Wealth (previously called Stafford House) The
Leveson-Gower family owned extensive lands in
Staffordshire,
Shropshire and
Yorkshire. In 1803 Sutherland also succeeded to the vast estates of his maternal uncle
Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, which included the
Bridgewater Canal and a major art collection including much of the
Orleans Collection; both Gower and his uncle had been members of the consortium which brought it to London for dispersal. According to the will of the Duke of Bridgewater, these passed on the death of the first Duke of Sutherland to his third son Lord Francis Leveson-Gower (see below). This inheritance brought him great wealth. Sutherland is estimated to have been the wealthiest man of the 19th century, surpassing even
Nathan Rothschild. The precise value of his estate at death is unknown, as it was simply classed as 'upper value'. He was described by
Charles Greville as a "leviathan of wealth" and "...the richest individual who ever died". Following the death of the
Duke of York in 1827 he purchased the
leasehold of Stafford House (now
Lancaster House), which became the London residence of the dukes of Sutherland until 1912.
Development of Sutherland and Highland clearances Sutherland and his wife,
the Countess of Sutherland, remain controversial figures for their role in the
Highland Clearances, where thousands of tenants were evicted and rehoused in coastal crofts as part of a programme of improvement. The larger clearances in Sutherland were undertaken between 1811 and 1820. In 1811 Parliament passed an Act granting half the expenses of building roads in northern Scotland, on the provision that landowners paid for the other half. The following year Sutherland commenced building roads and bridges in the county, which up to that point had been virtually non-existent. Appalled by the poor living conditions of his tenants and influenced by social and economic theories of the day as well as consulting widely on the subject, he and his
wife (to whom much of the proprietorial oversight of the estate had been delegated) became convinced that subsistence farming in the interior of
Sutherland could not be sustained in the long term. Much higher rents could be obtained from letting land for extensive sheep farms—so providing a much better income from the estate. The Sutherland estate management had had plans for clearance for some years, with some clearance activity in 1772 when Lady Sutherland was still a child. However, a shortage of money stopped these plans from progressing to any greater degree—a situation that continued after her marriage to Leveson-Gower. However, when he inherited the vast wealth of the Duke of Bridgewater, plans could proceed—and Leveson-Gower was happy for large amounts of his wealth to be spent on the changes to the Sutherland estate. In 1814, one of the estate's factors,
Patrick Sellar, was supervising clearances in Strathnaver when the roof timbers of a house were set on fire (to prevent the house being reoccupied after the eviction) with, allegedly, an elderly and bedridden woman still inside. The woman was rescued, but died six days later. The local law officer, Robert Mackid, was an enemy of Sellar and started taking witness statements so that Sellar could be prosecuted. The case went to trial in 1816, and Sellar was acquitted. The publicity arising from the trial was not welcome to the Sutherlands. Sellar was replaced as factor and further, larger clearances continued in 1818 to 1820. Despite efforts to avoid press comment, in 1819
The Observer newspaper ran the headline: "the Devastation of Sutherland", reporting the burning of roof timbers of large numbers of houses cleared at the same time. ==Family==