Lady Lilias Grant (''née'' Murray d. 1643/4) was a Scottish letter-writer and matriarch of the
Grant clan
Clan Grant is a Highland Scottish clan.
History
Origins
One theory is that the ancestors of the chiefs of Clan Grant came to Scotland with the Normans to England where the name is found soon after the conquest of that country, although some h ...
of Freuchie.
Family background
Lady Lilias Murray was the second daughter of
Sir John Murray of Tullibardine, Master of the King's Household, who in 1606 was created Earl of Tullibardine, and his wife, Catherine Drummond, daughter of David Lord Drummond. According to the titles of poems by James VI, her sister
Anne Murray
Morna Anne Murray (born June 20, 1945) is a retired Canadian singer. Her albums, consisting primarily of pop, country, and adult contemporary music, have sold over 55 million copies worldwide during her over 40-year career.
Murray was the fir ...
was the king's mistress.
Wedding at Tullibardine
The marriage-contract of Lilias Murray and
John Grant Laird of
Freuchie
Freuchie is a village in Fife, Scotland, at the foot of the Lomond Hills, and near Falkland. The nearest major town is Glenrothes located 4 miles to the south.
The name derives from the Scottish Gaelic, ''fraoch'', meaning heather.
This Fife ...
was dated at Gask on 15 April 1591. An eighteenth-century author
Lachlan Shaw stated that
King James the Sixth and his Queen attended the marriage. James attended and performed in a masque with his valet, probably
John Wemyss of Logie
John Wemyss younger of Logie, (1569-1596), was a Scottish courtier, spy, and subject of the ballad "The Laird o Logie", beheaded for plotting to blow up a fortification at Veere in the Netherlands
Life
John Wemyss was a brother or son, the famil ...
. They wore Venetian carnival masks and helmets with red and pink taffeta costumes, made by the Edinburgh tailor
Alexander Miller. The queen,
Anne of Denmark
Anne of Denmark (; 12 December 1574 – 2 March 1619) was the wife of King James VI and I; as such, she was Queen of Scotland
The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the constitutional fo ...
went on to
Perth
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...
alone, where on 29 June she made a ceremonial entry to the town. While the king was at the wedding on 21 and 22 June at
Tullibardine Castle
Tullibardine Castle was a castle located in the village of Tullibardine, north of Auchterarder in Perth and Kinross, Scotland.
History
The lands of Tullibardine passed to the Murray family after Ada de Strathearn, the wife of William Murray, ...
,
Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell
Francis may refer to:
People
*Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State and Bishop of Rome
* Francis (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters
*Francis (surname)
Places
* Rural ...
escaped from
Edinburgh Castle
Edinburgh Castle is a historic castle in Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland. It stands on Castle Rock (Edinburgh), Castle Rock, which has been occupied by humans since at least the Iron Age, although the nature of the early settlement is unclear. ...
.
In
early modern Scotland
Scotland in the early modern period refers, for the purposes of this article, to Scotland between the death of James IV in 1513 and the end of the Jacobite risings in the mid-eighteenth century. It roughly corresponds to the early modern perio ...
married
women
A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or Adolescence, adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female hum ...
did not usually adopt their husband's surnames. She continued to be called "Lilias Murray" after her marriage. One of her brothers was killed at
battle of Glenlivet
The Battle of Glenlivet was a Scottish clan battle fought on 3 October 1594 near Glenlivet, Moray, Scotland. It was fought between Protestant forces loyal to King James VI of Scotland who were commanded by Archibald Campbell, 7th Earl of Argy ...
in 1594.
Life at Castle Grant
Lady Lilias lived at
Castle Grant
Castle Grant stands a mile north of Grantown-on-Spey and was the former seat of the Clan Grant chiefs of Strathspey in Scottish Highlands, Highlands, Scotland.Coventry, Martin. (2008). ''Castles of the Clans: The Strongholds and Seats of 750 Scotti ...
, then called Freuchie castle, or at Ballachastell, near Inverness. From the evidence of the Grant muniments, she seems to have been a lady of much vigour of character. She took an active interest in the affairs of the Grant family, and was greatly respected by her family and neighbours.
Taylor the Water-Poet visited Lady Lilias and her husband at Ballachastell in 1618 and was much pleased with her, and he records that she was, both inwardly and outwardly, plentifully endowed with the gifts of grace and nature. He makes no mention of any poetical works.
Lady Lilias was a reader, and had, for these days, a good if not very varied collection of books, is proved by two lists of her own library given under her own hand. In one list, St. Augustine, and the "Imitation of Christ" occupy a place.
Two poems survive in the Grant papers, and are attributed to Lilias Murray, although whether original or copies in her own hand is not clear. The two poems, a lyric about a maid overheard complaining of the pangs of love, and a complaint against Cupid mentioning a ''mumchance'', a masque or guising, are known in other manuscripts.
She bought sugar in Elgin for her household, and when there was a shortage in 1640 due to the
Wars of the Three Kingdoms
The Wars of the Three Kingdoms were a series of related conflicts fought between 1639 and 1653 in the kingdoms of Kingdom of England, England, Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland and Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland, then separate entities united in a pers ...
, she wrote, "the succour
ugar Ugar may refer to:
* Ugar Khurd, town in the state of Karnataka, India
* Ugar Budruk, village in the state of Karnataka, India
* Ugar (river), Bosnia and Herzegovina
* Ugar Island, census locality in the Torres Strait, Queensland, Australia
**Step ...
is growin skaircer nor itt wes befoir, for thair is no traffect
rafficbe sea now as wes befoir to Scotland quhilk god send better".
[David Worthington]
'Sugar, Slave-Owning, Suriname and the Dutch Imperial Entanglement of the Scottish Highlands before 1707', ''Dutch Crossing'', 44:1 (2019), pp. 15, 23 fn.52
/ref>
She survived her husband for twenty-one years, dying in the end of 1643 or the beginning of the following year. Her testament and latter will is dated on 30 December 1643. She also survived her son, Sir John Grant, who died in 1637.
References
External links
"Letter by Sir John Grant of Freuchie to Lady Lilias Murray, his mother. London, at the Sign of the Holy Lamb (or Lance), 29th August 1631," Edinburgh University, School of History, Classics and Archaeology Teaching Collections.
Lilias Murray's list of books, Fraser, ''Chiefs of Grant'', (1883), vol. 2, p. 54, via National Library of Scotland
Works cited
*
*
;Attribution
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grant, Lilias
1644 deaths
17th-century Scottish poets
17th-century Scottish people
16th-century Scottish people
17th-century Scottish women
16th-century Scottish women
Court of James VI and I
Scottish letter writers
Women letter writers
Scottish women poets
Clan Murray
Lilias