Scottish beauty, the subject of “Annie Laurie,” an old Scottish song based on a poem by William Douglas (1672?–1748) of Dumfries and Galloway.
Anna/Anne/Annie was the youngest daughter of Robert Laurie, who became first baronet of Maxwellton in 1685. The legend says that her father opposed her planned marriage to William Douglas, a soldier in the Royal Scots who fought in Germany and Spain and rose to the rank of captain. This may have been because Anna was very young; she was only in her mid-teens when her father died. It may also have been because of Douglas’s aggressive temperament or more likely because of his Jacobite allegiances.
Douglas recovered from his romance with Annie and eloped with a Lanarkshire heiress, Elizabeth Clerk of Glenboig. They married in Edinburgh in 1706.
In Edinburgh on 29 August 1709 Anna married Alexander Fergusson, 14th Laird of Craigdarroch. She lived at Craigdarroch for 33 years. Under her directions the present mansion of Craigdarroch was built, and a relic of her taste is still preserved in the formal Georgian gardens at the rear of the house.
Annie Laurie died on Saturday, 5 May 1764 [NS], at Friars’ Carse, Dumfries-shire, Scotland. Portraits of her exist at Maxwelton and at Mansfield, the seat of the Stuart-Monteiths. A line from the song is “And dark blue is her e’e [eyes].” The portraits show that she had blue eyes.
Link to Wikipedia biography