Dance Lady Dumfries 3601

Discovering the identity of the Lady Dumfries of this dance is an interesting search into the Crichton Earls of Dumfries and the ladies they married. Quite obviously from the sources consulted, the dance had to have been devised for a countess who lived prior to 1782 since the dance was published in a collection of that date by John Riddell.

The Earldom of Dumfries was created by Charles I in 1633 for William, 9th Lord Crichton of Sanquhar. The first earl married twice, but his second wife died in 1632, a year before she could have been “Lady Dumfries”. The first Lady Dumfries was Penelope, daughter of Sir Robert Swift of Yorkshire, and the wife of the second Earl of Dumfries. She had two sons, both of whom predeceased their father, the elder in 1641, the younger in 1690. The younger son had married Sarah, daughter of James Dalrymple, 1st Viscount Stair, in 1679, and had one son, William, who succeeded his grandfather as third earl in 1691. The young earl died unmarried in 1694 and he was succeeded by his sister, Penelope, as Countess of Dumfries in her own right. In 1698 the countess married her cousin, William Dalrymple of Glenmure, second son of John Dalrymple, 1st Earl of Stair. The Countess of Dumfries held the title until March, 1742, for forty-eight years, and she was succeeded by her son, William Crichton Dalrymple. In 1731 Lord William had married, first, Anne Gordon, daughter of William, 2nd Earl of Aberdeen, but Lady Anne did not become Lady Dumfries until after the death of her mother-in-law. The new countess died in 1755 and in 1762 the fifth earl married Anne, daughter of William Duff of Crombie. Since the only child of the fifth earl died in his tenth year, the title passed to Patrick Macdowall Crichton, son of the fifth earl’s sister who had married John MacDowall of Freuch.

On 12 September, 1771, the sixth earl married Margaret, daughter of Ronald Crawford of Restalrig, and their only surviving daughter, Elizabeth Penelope Crichton, married on 12 October 1792, John Stuart, Viscount Mountstuart, eldest son of John, 1st Marquess of Bute. Lord Montstuart died as the result of a riding accident in 1794 and Lady Montstuart in 1797, so that when the sixth earl died in 1803 he was succeeded by his grandson, John, Viscount Montstuart. Upon the death of his parental grandfather in 1814, the seventh Earl of Dumfries succeeded as second Marquess of Bute. From that time on the titles have been merged in the Crichton-Stuart family. Since the death of Margaret Crauford on 5 May, 1799, no lady has been known, simply, as Lady Dumfries.

Dumfries House near Cumnock in Ayrshire was built by William Crichton Dalrymple, 5th Earl of Dumfries, to desings by William Adam. The foundation stone was laid on 18 July, 1754. A contemporary account of the event states, “In the evening the trees were illuminated with lamps and the whole ceremony concluded with a ball.” The house was not completed until 1760.

The tunes, “Lady Dumfries” and “Dumfries House”, were both written by John Riddell (1718–1795) of Glencarnock, Ayrshire, and were included in his collections. Thus, both dances could point to either Anne Gordon or Anne Duff, wives of the fifth earl who built Dumfries House. The jig, “Dumfries House”, is included in Niel Gow’s First Repository of 1799, while “Lady Dumfries” is found in the Second Repository of 1802.