William Sutherland, 18th Earl of Sutherland
William Sutherland, 18th Earl of Sutherland was a Scottish hereditary peer.
Life
He was born on 28 May 1735, the son of William Sutherland, 17th Earl of Sutherland and his wife Lady Elizabeth Wemyss.In 1759, as a captain in the 56th Regiment of Foot he raised a regiment, the original Sutherland Fencibles, from his own Clan Sutherland, to resist the threatened invasion from France.
In the summer of 1761, at the house of Lord Alva in Mylnes Square in Edinburgh, he married sixteen year old Mary Maxwell of Reston in Kirkcudbright, the daughter of the late William Maxwell and his wife Elizabeth Hairstares. Her sister Wilhelmina married John Campbell, Lord Glenorchy.
The couple attended the coronation of George III in London on 22 September 1761, and all remarked on the beauty of his wife.
In May 1765, they had a daughter Elizabeth whom William dropped on her head whilst playing, causing serious and permanent injury.
William became very ill and went to Bath to recover. The countess visited him there for 21 days. She caught the same fever and died on 1 June 1766. He was not told of her death. He died of malignant fever a few days later on 16 June 1766. He seemed to know his wife was dead, and his last words were "I am going to join my own dear wife".
The couple were buried together in a single ceremony in the family plot in Holyrood Abbey in Edinburgh on 9 August 1766.