A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Scott, Lady Anne
SCOTT, LADY ANNE,
Was the only daughter of Francis, Earl of Buccleugh, and the greatest heiress in the three kingdoms. When she was but thirteen, she was selected by Charles the Second to be the wife of his son, the unfortunate Duke of Monmouth, who was only a year older than his bride. These early marriages were the vice of the times, and rarely produced satisfactory results; and this one was not an exception. Brave to a fault, exquisitely handsome, courted, flattered, caressed by the court, and adored by the people, Monmouth ran. even in his boyish days, a career of vice and profligacy which appears to have been the almost inevitable consequence of his bringing up. Anne Scott possessed many estimable qualities, but he was unable to attach the heart of her fickle husband. She was a woman of taste and accomplishments; the encourager of learning and genius; and the patroness of men of letters. Without possessing beauty, she had an agreeable countenance; and her wit, virtue, and good sense, rendered her attractive. The turbulence of her husband, the dangers he was continually hurrying into, imposed upon the duchess a life of anxiety, privation, and sorrow. She was for ever at her post as mediator with Charles the Second and King James; and to the last strove to interpose her influence for his safety. When he was condemned to death, she visited him in the Tower. He exonerated her from all blame or knowledge of his rebellious schemes, paid a just tribute to her virtues and excellence, and recommended their children to her care; but exhibited no tenderness towards her, his whole affections being absorbed in his romantic attachment to Lady Henrietta Wentworth, who he professed to consider his wife in the eyes of God. His duchess he said he had married when a child; she was his wife by the law of the land; the other was his true wife in the sight of heaven.
The Duchess of Buccleugh was the mother of six children, three of whom died in infancy. Her oldest son inherited the title and estates, which had been confirmed to the children of Monmouth by James the Second. The present Duke of Buccleugh is a lineal descendant of the neglected duchess and her ill-fated lord. Three years after the death of Monmouth, the duchess became the second wife of Charles, third Lord Cornwallis. By this marriage she was the mother of three children, who all died unmarried. The duchess died on the 6th. of February, 1732, in her eighty-first year.