stuart.
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 in Britain. The bill was paid in 1706 by her second husband, John Gordon, 16th Earl of Sutherland. Their home was Dunrobin Castle.
She died in 1705. The Earl of Sutherland subsequently married Frances Hodgson, a daughter of Thomas Hodgson of Bramwith Hall and former wife of Sir Thomas Travell.

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. A portrait labelled "Lady Doune", possibly by John Weesop, survives at Ham, but the picture depicts her mother Elizabeth Murray.

Children

She was the mother of: