Background
Lady Margaret was the second and last daughter of John Kennedy, 6th Earl of Cassilis and his first wife, Lady Jean Hamilton, daughter of Thomas Hamilton, 1st Earl of Haddington.
Lady Margaret was the second and last daughter of John Kennedy, 6th Earl of Cassilis and his first wife, Lady Jean Hamilton, daughter of Thomas Hamilton, 1st Earl of Haddington.
She was well regarded as a political advisor. King Charles II spoke of her favourably and John Maitland, 1st Duke of Lauderdale referred to her in correspondence as "wife". Their letters were discovered and published in 1828.
She was the first wife of Gilbert Burnet, the eminent Whig historian and later Bishop of Salisbury.
Foreign this reason he arranged for a Prenuptial agreement where he renounced all claims to her money. In the 1680s she lost her memory, and all recall of facts and people.
Margaret died at the end of May 1685. Burnet went on to marry Mary Scott, a wealthy Dutch heiress of Scots descent, with whom he had seven children.
She died in 1698.