Earls of Aboyne

THE EARLS OF ABOYNE :
DOWN TO THE PRESENT MARQUIS OF
HTjNTLY.
It was a sad day for Huntly when the 5th Dulke
of Gordon died, for the headship of the house
was shifted from the Deveron to the Dee. It is
true that His Grace's consort, who died in 1864,
survived him for 28 years, but the fact that she
had no children of her own, although she did
so much for the children of others, only accen-
tuated the poignancy of the situation. When
her husband died, his dukedom became extinct,
but his marquisate went to his next heir male,
and so marked is the decimation in great families
that that heir had for ancestor the third Mar-
quis ; that is to say, his line had branched off (1660)
before the creation of the dukedom (168-1).
The Earl of Alboync, who succeeded to the mar-
quisate in 1836, took his title from a district which
had long been associated with the younger line
of the family. Curiously enough another of ita
owners had also been extremely lucky, for Adam
Gordon of Aboyne, the son of the second Earl
of Huntly, married Elizabeth, Countess of
Sutherland, iu her own right, and founded the