James Ogilvy, 6th Earl of Findlater and 3rd Earl of Seafield (c.1714-70) was an agriculturalist. He married Mary Murray, daughter of the 1st Duke of Atholl, in 1749 and soon began a career in industry and agriculture with a factory in Cullen for the manufacture of linen and damask. He was one of the Commissioners of Customs for Scotland from 1754-61, he was appointed one of the Lords of Police in 1765, and he was also a trustee for the Improvement of Fisheries and Manufactures, and for the Management of the Annexed Estates in Scotland. He promoted advanced methods of agriculture and introduced turnip husbandry. He inherited his family estate at Cullen in 1764 and died there in 1770.

His son, James Ogilvy (1750-1811), inherited the Cullen estate as well as the titles of 7th Earl of Findlater and 4th Earl of Seafield upon his death. James was an amateur architect, landscape architect and philanthropist. He married Christina Teresa Murray (1755-1813) in 1779 but shortly after ceased to live with her, residing instead with his companion, Mr Wilson. He had a room for Mr Wilson included in a design for Findlater Castle by Robert Adam. He spent a lot of time living on the Continent, as recorded in The Gentleman’s Magazine. After acquiring a number of vineyards in the Loschwitz district of Dresden, Findlater began the construction of an extensive country house residence overlooking the River Elbe. The house, which later formed the core for Schloss Albrechtsberg, was nearing completion when the Earl died on 5 October 1811. He was succeeded by his cousin Lewis Alexander Grant (later Grant-Ogilvy), but only in the Earldom of Seafield. Upon his death, the Earldom of Findlater and Lordships of Deskford and Ogilvy became dormant. A number of properties, including that in Dresden, had been bequeathed to Findlater’s then companion, Johann Georg Fischer. Findlater was buried in a tomb at Loschwitz Church, where some years later at the age of 87, Fischer was also interred.

Cullen House dates from at least the sixteenth century and has been added to in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries to form an irregularly shaped, sprawling house. The Adam family has been involved with the Cullen estate since the mid-eighteenth century when William Adam senior made designs for a single-arch bridge which was executed in 1744.

In 1767, the Adam office made designs for the 6th Earl for an entrance screen facing onto the principal road leading to the main house. This was executed and there are two surviving drawings for the screen, one in the Soane Collection and one in a private collection which is signed by James Adam and dated 1767. Colvin states that there are also letters between John Adam and the Earl of Seafield discussing James’s designs for the screen. In the same year, the Adam office also made designs for the internal decoration of Cullen House including wall elevations and ceiling plans for the hall, staircase, library, and a vestibule, but these designs were not carried out.

The remaining drawings in the collection relate to a series of later schemes designed by the Adam office for the 7th Earl which were not executed. These include designs for a town or gardener's house in c.1775, for a chimneypiece, commode and two glass frames for the drawing room in 1781, for a banqueting house in 1783, and another gateway and lodge in the same year. In Robert and James’s bills, there is an item for designs and surveys of Cullen House on 24 July 1779 which Binney suggests are related to Findlater Castle. The 7th Earl was an amateur architect himself, and Rowan suggests that the eccentric nature and extravagance of some of the designs produced for the Earl were a result of Robert Adam altering schemes to incorporate his client's own ideas.

The drawing SM Adam volume 36/61 is not included in this scheme despite having inscriptions relating to the Earl of Findlater on it because the drawing itself is for a boathouse at Burghley House and is catalogued within that scheme. Similarly, Bolton suggests that the drawing SM Adam volume 1/206 is related to the proposed banqueting house, however, this drawing does not appear to show any similarity with any of the designs and has been left out of this scheme.

In 1789, the Adam office made designs for a new castle, called Findlater Castle, along with stables and offices for the 7th Earl. These were initially thought to be on site of the existing Findlater ruin, roughly two miles east of Cullen, however, a 1789 plan of the Cullen grounds by the landscape gardener Thomas White suggests that Adam’s plans were intended to replace the existing Cullen House (Binney, p.2040). For further information on this scheme see: Findlater Castle, Moray.

See also: Lodges for the Earl of Findlater, unknown location; and Designs for a town house, possibly Portland Place.

Literature:
A.T. Bolton, The Architecture of Robert and James Adam, Volume II, Index, 1922, pp.8, 71; A. Tait, Robert Adam and Scotland, The Picturesque Drawings, 1972, pp. 12-13; M. Binney, ‘Cullen House, Banffshire – I’, Country Life, 15 December 1985, pp. 1970-4; M. Binney, ‘Cullen House, Banffshire – II’, Country Life, 26 December 1985, pp. 2038-42; A. Rowan, Designs for Castles and Country Villas by Robert and James Adam, 1985, p. 138; A. Tait, ‘Lord Findlater, Architect’, The Burlington Magazine, October 1986, pp. 737-41; A. Tait, Robert Adam, The Creative Mind: from the sketch to the finished drawing, 1996, p. 29; D. King, The Complete Works of Robert & James Adam and Unbuilt Adam, Volume 1, 2001, p. 330; Volume 2, 2001, pp. 54, 179, 207-8, 217, 257; H. Colvin, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600-1840, 2008, p. 41; A. McAlaney, ‘Earl of Findlater, designs for a town house for an unknown location, possibly Portland Place, London’, Sir John Soane’s Museum Collections Online, 2019, [accessed 01 February 2024]; D. King, Adam Ceilings: A Geometric Study, 2020, pp. 90, 141, 193, 244

Louisa Catt, 2024