Willielma Campbell, Lady Glenorchy was a patroness of evangelical missionary work in Scotland and beyond.
Background
Willielma Maxwell was born, in Galloway, as the daughter of the wealthy William Maxwell of Preston and Elizabeth Hairstanes. On 26 September 1761, she married John Campbell, Viscount Glenorchy, eldest son of John Campbell, 3rd Earl of Breadalbane and Holland, one of Scotland"s greatest landowners.
Career
In 1765, while recovering from illness, she came under the influence of the sister of Rowland Hill (the evangelical Anglican preacher), and experienced a religious conversion. Particularly after her husband"s death in 1771, she devoted herself and her wealth to furthering evangelical causes, becoming an influential figure in Scottish Church affairs She held evangelistic services in her Edinburgh home open to both rich and poor, and also established several chapels in both Scotland and England.
She influenced many to enter the ministry.
As early as 1770, encouraged by Alexander Webster, she set up a chapel in Edinburgh. Another chapel, bearing her name, was opened in Edinburgh in 1774.
Further chapels were constructed in England during her travels the last ten years of her life. These were in Exmouth (1777), Carlisle (1781), Matlock (1785), Bristol (1786), and Workington (1786).
Despite the ecumenical nature of her first chapel, Lady Glenorchy retained her Calvinist leanings.
Lady Glenorchy died on 17 July 1786 in Saint George"s Square, Edinburgh. She had no surviving children. To ensure that her favoured evangelical enterprises would flourish, she left much of her £30,000 estate to her chapels, to the Scottish SPCK, and to a fund for educating young ministers.