For the owner of the greatest collection of Old Masters in private hands in the country and a descendant of the richest man in 19th-century Britain, the 7th Duke of Sutherland – also Earl of Ellesmere, Marquess of Stafford, Viscount Brackley and a handful of other titles besides – is a remarkably retiring figure.

Despite his huge wealth, and his 68 years, he has rarely been photographed in public, and when The Scotsman reported on the impending loss of Titian's two masterpieces, even that model of Scottish journalistic probity printed a picture of the wrong man.

In the rich farming country of the Scottish Borders, where he has his home, the Duke is an elusive presence. He lives at Mertoun House, an imposing red sandstone mansion in the village of St Boswells between Jedburgh and Melrose, but few of his neighbours claim to have caught sight of him, let alone engaged him in conversation.

Given his family background it is perhaps not unsurprising. The 1st Duke of Sutherland is one of the most reviled figures in Scottish history, a man whose name will be forever linked with the Highland Clearances. The most notorious “clearer” of all was Patrick Sellar, the factor for Lord Stafford, later to become the 1st Duke of Sutherland. According to one account, he found an old woman who was said to be too ill to be moved. “Damn her, the old witch,” he replied, “She has lived too long. Let her burn!” As the house was set alight – a standard practice to prevent the family returning – her blankets caught light, and she died five days later.

When the news broke that the 7th Duke was offering his Titians to the nation for £100million, many Scots could not resist dredging up the past. As one contributor to The Scotsman's website put it: “Didn't his ancestors clear out most of Sutherland in the 19th century? He should donate the paintings in reparation for his family's shameful behaviour.”

The Duke does not have his croft-burning ancestor to thank for the paintings, but the 1st Duke's uncle.

Francis Egerton – the same name as the 7th Duke – was the 3rd and last Duke of Bridgewater, a Lancashire mine owner who, as the man who commissioned the first canal in Britain, is held to be the father of British inland navigation. Rough in speech and with a fondness for smoking a labourer's clay pipe, he was frustrated in his marital ambitions when a match with the Duchess of Hamilton, one of the great beauties of her age, was broken off. After that, he spurned womankind and devoted himself to canals and collecting art.

His great coup came in 1798 when, after the guillotining of the Duke of Orléans in the Reign of Terror, his art collection was put up for auction in London. The “Canal Duke” was part of a three-man syndicate that bought it for £50,000, kept the best pieces and then sold the rest for £70,000.

After the death of the Canal Duke, his fortune went to his nephew, who was not made Duke of Sutherland until 1833. It was a complex will that resulted in the Sutherland title passing down one branch of the family and the Bridgewater inheritance – including the paintings – passing down the Ellesmere branch of the family. They were not reunited until 1963 when the 6th Duke of Sutherland, who was also 5th Earl of Ellesmere, inherited the dukedom from his distant cousin Geordie, who died without an heir.

Even more reticent than the present Duke - a characteristic attributed by many to his four years in a prisoner-of-war camp in the Second World War – the 6th Duke died in 2000, also without an heir, passing the title to his first cousin, Francis Egerton, an Old Etonian who farmed 3,000 acres of the family estate at Stetchworth near Newmarket. “The title came to him late in life,” said Nicholas Penny, director of the National Gallery in London, “and I don't think he grew up thinking he was going to be steward of this great collection.”

The Duke is married with two sons in their thirties and three granddaughters. His non-art assets are valued by The Sunday Times Rich List at £30 million while the Bridgewater collection is said to be worth £300 million – a woeful underestimate, according to The Art Newspaper.

Since inheriting the dukedom he has, according to those who know him well, embraced the role that he never sought with an acute sense of responsibility. “He is a gentle, quiet, unassuming man,” one acquaintance said. “He and his wife Tor [Victoria] don't draw attention to themselves. He is just one of those nice people who likes dogs and horses and country pursuits.

“When he inherited the title he could easily have turned round and said, 'I've inherited these things and now I'm going to flog the lot and live in the South of France.' But he didn't. He has been very supportive of Scotland, and very public-spirited.”

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