Violet Jacob (1 September 1863 – 9 September 1946) was a Scottish writer known especially for her historical novel ''Flemington'' and for her poetry, mainly in Scots. She was described by a fellow Scottish poet Hugh MacDiarmid as "the most considerable of contemporary vernacular poets".

Early life

Jacob was born Violet Augusta Mary Frederica Kennedy-Erskine, at the

House of Dun The House of Dun is a National Trust for Scotland property in the parish of Dun, lying close to the edge of Montrose Basin and situated approximately half way between the towns of Montrose and Brechin, in Angus, Scotland. The Dun Estate was h ...

, the daughter of William Henry Kennedy-Erskine (1 July 1828 – 15 September 1870) of Dun, Forfarshire, a captain in the

17th Lancers The 17th Lancers (Duke of Cambridge's Own) was a cavalry regiment of the British Army, raised in 1759 and notable for its participation in the Charge of the Light Brigade during the Crimean War. The regiment was amalgamated with the 21st Lance ...

and Catherine Jones (died 13 February 1914), the only daughter of William Jones of Henllys,

Carmarthenshire Carmarthenshire ( cy, Sir Gaerfyrddin; or informally ') is a county in the south-west of Wales. The three largest towns are Llanelli, Carmarthen and Ammanford. Carmarthen is the county town and administrative centre. The county is known as ...

. Her father was the son of John Kennedy-Erskine (1802–1831) of Dun and Augusta FitzClarence (1803–1865), the illegitimate daughter of King William IV and Dorothy Jordan. She was a great-granddaughter of

Archibald Kennedy, 1st Marquess of Ailsa Archibald Kennedy, 1st Marquess of Ailsa KT, FRS (February 1770 – 8 September 1846), styled Lord Kennedy between 1792 and 1794 and known as the Earl of Cassilis between 1794 and 1831, was a Scottish peer. Early life Kennedy was the eldest so ...

. The area of Montrose where her family seat of Dun was situated was the setting for much of her fiction. She married, at St John's Episcopal Church, Princes Street, Edinburgh, on 27 October 1894, Arthur Otway Jacob (1867–1936), an Irish

major Major ( commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicato ...

in the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurkha ...

, and accompanied him to India where he was serving. Her book ''Diaries and letters from India 1895–1900'' is about their stay in the Central Indian town of

Mhow Mhow, officially Dr. Ambedkar Nagar, is a town in the Indore district in Madhya Pradesh state of India. It is located south-west of Indore city, towards Mumbai on the old Mumbai-Agra Road. The town was renamed as ''Dr. Ambedkar Nagar'' in 20 ...

. The couple had one son, Harry, born in 1895, who died as a soldier at the

Battle of the Somme The Battle of the Somme (French: Bataille de la Somme), also known as the Somme offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place be ...

in 1916. Arthur died in 1936, and Violet returned to live at

Kirriemuir Kirriemuir, sometimes called Kirrie or the ''Wee Red Toon'' ( gd, An Ceathramh Mòr; IPA: nˈkʰʲɛɾəvmoːɾ, is a burgh in Angus, Scotland. It reaches back to earliest recorded times, when it is thought to have been a major ecclesiastical ...

, in Angus. She died of heart disease on 9 September 1946 and was buried beside her husband at the graveyard at Dun kirk.

Scots poetry

Violet Jacob was described by Hugh MacDiarmid as "by far the most considerable of contemporary vernacular poets", a view he did not rescind over a fifty-year period. She was particularly known for her poems in the Angus dialect. Her poetry was associated with that of Scots revivalists like

Marion Angus Marion Emily Angus (1865–1946) was a Scottish poet who wrote in the Scots vernacular or Braid Scots, defined by some as a dialect of English and others as a closely related language. Her prose writings are mainly in standard English. She is s ...

, Alexander Gray and

Lewis Spence James Lewis Thomas Chalmers Spence (25 November 1874 – 3 March 1955) was a Scottish journalist, poet, author, folklorist and occult scholar. Spence was a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, and vice- ...

, who drew their inspiration from early Scots poets such as Robert Henryson and William Dunbar, rather than from

Robert Burns Robert Burns (25 January 175921 July 1796), also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who hav ...

. Jacob is commemorated in Makars' Court, outside the

Writers' Museum The Writers’ Museum, housed in Lady Stair's House at the Lawnmarket on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, presents the lives of three of the foremost Scottish writers: Robert Burns, Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson. Run by the City of Edinb ...

