LADY

See also:

• ANNE (1665-1714)
• ANNE (1693-1740)

ANNE

See also:

• BARNARD, FREDERICK AUGUSTUS PORTER (1809–1889)
• BARNARD, GEORGE GREY (1863— )
• BARNARD, HENRY (1811-1900)
• BARNARD, JOHN
• LADY ANNE BARNARD (1750–1825)

BARNARD (1750–1825)  , author of the ballad " Auld Robin Gray," the eldest daughter of James Lindsay, 5th earl of Balcarres, was born at Balcarres House, Fife, on the 12th of December 1750 . She was married in 1793 to Andrew Barnard, a son of the bishop of Limerick, for whom she obtained from Henry Dundas (1st Viscount Melville) an appointment as colonial secretary at the Cape of Good Hope . Thither the Barnards went in March 1797, Lady Anne remaining at the Cape' until January 1802 . A remarkable series of letters written by Lady Anne thence to Dundas, then secretary for war and the colonies, was published in 19o1 under the title South Africa a Century Ago . In 18o6, on the reconquest of the Cape by the British, Barnard was reappointed colonial secretary, but Lady Anne did not accompany him thither, where he died in 1807 . The rest of her life was passed in London, where she died on the 6th of May 1825 . " Auld Robin Gray " was written by her in 1772, to music by the Rev . William Leeves (1748–1828), as he admitted in 1812 . It was published anonymously in 1783, Lady Anne only acknowledging the authorship of the words two years before her death in a letter to Sir Walter Scott, who subsequently edited it for the Bannatyne Club with two continuations . See the memoir by W . H . Wilkins, together with the original text of " Auld Robin Gray," prefixed to South Africa a Century Ago .