Lady Grizel Baillie (''

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

'' Hume, 25 December 1665 – 6 December 1746) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

gentlewoman A gentlewoman (from the Latin ''gentilis'', belonging to a ''gens'', and English 'woman') in the original and strict sense is a woman of good family, analogous to the Latin ''generosus'' and ''generosa''. The closely related English word "gentr ...

and songwriter. Her accounting ledgers, in which she kept details about her household for more than 50 years, provide information about social life in Scotland in the eighteenth century.

Biography

Born at Redbraes Castle,

Berwickshire Berwickshire (; ) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area in south-eastern Scotland, on the English border. The county takes its name from Berwick-upon-Tweed, its original county town, which was part of Scotland at the ...

, Grizel Hume was the eldest daughter of Grisell Ker and Sir Patrick Hume (later

Earl of Marchmont Lord Polwarth, of Polwarth, Scottish Borders, Polwarth in the County of Berwick, is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created in 1690 for Patrick Hume, 1st Earl of Marchmont, Sir Patrick Hume of Polwarth, 2nd Baronet, Lord Chancellor of ...

). When she was twelve years old, she carried letters from her father to a Scottish conspirator in the

Rye House Plot The Rye House Plot of 1683 was a plan to assassinate King Charles II of England and his brother (and heir to the throne) James, Duke of York. The royal party went from Westminster to Newmarket to see horse races and were expected to make the r ...

, Robert Baillie of Jerviswood, who was then in prison. Hume's sympathy for Baillie made him a suspected man and the

king King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

's troops occupied Redbraes Castle. He remained in hiding for some time in the crypt of Polwarth Church, where his daughter smuggled food to him; but on hearing of the execution of Baillie (1684), he fled to the United Provinces, where his family joined him soon after. They returned to Scotland after the

Glorious Revolution The Glorious Revolution, also known as the Revolution of 1688, was the deposition of James II and VII, James II and VII in November 1688. He was replaced by his daughter Mary II, Mary II and her Dutch husband, William III of Orange ...

. In 1692, Lady Grizel married George Baillie, son of Robert. The couple had first met when they were twelve and supposedly, fell in love at that point. What is known for certain is that after returning to Scotland, Lady Grizel turned down the offer to be one of Queen Mary's

maids of honour A maid of honour is a junior attendant of a queen in royal households. The position was and is junior to the lady-in-waiting. The equivalent title and office has historically been used in most European royal courts. Tudors and Stuarts Traditi ...

, and insisted to her parents on marrying Baillie over a more advantageous match. The couple had two daughters:

Grizel Grizel, also spelled Grizell, Grizelle, Grisel and Grisell, is a feminine given name which may refer to: * Grisell Baillie (1822–1891), first woman deaconess in the Church of Scotland * Lady Grizel Baillie (1665–1746), Scottish aristocrat and ...

(1692–1759), who married British Army officer Sir Alexander Murray of Stanhope in 1710; and Rachel (1696–1773), who married Charles Lord Binning in 1717 (and whose son Thomas became the seventh Earl of Haddington). They also had a short-lived son, Robert (). She died in London on 6 December 1746, and was buried at

Mellerstain Mellerstain House is a Scottish country house around north of Kelso in the Borders, Scotland. It is currently the home of George Baillie-Hamilton, 14th Earl of Haddington, and is designated as a historical monument. History The older house ...

on 25 December, her eighty-first birthday.

Works

Songs

Her elder daughter, Lady Grizel Murray of Stanhope, had in her possession a manuscript in prose and verse of her mother's songs. Some of them had been printed in

Allan Ramsay Allan Ramsay may refer to: *Allan Ramsay (poet) or Allan Ramsay the Elder (1686–1758), Scottish poet *Allan Ramsay (artist) Allan Ramsay (13 October 171310 August 1784) was a Scottish portrait Painting, painter. Life and career Ramsay w ...

's, ''Tea-Table Miscellany''. The most famous of Lady Grizel's Scots songs, "And werena my heart light I wad dee", originally appeared in William Thomson's ''Orpheus Caledonius, or a Collection of the Best Scotch Songs'' (1725).

Household books

Lady Grizel Baillie's

account book Bookkeeping is the recording of financial transactions, and is part of the process of accounting in business and other organizations. It involves preparing source documents for all transactions, operations, and other events of a business. T ...

s, meticulously kept from 1692 to 1746, reveal information about social life in Scotland in the eighteenth century. Her entries begin late into her first year of marriage and end just before her death. They consist of more than a thousand pages of entries. In 1911 the

Scottish Historical Society The Scottish History Society is a historical and text publication society, which promotes the study of and research in the history of Scotland. It was founded in 1886, as part of the late 19th-century revival in interest in Scottish national id ...

published a 400-page scholarly edition of Lady Grizel Baillie's accounts, edited by Robert Scott-Moncrieff. This edition focused mainly on the entries from 1692 to 1718, which give extensive details about the early years of the Baillies’ marriage, the births and upbringing of their children, and the marriages of their daughters. Historians have cited these accounts to demonstrate cost of goods and to provide evidence for the caloric intake of servants during this period.

Legacy

A great deal is known about George and Grizel Baillie's marriage and family thanks to the biography written by their daughter,

Grizel Baillie, Lady Murray Grizel Baillie (later Lady Murray of Stanhope; 1692–1759) was a Scottish memoirist whose work is important to social historians and scholars of life writing. Life Baillie was the elder daughter of Lady Grisell Baillie (née Hume; 1665–174 ...

. Although not intended for publication, the biography appeared in print in 1809 in ''Observations on the Historical Work of the Right Honorable Charles James Fox'' under the title, "Lady Murray's Narrative". George Baillie's ''Correspondence'' (1702-1708) was edited by

Lord Minto Earl of Minto, in the County of Roxburgh, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1813 for Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 1st Baron Minto. The current earl is Gilbert Timothy George Lariston Elliot-Murray-Kynynm ...

for the

Bannatyne Club The Bannatyne Club, named in honour of George Bannatyne and his famous anthology of Scots literature the Bannatyne Manuscript, was a text publication society founded by Sir Walter Scott to print rare works of Scottish interest, whether in history ...

in 1842. Lady Grizel also was memorialized by a Scottish poet who claimed to be a distant relative,

Joanna Baillie Joanna Baillie (11 September 1762 – 23 February 1851) was a Scottish poet and dramatist, known for such works as ''Plays on the Passions'' (three volumes, 1798–1812) and ''Fugitive Verses'' (1840). Her work shows an interest in moral philoso ...

, in a poem first published in 1821 in ''Metrical Legends of Exalted Characters''.

Biography

Works

Songs

Household books

Legacy

See also

References

Further reading