| Surname | Leveson-Gower |
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| Forename | Elizabeth |
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| Occupation | Duchess-Countess of Sutherland |
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| Maiden Name | Gordon |
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| Date of birth | 05-24-1765 |
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| Place of birth | Leven Lodge, nr Edinburgh |
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| Date of death | 29-01-1839 |
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| Date of marriage | 04-09-1785 |
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| Place of marriage | London |
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| Resided | Golspie |
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She was the ban mhorair Chataibh, the great lady of Sutherland, who became Countess of Sutherland at a little over one year of age. The title was disputed, on the grounds that it could not pass to a female heir but the House of Lords decided in her favour in 1771. In 1785 she married George Granville Leveson-Gower. When he succeeded his father as Marquess of Stafford in 1803, the largest landowning in Britain was joined to the greatest source of private capital.
Was she to be known 'by her cultivated mind, her taste in the arts, her benevolence to her tenantry; by virtues unostentatious and refined, that command her to the love of domestic and social circles', as Richard Rush, the American envoy to London reported? Or was she 'the Bitch-Duchess .... who cast a darkness over the land, and sowed the darkness and reaped gold, for her heart was cold as gold coins, and she loved no creature alive but only the gold', as described by Christy in Margaret Laurence's great Canadian novel, The Diviners?
It would be nice to reconcile he two views by saying she was a complex historical character but the evidence does not support it. Her intentions to 'improve' were there before the finance which made it possible and she was both impatient to begin and indifferent as to who suffered in the process.
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