LANDED
HEGEMONY
Such a pattern
of landownership is remarkable in itself but what is
even more astonishing is the way in which the landowning
establishment itself is not merely a collection of random
individuals but a tightly knit network of power and influence
extending into the fields of politics and finance. The
small numbers involved facilitate the operation of this
network and its effectiveness which extend to the highest
levels of British society.
The preponderance of double-barrelled names in the aristocracy (Dingwall-Fordyce,
Strang-Steel, Gordon-Duff-Pennington, Ogilvie-Grant-Nicholson, Buchanan-Jardine,
Douglas-Home, Heriot-Maitland, Forbes-Leith, Macpherson-Grant, Campbell-Preston)
is testimony to the practice of inter-marriage among the landed classes.
Almost all of the traditional landed families of Scotland are related
to each other, linked together in a web of kinship ties that has built
up over centuries. Strategic marriages consolidated different holdings
within the same wider family grouping and strengthened the grip of the
landed classes on the institution of landownership. The result is the
following web of landed class power, starting with the Queen Mother herself
(all those named owned land in Scotland).
The Queen
Mother is the daughter of the 14th Earl of Strathmore.
Her sister was married to the 4th Earl of Granville,
whose granddaughter, Lady Marcia is married to Jonathan
Bulmer. The 2nd Earl of Granville’s daughter was
the grandmother of James Morrison, Lord Margadale. Princess
Antonia von Preusen, another relative of the Queen is
married to the Marquess of Duoro whose father is the
8th Duke of Wellington. The Queen’s former private
secretary is Lord Charteris of Amisfield, whose daughter
is married to Lord Pearson of Rannoch. Lord Charteris’s
brother is the 12th Earl of Wemyss and March, whose daughter,
Lady Elizabeth Charteris is married to David Holford
Benson, Chairman of Kleinwort Charter Investment Trust.
A former Chairman of Kleinwort Benson Group (1993-96)
itself is Baron Rockley who is married to the elder daughter
of 7th Earl of Cadogan. The Queen is also related to
the Earl of Airlie through his brother, Sir Angus Ogilvy
who is married to Princess Alexandra of Kent. The Countess
of Airlie is also a Lady to the Bedchamber of the Queen.
The Earl of Airlie was Chairman of Schroders, the merchant
bank from 1977 to 1984 whilst Bruno Schroder himself
owns Dunlossit Estate on Islay next door to Lord Margadale!
Another relative of the Queen, James Hamilton, the 5th
Duke of Abercorn is married to Alexandra Anastasia, whose
niece is married to the Duke of Westminster. He has a
sister, Lady Jane Grosvenor, who was the first husband
of the Duke of Roxburghe (Her marriage to Roxburghe made
her the daughter of a Duke, the sister of a Duke, the
wife of a Duke and finally the mother of a future Duke!).
Meanwhile the Queen’s aunt, the Duchess of Gloucester,
is the 3rd daughter of the 7th Duke of Buccleuch whose
widow is the daughter of the 13th Earl of Home. The current
Duke of Buccleuch’s sister is the Duchess of Northumberland
whose daughter was the first wife of the Duke of Sutherland.
The Duke of Buccleuch’s son and heir is Richard
Walter John Montague Douglas Scott, the Earl of Dalkeith.
Richard is married to Lady Elizabeth Kerr, the youngest
daughter of the 12th Marquess of Lothian. Lady Elizabeth’s
sister, Lady Cecil Kerr, is married to Donald Cameron
of Locheil (younger). The hereditary master of the Queen's
household in Scotland is Ian Campbell, the 12th Duke
of Argyll who is married to the daughter of Sir Ivar
Colquhoun of Luss whose nephew is Sir Michael Wigan.
Sir Ivar’s sister is the widow of the 8th Earl of
Arran. The great-grandson of the 4th Earl of Arran’s
brother married the daughter of the 4th Earl of Cawdor.
Going back to Donald Cameron for a minute - his grandmother
was the daughter of the 5th Duke of Montrose whose son,
the 6th Duke, was the father of Lady Jean Fforde, the
mother of Charles Fforde from Arran. The 6th Duke’s
niece married the late Thomas Campbell-Preston whose
half-sister is Sarah Troughton. Thomas’s father,
Robert Campbell-Preston was married to Angela Pearson,
the 3rd daughter of 2nd Viscount Cowdray and the mother
(by her first marriage) of the late Duke of Atholl. A
scion of the Atholl Murrays is the Earl of Mansfield
whose sister is married to the 20th Earl of Moray. Meanwhile
the Atholl Estates factor, Andrew Gordon, is also the
factor for Robin Fleming, whose cousin, Dorothy Fleming
(who married his brother, Major Richard Fleming), together
with her sister Mrs Schuster (And husband Richard Schuster,
are also Argyllshire landowners. Robert was chairman
of Robert Fleming Holdings from 1990 - 1997 of which
Henry Keswick is also a Director. Henry and his youngest
brother Simon are Chairman and Director of Jardine Matheson
Holdings Ltd. (whose founder, James Matheson, at one
time owned the Island of Lewis). At least six other Dumfriesshire
landowners have close connections with Jardine Matheson.
Henry is married to Tessa, Lady Reay, younger daughter
of the late Lord Lovat whilst Henry’s other brother,
Sir John “Chips” Keswick, Chairman of Hambro’s
Bank, is married to Lady Sarah Ramsay, daughter of the
16th Earl of Dalhousie who himself was also related to
the Lovats through his wife whose mother was the daughter
of the 13th Lord Lovat. The 16th Earl of Dalhousie’s
cousin is Captain Ramsay of Mar and his late mother was
Lady Mary Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby, daughter of
the 1st Earl of Ancaster. Her great niece is Baroness
Jane Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby de Eresby whose grandfather
on her mother’s side was the 2nd Viscount Astor.
The second son of the 1st Viscount Astor was the 1st
Baron Astor of Hever whose grandson is Philip Astor.
Philip’s sister, the Honourable Sarah Violet Astor
is married to George Lopes. The first Baron Astor’s
wife was the mother of the Marquess of Landsdowne and
the daughter of the 4th Earl of Minto. The son and heir
of the Marquess is the Earl of Shelbourne whose brother
is Lord Robert Mercer-Nairne.
That's
12% of Scotland!
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