Introducing Abb Fab: Not Even Half the Story

Sir Walter Scott, alongside figures such as William Wallace, Robert Burns, and Alexander Graham Bell, are undoubtedly central characters in the story of Scotland’s past. Indeed, it only takes a whistle-stop tour of the country to showcase the monuments, plaques, exhibitions, and books that celebrate the achievements of Scott and his peers. Yet while the lives of great men have been immortalised in stone and ink, the stories of the Scotswomen who have gone before us are not nearly so obvious. For thousands of years, the voices and actions of women from all over the world have been conspicuously absent from the established narrative of history.  

It goes without saying (I hope!) that this does not mean that women have played a minor part in Scottish history. Quite the reverse. From the moment humans first set foot in Scotland, women have been supporting families and households, undertaking paid and unpaid work, passing down wisdom, traditions, and tales through the generations, assuming leadership roles, and contributing to social, political, intellectual, and cultural change (albeit sometimes in alternative, limited, or difficult ways). Their stories produce a rich tapestry of experience, weaving together the quiet and conventional, the radical and resilient, the complex and ardent, the humorous and heartbroken, the benevolent and dangerous. This absence in Scottish history — of women’s voices and actions — is in fact not an absence at all, only a silencing and then a forgetting.  

Many people are now re-examining the past to broaden their understanding of it. They are going back to the archives and history books in an attempt to investigate the female-centred stories that are only hinted at in footnotes and postscripts. They are also choosing to recover historical materials that have frequently been pushed to the wayside in the construction of history: letters, diaries, photographs, oral histories, and artefacts, especially those belonging or relating to Scotswomen. Only through such research — carried out by people with a diverse range of backgrounds and perspectives —  can we start to build a more holistic, more meaningful, more useful picture of Scottish history, one that includes the lives of ordinary and extraordinary women alike. This historical excavation changes how we see the past. It is also changing (or has the potential to change) how we think about the present, and even the future, in crucial, epoch-defining ways.  

Sir Walter Scott deserves to be remembered and celebrated; he was a best-selling and internationally renowned Scottish author whose vast cultural legacy still echoes around the world today. There is so much to learn from his life and work. But what about the women who lived and worked alongside him? When we think of Abbotsford, his beloved home and long-term renovation and curation project, we think of Scott writing in his study or walking among his trees. But what about the women who also played a profound part in the estate’s history?  

Scott himself seemed to be attentive to how women have always shaped Scottish society and culture, filling his historical writing about his native land with a wide range of female characters. He also respected and helped to elevate the talent of his contemporary literary counterparts, women such as Joanna Baillie and Susan Ferrier. At home, Scott was surrounded by women, from his supportive wife, Charlotte, to his two daughters, dutiful, accomplished Sophia and loyal, witty Anne. By 1847, just fifteen years after Scott’s death, his treasured Abbotsford was inherited by his granddaughter, Charlotte Hope Scott, and by the turn of the twentieth century, his career had inspired another generation of historical writers in the form of his great-granddaughter, Mary Monica Maxwell Scott.  

The rich history of Abbotsford is full of women, and this year’s “AbbFab” project aims to uncover and share their voices, lives, and stories with you... Because learning about Walter Scott at Abbotsford is fantastic, but at the end of the day, it’s not even half of the story.  

Dr Katherine Ferrier has recently completed her PhD at the University of Aberdeen, which focused on recovering the letters of Sir Walter Scott’s literary contemporary and close friend, Susan Ferrier (1782-1854).  

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