Author: Scot, Elizabeth
Biography:
SCOT, Elizabeth formerly RUTHERFORD (1729-89: ODNB)
One of two daughters of Alice (Watson) and David Rutherford, an Edinburgh councillor, she was born at the family estate, Hermiston Hall, near Edinburgh. She was a precocious child who studied Latin and Greek at home and was encouraged to write by Allan Ramsay and Thomas Blacklock (qq.v.). Her father’s half-sister was Alison Cockburn and Elizabeth met other writers at her Edinburgh parties, including Robert Burns (q.v.) and David Hume. The man she had intended to marry was drowned in the Irish Sea (some of her poems refer to this) but she married Walter Scot (or Scott) of Wauchope in 1768; they had no children. She died at Edinburgh of dropsy complicated by asthma. Her book, issued posthumously, is dedicated to the Dowager Countess of Elgin and was published by subscription. The editor’s name is unknown, but details of Elizabeth’s life are given in the Preface (dated from Northampton) which states that she had wanted the poems to be published. The book includes her verse letter to Burns (“The Guidwife of Waukhope-House to Robert Burns”) and his “The Answer.” (ODNB 22 Sept. 2020; ancestry.co.uk 22 Sept. 2020)