Alicia Ann Spottiswoode
Alicia Ann, Lady John Scott, (née Alicia Ann Spottiswoode) (24 June 1810 – 12 March 1900) was a Scottish songwriter and composer known chiefly for the tune, "Annie Laurie", to which the words of a 17th-century poet, William Douglas, were set.
Life
She was the oldest daughter of John Spottiswoode of Berwickshire and his wife Helen Wauchope of Niddrie-Mains. On 16 March 1836 she married Lord John Douglas Scott, a younger son of the 4th Duke of Buccleuch, and consequently was known as Lady John Scott.[1] Lord John Scott died in 1860. Under the will of her father, she resumed her maiden name Spottiswoode in 1866, and was sometimes known as Lady John Scott Spottiswoode.[2]
Lady John Scott was a champion of traditional Scots language, history and culture, her motto being 'Haud [hold] fast by the past'.[3] "Annie Laurie" was published in 1838. Scott was born and died at Spottiswoode, Scottish Borders, in the former Berwickshire.[4]
She died at Spottiswoode, Lauder, Berwickshire on 12 March 1900.[2]
Works
Selected works include:
- Annie Laurie
- Katherine Logie
- Lammermoor
- Shame on Ye, Gallants!
- Etterick
- Your Voices Are Not Hush'd
- The Foul Fords
- Duris-Deer
- "Think On Me"
- "Within the Garden of My Heart"
References
- Preface by Margaret Warrender (March 1904) in Songs and Verses by Lady Jane Scott, Edinburgh: David Douglas, pp. i–lxiv
- "Obituary - Lady John Scott Spottiswoode". The Times (36089). London. 14 March 1900. p. 6.
- "Lady John Scott". Scottish Poetry Library.
- Rogers, Charles (1882). The Scottish minstrel: the songs of Scotland subsequent to Burns. Nimmo. p. 447. Retrieved 8 November 2010.