Lawnmarket The Royal Mile () is a succession of streets forming the main thoroughfare of the Old Town of the city of Edinburgh in Scotland. The term was first used descriptively in W. M. Gilbert's ''Edinburgh in the Nineteenth Century'' (1901), de ...

, Edinburgh. Selections for Makars' Court are made by the Writers' Museum, The Saltire Society and The Scottish Poetry Library. In 1936 she was awarded an honorary LLD degree by Edinburgh University. ''The Wild Geese'', which takes the form of a conversation between the poet and the North Wind, is a sad poem of longing for home. It was set to music as ''Norlan' Wind'' and popularised by Angus singer and songmaker

Jim Reid James McLeish Reid (born 29 December 1961) is a Scottish singer/songwriter and the lead singer for the alternative rock band The Jesus and Mary Chain, which he formed with his elder brother and guitarist William Reid in 1983. Career The Jes ...

, who also set to music other poems by Jacob and other Angus poets such as Marion Angus and Helen Cruikshank. Another version, sung by Cilla Fisher and Artie Trezise, appeared on their 1979

Topic Records Topic Records is a British folk music label, which played a major role in the second British folk revival. It began as an offshoot of the Workers' Music Association in 1939, making it the oldest independent record label in the world.M. Brocken, ...

album ''Cilla and Artie''. Traditional folk band

Malinky Malinky is a Scottish folk band specialising in Scots song, formed in autumn 1998. Career Early years The original members were Karine Polwart from Banknock, Stirlingshire (vocals, guitar, bouzouki), Steve Byrne from Arbroath (vocals, guita ...

are among many other artists who have released versions of ''Norland Wind''.

Prose

Apart from her collections of poetry and short stories, Violet Jacob published an Erskine family history (''Lairds of Dun'', 1931) and five novels, the best known of which is the tragic ''Flemington'' (1911; reissued in 1994), set in the aftermath of the

Jacobite rising of 1745 The Jacobite rising of 1745, also known as the Forty-five Rebellion or simply the '45 ( gd, Bliadhna Theàrlaich, , ), was an attempt by Charles Edward Stuart to regain the British throne for his father, James Francis Edward Stuart. It took ...

. ''Flemington'' was described by

John Buchan John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir (; 26 August 1875 – 11 February 1940) was a Scottish novelist, historian, and Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada, the 15th since Canadian Confederation. After a brief legal career ...

as "the best Scots romance since '' The Master of Ballantrae''".

Works

*
The Sheep-stealers
' (1902), novel *
The Infant Moralist
' (1903), poems *
The Interloper
' (1904), novel *
The Golden Heart & other fairy stories
' (1904), stories *
Verses
' (1905) *
Irresolute Catherine
' (1908), novella *
The History of Aythan Waring
' (1908), novel *
Stories Told by the Miller
' (1909) *
The Fortune-hunters and Other Stories
' (1910) *
Flemington
' (1911), novel *
Songs of Angus
' (1915), poems *
More songs of Angus and others
' (1918), poems *
Bonnie Joann and other poems
' (1921) *
Tales of my own country
' (1922), short stories *
Two new poems
' (1924), poems *
The Northern Lights and other poems
' (1927), poems *
The good child's year book
' (1928) *
The Lairds of Dun
' (1931), family history *
The Scottish poems of Violet Jacob
' (1944), poems *''The Lum hat and other stories: Last tales of Violet Jacob'' (1982), short stories *''Diaries and letters from India 1895–1900'' (1990)

Reviews

Isobel Murray Isobel Murray is a Scottish literary scholar, Emeritus Professor at the University of Aberdeen. She edited the work of Oscar Wilde and Naomi Mitchison. She also edited a series of interviews which she and her husband Bob Tait carried out with Sc ...

(1983), "The Forgotten Violet Jacob", reviewing ''The Lum Hat and Other Stories''", in Sheila G. Hearn, ed., '' Cencrastus'' No. 13, Summer 1983, p. 54

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jacob, Violet Scottish women novelists History of Angus, Scotland Doric poets 1863 births 1946 deaths Scottish women poets Scottish people of Dutch descent Scottish people of Welsh descent Schuyler family Van Cortlandt family People from Angus, Scotland Scottish Renaissance