Annotation:Lady Haddo

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LADY HADDO. Scottish, Reel. C Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. Composed by Biography:Malcolm Macdonald. Lady Haddo was Charlotte Baird (b. before 1765, d. 1795), who married in 1782 George Gordon, Lord Haddo, Grandmaster of the Freemasons between 1784 and 1786. His father, the 3rd Earl of Aberdeen, bought Gight Castle, Aberdeenshire, for the couple. Tragically, Lord Haddo died suddenly in 1791 at Gight from a fall from his horse. Charlotte never recovered from it, living "in great retirement and dejection. She pined during some four years and died in 1795." The castle was abandoned and became ruinous. They had seven children, the oldest of whom, George, was left orphaned and virtually penniless, stranded in London where his mother had taken him. He had to fight for his inheritance, but was able to enlist the help of Viscount Melville and PM William Pitt to intercede with the "Wicked Earl", Lord Aberdeen, his grandfather. Aberdeen had been displeased with Lady Haddo for her well-grounded disapproval she had expressed of his mode of life, and the old man had carried the grudge into the next generation, withholding funds and support. George managed to distinguish himself as a scholar in university and later as a statesman, eventually himself becoming the 4th Earl of Aberdeen and Prime Minister in 1852.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Aird (Aird's 6th and Last Volume of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs), 1803; p. 18. Gow (Second Collection of Niel Gow's Reels), 1788; p. 13 (3rd edition). Gow (Beauties of Niel Gow), c. 1819.

Recorded sources: Temple TP022, The Battlefield Band - "Music in Trust" (1986).

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