RA Collection: People and Organisations
Scottish author of historical novels and non-fiction. The great-granddaughter of the novelist Walter Scott. (1771-1832).
She was born in Tunbridge Wells in Kent as Mary Monica Hope Scott, the only surviving child of James Hope-Scott (1812-1873) and Charlotte Harriet Jane née Lockhart (1827-1858), daughter of John Gibson Lockhart and grand-daughter of Sir Walter Scott. Until her own children were born Mary Monica was the only living descendant of Sir Walter Scott. On the death of her father in 1873 she inherited Abbotsford House, the home of Walter Scott. In London in 1874 she married the Hon. Joseph Constable-Maxwell, third son of William, Lord Herries, following which the couple adopted the surname Maxwell-Scott. Like her great-grandfather, she became a writer of historical books. She also wrote a number of books about her famous ancestor including an authoritative guide to Scott’s collection of ‘gabions’ titled Abbotsford: a Guide to the Personal Relics and Possessions of Sir Walter Scott. (1893).
Born: 2 October 1852 in Tunbridge Wells
Died: 15 March 1920
Nationality: British, Scottish
Gender: Female