Pairt of the Life of Lady Margaret Cuninghame, Daughter of the Earl of Glencairn, That She Had With Her First Husband, The Master of Evandale...
Edinburgh: Printed by James Ballantyne and Co., 1827. Title page printed in black and red. Engraved frontispiece; engraved headpiece; large engraved initial letter on title page. Binding extremities slightly rubbed and vellum lightly soiled. Offsetting from frontispiece. Very minor foxing. A very good copy of a scarce work. Contemporary vellum double ruled in gilt with a gilt-lettered red morocco spine label. Gilt turn-ins. Quarto. [2], vi, 30 pp. Item #16306
Lady Margaret Cunningham (d. 1622) was a Scottish memoirist and letter writer, who was married to Sir James Hamilton of Crawfordjohn. The marriage was an abusive one, and is described in the work A Pairt of the Life of Lady Margaret Cuninghame (1608). According to Elizabeth L. Ewan in The Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women, "[Lady Margaret Cunningham] was often forced to turn to her parents, her sister, Anne Cunningham (wife of James Hamilton, 2nd Marquis of Hamilton), and her in-laws for lodging and money. Evandale was physically and emotionally abusive to her; she describes being thrown out of his house one night in 1604, naked, ill, and pregnant, and being carried by two women to the local minister's house for shelter. Evandale had adulterous liaisons, at least one of which produced offspring. Lady Margaret was [the primary caretaker of] her four children. After Evandale's death, she became the third wife of Sir James Maxwell of Calderwood, by whom she had another six children. The second marriage was very happy"
Price: $300.00