18. Mrs Calderwood of Polton

Magaret CALDERWOOD (1715–1774), was a daughter of Sir James Steuart of Coltness, bart., sometime solicitor-general for Scotland. She married Thomas Calderwood of Polton in 1735.

Her sister Agnes became the wife of Henry David, tenth earl of Buchan, and the mother of Henry Erskine, lord advocate, and of Thomas Erskine, the chancellor. Her brother, Sir James Steuart*, was implicated to some extent in the rebellion of 1745, and was compelled to reside abroad, and it was with a view to affording him some comfort in his exile that Mrs. Calderwood, along with her husband and two sons, joined him at Brussels in the year 1756. The little group included servants Peggy Rainy, and John Ratray, who helped them move around, travelling as far as Rome.

The two boys were enrolled in a Jesuit college, for free, as Mrs Calderwood was delighted to discover! From the day of her departure from home she kept a careful journal and was in constant correspondence with her Scottish friends and daughter. This journal is still in print. Her portrait is included in the Wardlaw Ramsay family, and she is referred to by Robert WR as a sister to Elizabeth Learmont. Her father was a senior colleague of Sir Andrew Ramsay, himself an Edinburgh lawyer and sheriff depute. Elizabeth Learmont would have sought Margaret’s advice about sending their son John to study in the Low Countries, too.

*Sir James Steuart of Coltness and Westshield, 3rd Baronet of Goodtrees, and 7th of Coltness (1713–1780), the economist and Jacobite. He succeeded to the baronetcy of Coltness in 1773; he was bequeathed the Denham estates in 1776, and took the name of Sir James Steuart Denham.”