Alicia Anne Scott

Poet

• Born: June 24, 1810
• Birthplace: Westruther, Berwickshire, Scotland
• Died: March 12, 1900
• Place of death: Spottiswood, Scotland

Biography

Best remembered for the ballad “Annie Laurie,” poet Alicia Anne Scott was born Alicia Anne Spottiswood (or Spottiswoode) on June 24, 1810, at Westruther, Berwickshire, Scotland, the daughter of John and Helen Wauchope Spottiswood. Scott was the eldest of four children and educated in literature, languages, and music; her other interests included several branches of science and history, topics which arose in her later writings. She often visited her married sister Margaret, who lived only ten miles away; it was during one of these visits that “Annie Laurie” was composed.

In 1836, Scott married Lord John Douglas Montague Scott, brother of Walter Francis Scott, the fifth duke of Buccleuch and Queensbury. The couple spent most of their time at Cawston, her husband’s estate in Warwickshire, England. Scott missed her relatives and homeland, having never enjoyed even her family’s annual visits to London. Her melancholy, homesickness, and sense of isolation were heightened when her sister Margaret died of scarlet fever in 1839 and her brother John died seven years later. After Lord Scott, her husband, died suddenly in 1859, Scott became filled with grief and continual thoughts of death. She wrote regular letters to her deceased husband in her journal throughout the remaining four decades of her life, and her poem “Written at Thurso” reflects her thoughts after his death.

Scott collected traditional songs and wrote sixty-nine of her own; the original form of “Annie Laurie,” for instance, was a William Douglas poem set to the tune of “Kempie Kaye,” published in The Songs of Scotland, Ancient and Modern. Scott altered both lyrics and melody and added a third verse. After the song was published in 1838 without her permission, it became one of the most popular tunes among British soldiers during the Crimean War. The song’s authorship was attributed to various writers until the mid- 1850’s, when Scott was discovered as the true author. She then donated all profits from its publication to benefit the widows and orphans of British casualties. Scott corresponded regularly with Scottish folklorist Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe throughout the 1840’s, and her desire to see Scotland again was evidenced in her 1858 poem “The Bounds of Cheviot.” Several of Scott’s other works are also familiar within Scottish literature and music, and eventually Scott did return to her birthplace.

Scott’s last poem, “I See Them Not,” was written in November, 1899. She died of influenza on March 12, 1900. Scott’s only published volume of poetry, Songs and Verses, was released posthumously in 1904 and revised in 1911 with a biographical addition by Scott’s grandniece, Margaret Warrender.