Annotation:Miss Clementina Stewart’s Reel (2)
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MISS CLEMENTINA STEWART [2]. Scottish, Reel. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. The tune appears in Biography:Malcolm MacDonald's 1789 2nd Collection, dedicated to the Earl of Breadalbane. Clementina was the daughter of Sir John Stewart, 4th Bart. of Grandtully and Clementina Stewart, daughter of Charles Stewart of Ballechin (d. 1789); John and Clemantina were married in 1749 (Grantully is a small village in Perthshire, Scotland). The Clementina Stewart who was the person of the title was named for her mother, and was sister of Sir George Stewart, 17th of Grandtully, 5th Baronet. There were numerous tunes composed in honor of the family. Clementina married Alexander Moray, 14th of Abercairny, and, after he died she became the wife of James Alexander Seton (of St. Vincent), and later of Edinburgh, himself a widower. Clemantina and new husband James had a son named Alexander Moray Seton who, by 1790, was a landowner by Royal Grant on the Island of St. Vincent, along with his brother, James. He died on the Island of St. Vincent in 1795 during the final Carib revolt. The Island of St. Vincent had changed hands several times between the French and English, but with the Treaty of Versailles in 1783 it was finally ceded to the British and came under the governorship of James Seton. In 1795 the Caribs began the two years of attack known as the Second Carib War, and, with the aid of French rebels from Martinique, the Caribs plotted the removal of the British. Chatoyer and DuValle (the two main Carib chiefs) planned that Chatoyer would lead the rebellion on the Leeward side and DuValle would lead on the Windward side. The native peoples (descended from both indigenous people and shipwrecked black slaves) directed their fury at the settlers themselves rather than destroying their property, in order to preserve property that would have value after the rebellion. They were defeated by British forces in 1796, and the native population was largely resettled off the island.
See also “Miss Stewart of Grantully (1).”
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: Glen (The Glen Collection of Scottish Dance Music), vol. 1, 1891; p. 32. MacDonald (A Second Collection of Strathspey Reels), 1789; p. 5.
Recorded sources: