Mary Monica Maxwell-Scott


The Hon. Mary Monica Maxwell-Scott was a Scottish author of historical novels and non-fiction and the great-granddaughter of the novelist Walter Scott.
She was born in Tunbridge Wells in Kent as Mary Monica Hope Scott in 1852, the only surviving child of James Hope-Scott and his wife Charlotte Harriet Jane née Lockhart, daughter of John Gibson Lockhart and grand-daughter of the noted Scottish novelist Sir Walter Scott. Until her own children were born Mary Monica was the only living descendant of Sir Walter Scott. In 1868, as the heir to her father, she applied for a loan of £2,000 to have the land at Abbotsford House drained; as a minor she received her father's consent for the loan. 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.
Mary Maxwell-Scott had eight children, five of whom survived her. These were:
On her death in 1920 her eldest son, Sir Walter Constable-Maxwell-Scott, inherited Abbotsford House. Her grand-daughters were Patricia Maxwell-Scott and Dame Jean Mary Monica Maxwell-Scott.
The Hon. Mary Monica Maxwell-Scott died at 7 Egerton Terrace in London in 1920 aged 67.

Publications include