Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lauder, George
LAUDER, GEORGE (fl. 1677), Scottish poet, born about 1600, was younger son of Lauder of Hatton, Midlothian, by Mary, third daughter of Sir Richard Maitland of Lethington [q. v.]. He probably graduated M.A. at Edinburgh University in 1620. He seems to have entered the English army, where he attained the rank of colonel, and in 1627 it is likely that he accompanied the Duke of Buckingham on the expedition to the isle of Ré. As a royalist he spent many years on the continent, living chiefly at Breda, Holland, where he printed various poems, and appears to have entered the army of the Prince of Orange. Writing from the Hague, 1 April 1662, to Lauderdale, he thanks him for kindness to his son. On 15 Aug. 1677, when with his regiment at Embrick, he refers in another letter to Lauderdale to some offer which had been made to him by Sir George Downing of a place in the guards, and says that he declined it because having 'more hungry stomachs than myne owne to fill' he required some provision to be made for his wife and children. He also asks to be 'freed from the rigour of the law and proclamation and receaved into the number of his majesty's free subjects' (Add. MSS. 23116 f. 9, 23127 f. 201). A reference in Sinclair's 'Truth's Victory over Error' (Edinburgh, 1684) shows that he reached an advanced age. In 'Fugitive Scotish Poetry of the Seventeenth Century' David Laing wrongly makes 1670 the year of his death. In the same work (2nd series) Laing gives a 'Christmas Carol' by 'F. G.,' 'For the Heroycall L. Colonel Lauder, Patron of Truth,' and an 'Epitaph on the Honourable colonel George Lauder,' by Alexander Wedderburne.
Lauder's poems are mainly patriotic and military. He writes the heroic couplet with considerable vigour, and skilfully compasses an irregular sonnet. His most notable achievement is his successful memorial poem, 'Damon, or a Pastoral Elegy on the Death of his honoured Friend, William Drummond of Hawthornden.' This was prefixed to Drummond's 'Poems' (1711). Robert Mylne, an industrious collector, possessed a good set of Lauder's tracts; and a quarto manuscript in New Hailes Library contains several of his pieces, apparently transcribed from copies printed on the continent. Two of these, 'The Scottish Souldier' and 'Wight' (an appeal from the Isle of Wight for bulwarks), were printed about 1629, and republished in 'Frondes Caducæ,' by Sir Alexander Boswell of Auchinleck (Edinburgh, 1818). In the second series of Laing's 'Fugitive Scotish Poetry' are the following four poems from the same collection: 'Lauderdale's Valedictory Address,' 1622; 'The Souldier's Wish,' 1628; 'Aretophel, a Memorial of the second Lord Scott of Buccleuch,' undated, but probably to be assigned to 1634; 'Death of King Charles,' 1649. Lauder's other writings, according to a list compiled by George Chalmers, and prefixed to 'Frondes Caducæ,' are: 'Tweed's Tears of Joy, to Charles, Great Britain's King,' 1639, Advocates' Library, Tracts and Signet Library, Edinburgh; 'Caledonia's Covenant,' 1641, Ritson and Signet Library; 'His Dog, for a New Year's Gift to James Erskine, Col. of a Scots Regiment,' Breda, 1647, Mylne's MS. Catalogue; 'Mars Belgicus, or ye Funeral Elegy on Henry, Prince of Orange,' Breda, 1647, Mylne's Catalogue; 'Achilles Auriacus, or a Funeral Elegie on the Death of William, Prince of Orange,' Breda, 1650, Mylne; 'Eubulus, or a Free and Loyal Discourse to his Sacred Majesty, by one of his most Faithfull Subjects,' 1660, College Library, Edinburgh; 'Hecatombe Christiana, or Christian Meditations and Disquisitions upon the Life and Death of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ,' 1661, College Library, Edinburgh; 'Breda Exultans, or a Poem on the Happy Peace with England,' given by Boswell without reference.
[Laing's Fugitive Scotish Poetry and Boswell's Frondes Caducæ, as above; Irving's Scotish Poetry; Masson's Drummond of Hawthornden, p. 461.]