Anne Maitland, Countess of Lauderdale

Anne Home was a daughter of Mary (Dudley) Sutton, Countess of Home and Alexander Home, 1st Earl of Home.

Harington Dudley family connections

She was born and christened in 1612. Anne of Denmark sent instructions to the chamberlain of her Dunfermline estates, Henry Wardlaw of Pitreavie, to distribute presents of money at the baptism, and Ann Hay, Lady Winton was to be her representative.[1]

Anne Home was brought up in Moray House in Edinburgh

As a child she lived in Old Moray House in Edinburgh. Her older sister Margaret Home married James Stuart, 4th Earl of Moray.[2]

She married John Maitland in 1632, son of John Maitland, 1st Earl of Lauderdale.[3] She inherited her mother's property and furniture in London, and was in London in October 1648, hosting her grandmother Theodosia Harington.[4]

In 1648 Lauderdale was declared a delinquent and so their possessions and furniture in London were forfeited and given to John Ireton and William Geere. Counter-claims that the furnishings belonged to their daughter or had been sold to a Scottish merchant in London, Robert English, were disregarded.[5]

In the 1660s she and her husband John Maitland, Earl of Lauderdale, lived in London on Aldersgate Street and Lauderdale House, Highgate, properties which had belonged to her mother.[6][7] Near the end of the 18th century the coat of arms of Maitland and Home were discovered at Highgate during repairs to the building.[8] Their main home in Scotland was Thirlestane Castle.[9]

In January 1662 she wrote to Sir John Gilmour of Craigmillar asking for his support in a lawsuit concerning the forfeited estate of a Quaker, John Swinton of Swinton. She signed this letter, "A. Lauderdaill".[10]

Anne Maitland inherited Lauderdale House from her mother

They were lodged at Charing Cross in December 1668 and Lauderdale's letters mention her illnesses, "much troubled with a cold", "much troubled with rheums", with swelling and pains to the face and throat. At the same time their infant grandson Charles Hay was ill with smallpox. His wet-nurse was given a posset drink of hartshorn with marigold flowers. Lauderdale was "most heartily weary" of a house filled with doctors and apothecaries. Perhaps in irony, Charles II took him to visit the physic laboratory of Nicasius le Febure in St James's Palace. Their second grandson John Hay was christened on 21 January 1669. Elizabeth, Lady Dysart's husband Lionel Tollemache died and Lauderdale visited her frequently in 1669.[11]

Soon after she recovered from her illness Anne Maitland moved away from Lauderdale to Paris, on the advice of the king's physician Sir Alexander Fraser, so that she could take the waters at Bourbonne-les-Bains.[12] Lauderdale sent her remittances from his lodging at court in Whitehall Palace.[13] Lady Dysart made efforts to cover up her affair with Lauderdale by interfering with Anne Maitland's letters.[14]

She wrote from Paris worrying about problems with her house at Highgate, at its core an Elizabethan building extended by her mother, which she called a "paper house". She thought Lauderdale's vast library had compromised the fabric.[15][16]

I heir that the hous of Hayghat is laik to fal, that part of it that my mother built, I was allways afeired that the gret weight that wos in the head of the hous wold bring a old hous on my head and so I bilive you have heard me say for it was bot a peper hous and not able to indeur no gret weight. I would desir you that you would cause carry your bouks doune to some of the roums below, and that you would make some people that hes skill to see it, and that it may be repaired in time or els it will fall doune this winter. You know it tis mine but for my lifetime, and then come to your posterity, and that it is not my power to leave it from them, therefore I make no doubt of your repairing of it, and in special since your books has been the occassion of it.[17][18]

She died in December 1671 in Paris.

Her husband married Elizabeth Murray, a daughter of William Murray, 1st Earl of Dysart in February 1672. Anne had bequeathed her jewels to their daughter Mary, Lady Tweeddale. The jewels were in the keeping of "Lady Boghall", her companion in Paris, an old friend of Anne's mother. Her identity is uncertain, she was possibly Janet Brisbane, Lady Boghall, or Dorothy Dunbar, widow of the Laird of Boghall in Ayrshire, or Marion Elphinstone, the wife of George Norvell of Boghall near Bathgate.[19] She had also thought of giving them to her first cousin Frederick Schomberg, 1st Duke of Schomberg for safe-keeping.[20]

Lauderdale's agent in Paris, a Mr Waus who was shopping for the Countess of Dysart's wedding dress, obtained the jewels from Lady Boghall, and Lauderdale gave them to his new wife.[21] Lawsuits over the jewels and the Tweeddale inheritance continued for several years, including money the new Countess of Lauderdale spent on building a park wall at Lethington, her jointure house in Scotland, now known as Lennoxlove.

In 1632 Anne Home married John Maitland, 1st Duke of Lauderdale, a son of John Maitland, 1st Earl of Lauderdale and Isabel Seton, a daughter of Alexander Seton, 1st Earl of Dunfermline and Lilias Drummond. Their children included:

• Mary Maitland, who married John Hay, 2nd Marquess of Tweeddale in 1666 at Highgate.