Annotation:Miss Joan Dalrymple of Hailes

{{TuneAnnotation |f_annotation=MISS JOAN DALRYMPLE OF HAILES. Scottish, Strathspey (whole time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. "Miss Joan Dalrymple" is contained in a small four-page collection by an unknown composer or editor, that is simply entitled: "Edinr. Printed & Sold by Stewart & Co. Music Sellers South Bridge Street." However the Catalog of the Wighton Collection gives that it was printed for Alexander Campbell, editor of Albyn's Anthology. "Hailes" in the title probably refers to the manor of Newhailes, a Palladiean style country house near the small town of Musselburgh in East Lothian Scotland. It was the seat of Sir David Dalrymple, Lord Hailies, 3rd Baronet of Hailes (1726-1792), an advocate, judge and historian who so impressed Dr. Samuel Johnson and James Boswell at dinner in Edinburgh in 1773. Johnson declared his was "The most learned drawing-room in Europe." There is no record of a John Dalrymple in the family, although Sir Daid had two daugheters, half-sisters, Christian Dalrymple (1765–1839) and Jean (d.1803) who married her cousin, James Fergusson, Esq., and left children. Perhaps Jean and Joan are the same person.

In 1792, Miss Christian Dalrymple of New Hailes (30 December 1765 – 9 January 1839) daughter of Anne Brown and David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes; inherited the Newhailes estate in East Lothian, Scotland, unexpectedly. Chambers provides an interesting anecdote in Traditions of Edinburgh about Lord Hailes's death. His daughter, Christian, nearly lost the inheritance of Newhailes House when his will could not be found. Facing eviction in favor of the male heir (cousin James), she sent her domestic staff to lock up and shutter the Edinburgh house in New Street. Upon closing the shutters, "Lord Hailes's will dropped out upon the floor from behind a panel, and was found to secure her [daughter Christian] in the possession of his estates. The title of Baronet passed to her cousin, James Dalrymple, who became 4th baronet, of Hailes. However, the feudal title of Baron of Hailes did pass to Miss Dalrymple. She never married and lived there for 46 years. She lavished attention on the surrounding estate and developed the designed landscape including the flower garden. She also used the library as a ballroom, an able manager and socialite hosting glittering dances and soirées long into the night. She kept a diary discussing and reflecting on the minutiae of her day. It is forms part of Newhailes collection. She died at the age of seventy-two, leaving the estate to her nephew, Charles Fergusson, to whom she was a sort of surrogate mother, as his mother died when he was young.