Elizabeth Smith (née Elizabeth Grant of Rothiemurchus; 7 May 1797 – 16 November 1885) was a Scottish diarist and lady of the manor of Baltyboys House. Over the course of her life, she lived in Scotland, England, India, Ireland, and France.

Life

Grant was born in Edinburgh in 1797. Her father was John Peter Grant and Member of Parliament. Her brother,

Sir John Peter Grant Sir John Peter Grant, GCMG, KCB, (28 November 1807 – 6 January 1893), was a British colonial administrator who served as Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal (1859–1862) and as Governor of Jamaica. Life John Peter Grant was born in London on 28 N ...

, was the father of

Jane Maria Strachey Jane Maria Strachey, Lady Strachey (13 March 1840 – 14 December 1928) was an English suffragist and writer. Her father was a British colonial administrator and she later married her father's secretary, Sir Richard Strachey, and ten of their ch ...

. As a child, she primarily spent time on her family's estate, Rothiemurchus, in Strathspey, and in London. She and her family moved to Bombay in 1827. She married Colonel Henry Smith in 1829.Christine Lodge, ‘Smith , Elizabeth (1797–1885)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 200
accessed 24 November 2017
/ref> They had three children; Janey, Annie, and Jack. She is known today for the journals that she wrote from the 1840s when she was living in France. However she published in magazines anonymously during her life to supplement her family's income. In her later years Grant moved to Baltyboys House, her husband's family's estate in Blessington,

County Wicklow County Wicklow ( ; ga, Contae Chill Mhantáin ) is a county in Ireland. The last of the traditional 32 counties, having been formed as late as 1606, it is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the province of Leinster. It is bordered by t ...

, Ireland. She wrote about managing the estate, establishing a school for local families, and the struggles of local peasants during the Great Famine. Grant died at Baltyboys House. ''Memoirs of a Highland Lady'' was originally written as a private memoir for her family. The first public edition was only made available after her death. She is the great-grandmother of ballet dancer Dame Ninette de Valois.

Work

The first edition of ''Memoirs of A Highland Lady'' was published with the consent of Grant's daughter in 1898. It was edited and abridged by Grant's niece,

. The first edition was printed four times in the space of one year, with succeeding editions following in 1911 (reprinted in 1928) and 1950. However, the first complete and authentic edition was not published until 1988.

References

Citations

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Grant, Elizabeth 1797 births 1885 deaths 19th-century Scottish writers 19th-century British women writers 19th-century British writers Scottish diarists Writers from Edinburgh Women diarists Elizabeth 19th-century diarists