History of the Stewarts | Famous Stewarts
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Helen D´Arcy Stewart was born on 13 March 1765, and was the third daughter of the Hon. George Cranstoun, and sister of George Cranstoun, Lord Corehouse, and of Jane Ann, later Countess Purgstall, both intimate friends of Sir Walter Scott. Her mother was Maria, daughter of Thomas Brisbane, of Brisbane in Ayrshire.
The marriage was a perfectly happy one on both sides. She is said to have doted on her reserved philosopher husband. He, who had the highest opinion of his wife´s judgement, submitted all his writings to her.
A sixteen-year-old John Ward, later 1st Earl of Dudley, stayed with the Stewart family for an extended period in 1797-8, and correspondence from Dudley to Helen Stewart is collected in Letters to "Ivy" From The First Earl of Dudley (1905)
Little of Helen Stewart´s work is published. Her poem The tears I shed must ever fall was noted by Robert Burns, who recommended it a "song of genius" and supplied the initial four lines for the final stanza. It, and others, are published in Johnson´s Scots Musical Museum Vol iv, 1792. Her obituary in the Gentleman´s Magazine stated that "She holds a high place amongst the authors of Scottish song"
