COUTTS, Margaret ^{1 2}

   User ID: N273.

Margaret married Alexander IRVINE 11th of Drum, son of Alexander IRVINE 10th of Drum, Sheriff Principal of Aberdeen and Magdalene SCRIMGEOUR, about 1681-1682.¹ (Alexander IRVINE 11th of Drum was born about 1620 and died on 18 September 1687 ¹.)

  Marriage Notes:

"Having lost his first wife, Lady Mary Gordon, the laird of Drum married, about the year 1681 or 1682, a pretty and youthful country girl, Margaret Coutts, who, according to the old ballad of 'The Laird of Drum,' was the daughter of a shepherd. At the time of the marriage he must have been about sixty-three years of age, and she about sixteen. His relations, it would appear, were annoyed at this union, and took no pains to conceal their feelings; and it is not improbable that their conduct, resented by him then, was revenged on them afterwards, when he altered the old destination of the lands, and excluded the heirs male and their descendants who stood next in succession to the family then in possession."

from The Irvines of Drum




"The eleventh laird's first wife had apparently been somewhat aristocratically aloof but, after she died, he spotted a young shepherdess on his estates, some forty-seven years his junior. Sixteen-year -old Mary Coutts was not one to sell her virtue short so, despite general disapproval, the two were married and the old laird enjoyed six years of bliss before dying not long before his seventieth birthday in 1687. This story is recorded in the traditional ballad 'The Laird of Drum'."

from The Irvine Family ^{1 3}