Dance The Countess of Crawford's Reel 1366

The Countess of Crawford was sixteen years old and a very headstrong young lady. As Lady Jean Murray, she received a stern letter from her father, James, 2nd Duke of Atholl, ordering her to return to the parental wing in Atholl from Edinburgh, since it had come to the ducal ears that his daughter was carrying on a romance of which he obviously did not approve. This was in 1746 when Lady Jean was fifteen years old. Her reply was defiant and rebellious against parental authority, a letter which she signed as “My dearest Papa’s most aff., most Dutifull, most Obedient Daughter”. In 1747, a year later, she eloped with John Lindsay, 20th Earl of Crawford. Within seven months the young countess was dead of a fever in the Netherlands, where she had gone with her soldier husband.

One wonders if the object of the romance of which the duke disapproved could have been the Earl of Crawford. Considering the facts it is quite possible. “The Gallant Earl”, as he was called, one of the “lichtsome Lindsays”, was forty-five years old at the time of this marriage to Lady Jean.

Though he was a Lowlander, Lord Crawford was raised as a Highlander. His education was supervised by John, 2nd Duke of Argyll, and he spent much of his boyhood at Inverary. In 1723 he enlisted as an ensign in the army and served with the Russians against the Turks and he fought at Dettingen and Fontenoy during the War of the Austrian Succession. in 1739, when George II ordered that the Independent Highland Companies be incorporated into a regiment of foot, the Black Watch, the 42nd Regiment, the king issued a letter of service to “Our Right Trusty and Right Well-Beloved Cousin, John, Earl of Craufurd and Lindsay”. The earl’s appointment as Colonel of the Black Watch was an astute move on the part of the government for as a Lowlander his command of a Highland regiment would avoid having to make an unpopular choice among Highlanders of equal rank who coveted the colonelcy. Crawford, however, never actually took command of the regiment for in 1740 he transferred to the Life Guards. He died in 1749, a scant year after the death of his child countess.