Jean Gordon (c. 1670 to 1746) was born into one of the Gypsy tribes of

Kirk Yetholm Kirk Yetholm ('kirk yet-ham') is a village in the Scottish Borders region of Scotland, southeast of Kelso, Scotland, Kelso and less than west of the Anglo-Scottish Border, border. The first mention is of its church in the 13th century. Its ...

. She died in Carlisle in 1746.

Biography

Gordon, who was 6 feet tall, was said to be the inspiration for Sir Walter Scott's character Meg Merrilies in his novel

Guy Mannering ''Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer'' is the second of the Waverley novels by Walter Scott, published anonymously in 1815. According to an introduction that Scott wrote in 1829, he had originally intended to write a story of the supernatural, ...

. In 1732, aged 62, she was charged at

Jedburgh Jedburgh ( ; ; or ) is a town and former royal burgh in the Scottish Borders and the traditional county town of the Shires of Scotland, historic county of Roxburghshire. History Jedburgh began as ''Jedworð'', the "worth" or enclosed settlem ...

Court for 'being an Egyptian' and plea bargained to leave Scotland. Gordon was drowned in Carlisle, by an angry mob, for the support she voiced for the Jacobite cause and

Bonnie Prince Charlie Charles Edward Louis John Sylvester Maria Casimir Stuart (31 December 1720 – 30 January 1788) was the elder son of James Francis Edward Stuart, making him the grandson of James VII and II, and the Stuart claimant to the thrones of England, ...

References

1670s births 1746 deaths 17th-century Scottish women Scottish Jacobites Executed Scottish women Scottish Romani people Scottish murder victims {{Romani-stub