Duchess of Sutherland
(1829-1888)
Mistress of the Robes

Volume 1, page 228, sitting number 1101.

Anne Hay Mackenzie was the only child and heiress of John Hay Mackenzie of Newall and Cromertie. Through her marriage in 1849 she became the Duchess of Sutherland and in October 1861 she was created Countess of Cromartie in her own right. 

Born on 21 April 1829 at Newall in Scotland, on 20 June 1849 she married George Granville William Levenson-Gower, Lord Stafford, the eldest son of the second Duke of Sutherland. He succeeded as third Duke of Sutherland on 22 February 1861. The Duchess had succeeded to her father’s lands in the year of her marriage, and on 21 October 1861 she was created Countess of Cromartie in her own right, with a special remainder which ensured that the title would never merge with her husband’s.

The Duchess was known for her liberal opinions; she opposed slavery, and in 1864 received Garibaldi, who for most of her class was little more than a revolutionary. She served as Mistress of the Robes to Queen Victoria from January 1870 to February 1874.

She died on 25 November 1888 at Stafford House in London. At her death she was succeeded in her Earldom of Cromartie by her younger son, Lord Francis Levinson-Gower.