New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-12-14
A SCOTCH AMERICAN PEER
Al Lord CaithneSs's Landed Estates
Are IN This Countru.

Nofo Sslthness, who has just arrived firm, TIE
- Ohe OF those peers Of the British realm
-. 'iin SO pronounced liking for this coun
~ 1oF us people that they have established
homes in the United States. The earl oy,ns = I
ranch In North Dakota, where he snands = .a
siderable portion OF every year, and he comes and
goes so unobtrusively that few save HE re,oIta
out in the West or his friends in Chicago ana New
Ures F
The earl is the head OF the Sinclair family which
Is OF most ancient origin tracing its descent back
TO the year S7s. II figures prominently on almost
every page or Scottish history. Indeed, there are
Few names with more evil and sanguinary associa-
lions than that OF the snclairs The fourth peer
OF the line was perhaps the worst monster Of his
race With the assistance OF his cousin Lady
isabel Sinclair. he contrved to poison the Earl and
Countess OF Sutherland at a supper which he gave
IN their honor. and then cooIly denounced his &c
co1npNce, testified against her and witnessed her
execution. He next kidnapped the young Lord
sutherland, who was only fifteen, and forced him
by torture to marry his daughter Lady Barbara
Sinclair. lady Of questionable age and reputation
The present earl, who is unmarried. is the seven
teenth or mis- line, and has property in England,
his only landed possessions being in this country.
Formerly there were very extensive estates. pro-
ducing large rentals. which went with the earldom
But when the fifteenth earl died unmarried he
with the object Of spiting his lawyer cousin, who
next IN the line OF succession 10 his honors
sixteenth lord. bequeathod all The estates TO his
college chum and friend, F. H. Heathcote The will
was upset by the courts But the late earl derived
advantage from the invalidation thereof for
the estates were assigned by the tribunals to Sir
James Buchanan OF Craigend, as the HneaI de-
scendant OF Lady Janet Buchanan. daughter of the
twelfth Earl OF Cathness. while the other moety
OF the property went TO Murray MacGregor. an
Australian squatter. who proved himself to be n
great-grandson OF Lady Charlotte MacCregor the
other daughter OF the twelfth earl. who died In
1910.
It was the wife OF the fourteenth earl who VIA
so familiar a figure for many years in the Ameri
can colony at Paris and the French Riviera
She daughter Of Cuban planter and prior
to her union TO old Lord Caithness had been the
wife Of the Spanish Count Pornar After the counts
death she obtained by purchase from the Vatican
the title Of duchess for herself and Of duke for her
by her first marriage. But marrying Lord
Caithness she abandoned the title Of Duchess Of
Pomar for that Of Countess OF Caithness being
very well aware of the superior value Of an ancient
British title TO Of mushroom character obtained
by purchase at Rome.
Her son. however still figures both in Paris and
at Nice Duke Of Pomar. and enjoys almost as
great a reputation for fooIishness as his mother
who. among other eccentricities, was firmly con-
WINGED that Mary Queen Of Scots had become rein
carnated in her and posed that i'll fated sovereign
all possible occasions. Moreover. after the death
OF Nine. Blavatsky. she professed to have daily in
terviews and conversations with the spirit Of that
prophecies OF theosophy.
The Duke of Ponar, I may add was foolish
enough some years ago to venture to write book
concerning London society. Of which he knows
nothing what he has picked up on the CONT
nent, his welcome in England having been of the
chilliest description OF course the book was merc
lessly guyed and ridculed and the authors position
among English people became. II anything more
impossible than before The present Lord Caithness
is not even personally acquainted with the Duke Of
Pomar, and the heir 10 the earldom is his younger
brother. the Hon. Norman Sinclair