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Elizabeth A.Sackler Center for Feminist Art

Jane of Sutherland

b. circa 1546, Aberdeenshire, Scotland; d. 1629, Sutherland, Scotland

The correct name of this person is JEAN GORDON.

Jean Gordon, daughter of the earl of Huntly, became a lady-in-waiting to Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1565, despite the fact that her father and two brothers had participated in a rebellion against the queen (the earl died of a stroke on the battlefield, the brothers were executed for treason). Jean married James Hepburn, earl of Bothwell, in 1566, but a few months later applied for divorce when his affair with the queen was exposed. She achieved a happy union in 1573 when she wed Alexander Gordon, earl of Sutherland. After his health failed, Jean assumed management of his estates and established coal mining and the first saltworks in the area.