Marion Veitch born Marion Fairlie (1639 – 9 May 1722) was a Scottish Presbyterian memoirist who at times was exiled by her family's religion before the Glorious Revolution.

Marion Veitch
Born
Marion Fairlie

1639
Died9 May 1722
NationalityKingdom of Scotland
Known forher memoirs
SpouseWilliam Veitch
ChildrenSamuel Vetch
Parent(s)James Fairlie
Euphan Kincaid

Life

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Marion Fairlie was born in Edinburgh and baptised at the end of 1639. Her parents were the shoemaker James Fairlie and Euphan Kincaid Fairlie. In 1664 she married in the High Kirk of Lanark, William Veitch, who was a minister. They were Presbyterian and their lives were made difficult. At times they lived outside Scotland and at times they lived apart. Irrespective they had ten children including Samuel Vetch who went on to be Governor of Nova Scotia. She spent five years at Hanham Hall and her time living in Newcastle was only brought to an end in 1688 by the Glorious Revolution in Scotland. She and her husband were allowed to return to Scotland. In 1690, her husband became a minister at Peebles.[1] They moved to Dumfries in 1694,[1] where they both died in May 1722, within a day of each other.[2]

(While some sources such as the Dictionary of National Biography[1] state "she died a day after her husband," their gravestone[3] states she "predeceased him by one day.")

Legacy

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The Free Church of Scotland published her memoirs in 1846.[4] Unlike her husband's memoir,[5] hers included an account of the death of four of her children to the will of God.[6]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Henderson, Thomas Finlayson (1899). "Veitch, William (1640-1722)" . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 58. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  2. ^ Du Toit, Alexander (23 September 2004). "Veitch [née Fairlie], Marion (1639–1722)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/45831. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)  
  3. ^ Marion Fairlie Veitch at Find a Grave
  4. ^ Veitch, Marion Fairly (1846) [before 1722]. "Memoirs of the Life of Mrs William Veitch, spouse to the Rev. Mr William Veitch, Minister of the Gospel at Dumfries.". In The committee of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland for the publication of the works of Scottish reformers and divines (ed.). Memoirs of Mrs William Veitch, Mr Thomas Hog of Kiltearn, Mr Henry Erskine, and Mr John Carstairs. Edinburgh: Printed for the Assembly's Committee. pp. 1–60.
  5. ^ Veitch, William (1825) [before 1722]. "Memoirs of Mr. William Veitch, Minister of the Gospel". In M'Crie, Thomas (ed.). Memoirs of Mr. William Veitch, and George Brysson, written by themselves: with other narratives illustrative of the history of Scotland, from the restoration to the revolution. Edinburgh: William Blackwood. pp. 3–192.
  6. ^ Clarke, Elizabeth (2000). "Chapter 4: 'A heart terrifying Sorrow': the Deaths of Children in Seventeenth-Century Women's Manuscript Journals". In Avery, Gillian; Reynolds, Kimberley (eds.). Representations of Childhood Death. New York: St. Martin's Press. p. 77. ISBN 978-1-349-62340-2.