ZETLAND, Earl of, a title in the peerage of the United Kingdom, conferred in 1838, on Laurence Dundas, second Lord Dundas of Aske, county of York, son of the first baron, Sir Thomas, who died 14th June 1820, and grandson of Sir Lawrence Dundas of Kerse, commissary-general and contractor to the army from 1748 to 1759, and created a baronet, 16th November 1762.

The first earl of Zetland, lord-lieutenant and vice-admiral of Orkney and Shetland, and an alderman of the city of York, died 19th February 1839, leaving, with other children, Thomas, second earl, born in 1795, lord-lieutenant of the North Riding of Yorkshire, married in 1823, Sophia Jane, daughter of Sir Hedworth Williamson, baronet, without issue. Heir presumptive, his brother, Hon. John Charles Dundas, M.P., educated at Trinity college, Cambridge, and called to the bar by the Middle Temple in 1834, lord-lieutenant of Orkney and Shetland.