| Administrative History | William Duff of Braco, later Lord Braco, later 1st Earl Fife, was born in around 1696, the second son of William Duff of Braco. He first married Janet, daughter of the 4th Earl of Findlater, who died in 1720, and then in 1723 he married Jean, daughter of Sir James Grant or Colquhoun, 6th Baron of Grant. He was Whig MP for Banffshire from 1727 to 1734, and in 1735, during the regency of Queen Caroline, he was created Baron Braco of Kilbryde, Co. Cavan. He wisely remained a supporter of the government during the 1745 rebellion, and in 1749 he was created Viscount Macduff and Earl Fife, the titles intended to refer back to the early Duffs of Fife, to whom William Duff might have been connected. He died in 1763 at Rothiemay and was buried at Grange, though later his body was removed to the mausoleum at Duff House.The family of Wharton Duff of Orton, Morayshire, is descended form Lady Sophia Henrietta Duff (1740 - 1826), 5th daughter of the 1st Earl Fife, and Thomas Wharton (1735 - 1816), whose son Richard (1782 - 1862) assumed the additional surname of Duff on inheriting the estate of Orton from his maternal uncle, the Hon. Arthur Duff, in 1805. In 1809 he married his cousin, Lady Anne Duff (1781 - 1829), daughter of his uncle Alexander (1731 - 1811), who had succeeded as 3rd Earl Fife on the death of his brother a few months earlier. The three elder children of this marriage died without issue and the estate of Orton passed to the family of John Wharton Tod (?1845 - 1935), the son of their youngest daughter Jemima (1815 - 1846) and John R. Tod, who belonged on his mother's side to the Duffs of Hatton who were descended from an uncle of the 1st Earl Fife; John Wharton Tod in turn assumed the surname Wharton Duff in 1904. |
| Description | Collection of letters written by, or to, Garden Duff of Hatton, including: letter from George Steuart to Major Garden Duff discussing marriage contract of daughter of Sir Benjamin Dunbar, 1805; letter from Garden Duff to Messrs. Tod and Romanes requesting information regarding Thomastoun and Auchterless, 1820; letter from Garden Duff to John Robert Tod advising him that he will be away from home and giving him the authority, as his lawyer, to act in his best interests, 1838; letter from Garden Duff to John Robert Tod regarding a bill for £3000 towards heritable bond, 1827. |