Elizabeth Wardlaw

Background

She was born was born in April 1677 in Pitcruivie, Scotland. Elizabeth, the second daughter of Sir Charles Halket.

Career

The ballad of "Hardyknute, " which she was the first to make known to the world, was at first circulated by her as the fragment of an ancient ballad discovered in a vault in Dunfermline.

But no original manuscript of this fragment is forthcoming; and while the ballad is manifestly in great part modern, several of her friends, professing to be intimately acquainted with the circumstances of its production, positively ascribe to her its authorship.

It was nevertheless published in 1719, during her lifetime, as an ancient poem, at the expense of Lord-president Forbes and Sir Gilbert Eliot, and in 1724 Allan Ramsay included it as an ancient ballad in his "Evergreen. "

Lady Wardlaw is stated to have remodelled the ballad of ‘Gilderoy; ’ and the ballad of ‘Sir Patrick Spens, ’ published in Percy's ‘Reliques’ from two manuscripts sent from Scotland, has also been ascribed to her. This last hypothesis was first suggested by Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe in additional notes to Johnson's ‘Musical Museum, ’ and the proposition was also supported, as regards other ballads, by Robert Chambers in his ‘Remarks on Scottish Ballads, ’ 1859.

A feasible reason for suggesting Lady Wardlaw as the writer of ‘Sir Patrick Spens’ is the reference to the king in Dunfermline; but it is so immensely superior to ‘Hardyknute’ that Lady Wardlaw's authorship of this last is rather presumptive evidence against than for her authorship of ‘Sir Patrick Spens. ’ It is, however, by no means improbable that Lady Wardlaw amended ‘Sir Patrick Spens’ and other ballads.

Achievements

• Lady Wardlaw is best remembered as the supposed author of the ballad "Hardyknute, " which she claimed to have discovered as a fragment in a vault in Dunfermline. It was published in 1719 as an example of an ancient Scottish epic, and in 1724 Allan Ramsay published it in The Ever Green.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Hardyknute: A Fragment of an Antient Scots Poem...

    (Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We h...)

  • Hardyknute: A Fragment of an Antient Scots Poem

    (This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)

Connections

In 1696 she married Sir Henry Wardlaw, 4th Baronet, of Pitreavie (see Wardlaw baronets).

Father:

Charles Halket

husband:

Henry Wardlaw

4th Baronet, of Pitreavie

References

• The romantic Scottish ballads and the Lady Wardlaw heresy