The estate of Sutherland was after
10th October 1237 erected into an earldom in the person of William,
who was the eldest son of Hugo Freskyn, and was then owner of the
estate, this earldom being, as stated in the Diploma of the Orkney
Earls, "taken away from Magnus II" in his lifetime, possibly out of
South Caithness, by Alexander II.
On Magnus' death in 1239, Gillebryd or Gillebride, called in the
Icelandic Annals Gibbon, who was either a son or younger brother of
Magnus, succeeded Magnus II in the Orkney and Caithness titles and in
the Paul share of the Caithness earldom, and it appears from a
grant of the advowson of Cortachy on 12th December 1257 that Matilda
daughter of Gillebert, "then late Earl of Orkney," married Malise
Earl of Stratherne. On Gillebride's death in 1256, his son Magnus III
succeeded to Orkney and to the share of Paul in the Caithness earldom,
as held by Earl Magnus II and Earl Gillebride his successor, that
is without the Sutherland earldom, and without Freskin and Johanna's
share of Caithness.
The right to succeed to the other share of Caithness, that of Erlend
Thorfinnson, which, according to _The Flatey Book_ had belonged to
Jarl Ragnvald, and had been conferred on Harald Ungi by William the
Lion in 1197, passed through Ragnhild, another and the youngest sister
of Harald Ungi, and then through a child of hers, possibly Snaekoll
Gunni's son, the only known male representative of this line at the
time, or through Snaekoll's younger brother or sister, along with
the Moddan estates in Strathnaver and in various highland and Celtic
parishes in Caithness, to Johanna of Strathnaver as Ragnhild's heir;
but this share did not carry with it the title of Countess.
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