The Duke of Athole died Saturday, Jan 16, at Blah Castle, the fine old baronial seat of his ancestors, in Perthshire. He was the eldest of the two sons of Lord Glenlyon (second son of John, fourth Duke of Athole, K. T., by his first marriage with the Hon. Jane Cathcart, eldest daughter of Charles, ninth Lord of Cathcart,) by the Lady Emily Percy, fifth daughter of Hugh, second Duke of Northumberland. The late Duke was born on the 20th of September, 1814, so that at his death he was in his 50th year. The lamented Duke was formerly in the army, having entered the Second Dragoon Guards as Cornet, but he retired from military life altogether in 1840. On the death of his father, Lord Glenlyon, in October, 1837, he succeeded to that barony, and succeeded to the dukedom on the 14th September, 1846, on the death of his uncle, John, fifth Duke of Athole. He was Hereditary Sheriff of Perthshire and Grand Master of the Freemasons of Scotland, which high post he has held since the resignation of the late Gen. Lord Frederic Fitzclarence, so that his Grace had been head officer of the craft in Scotland many years. The Duke, when Lord Glenlyon, took part in the magnificent and costly chivalric pageant in August, 1839, known as the Eglinton Tournament, where he was one of the knights, and was attended to the field of the tourney by above 100 armed Athole men from his family home in Perthshire. The Emperor Napoleon III, and the Earl Craven are among the few knights now alive who participated in that romantic fete. The deceased nobleman was a Conservative in politics, but gave his occassional and independent support to Lord Palmerston's Government.

Source: NY Times, Saturday, Feb 6, 1864

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