Elizabeth Maitland, Duchess of Lauderdale

Murray was the eldest of the four daughters of William Murray, 1st Earl of Dysart, a close friend and Gentleman of the Bedchamber of Charles I; and his wife Catherine Bruce.[2] Her birth was recorded in the baptismal register at St. Martin-in-the-Fields.[3] Her father ensured that she received a full education, which was unusual for women of the period,[4][5] while her mother ensured she was prepared to run a household efficiently.[1]

During the English Civil War, Elizabeth's father was often away from the family in service to the king.[6] Her mother took the opportunity to travel along the Thames to the court at Oxford, including the winter of 1643-44.[7] She developed a reputation for charisma and beauty, being described by Thomas Knyvett as "...a pretty witty Lass."[8]

Because of the English Civil War her father was delayed in finding her a husband but in 1648 she married Sir Lionel Tollemache. The couple had eleven children, five of whom lived to adulthood, including Lionel Tollemache, 3rd Earl of Dysart and Thomas Tollemache; their eldest daughter, Elizabeth Tollemache, married Archibald Campbell, 1st Duke of Argyll.[9]

Elizabeth did not want a quiet domestic life and based herself at her family home, Ham House near Richmond by the Thames, today in London, then in Surrey, which she spent much time and money redeveloping.[10] She was acquainted with the Parliamentarian Oliver Cromwell during this period and the friendship provided a cover for her own Royalist tendencies. In 1653 she joined the secret Royalist organisation, the Sealed Knot.[4] She was in correspondence with exiled supporters of Charles II and even visited Europe to see the king himself.

Upon her father's death in 1655 she inherited his titles, becoming suo jure Countess of Dysart and Lady Huntingtower. In September 1658 one of her neighbours, Judith Isham, joked about her new title, writing that people "call her my Lady Dessert, she is soe takeing, expressing extraordinary sivility to every person.[11]

In 1660, when Charles II resumed the throne, he rewarded Elizabeth with an annual pension of £800 (equivalent to £100,000 in 2020).[4] Her enemies accused her of witchcraft because of her political influence.[12]

The Duke and Duchess of Lauderdale

In 1669 her husband Lionel died in France. It is suspected that very soon after this she became the mistress of John Maitland, 1st Duke of Lauderdale,[4] the Scottish noble and politician, whom she eventually married in 1672, after the death of his first wife, Lady Anne Home. He was a member of the notorious Cabal Ministry of Charles II and amongst his titles was that of Baron Petersham. The pair were known for their influence, wealth, and extravagance.[5]

In January 1671 she wrote to her cousin the Scottish architect William Bruce seeking advice for a new gateway to the forecourt of Ham House. Bruce offered to send her a sketch for the piers that would be an improvement on a design supplied by her mason, John Lampen, with Scottish stone supplied by Robert Mylne. After some delay, the iron gates were made in England by Edward Harris and painted blue with smalt. She quarrelled with Bruce over further works, and in 1674 wrote to a mutual cousin the Earl of Kincardine, "the insolence of that creature is insufferable."[13]

After John Maitland's death in 1682 Elizabeth entered into a legal dispute with her brother-in-law, Lord Tweeddale, over her late husband's debts and funeral expenses.[4]

The Duchess of Lauderdale died, at the age of 72, on 5 June 1698 at Ham House.[14] She is buried with other members of the Dysart family in a vault under the chancel of Petersham Parish Church.[15]

Elizabeth Murray was first described in popular literature in the 1975 book by Doreen Cripps, Elizabeth of the Sealed Knot.[16] She is also the subject of the novel Royalist Rebel, by Anita Seymour published by Claymore Books in 2013.[17]

• Akkerman, Nadine (2018). Invisible Agents: Women and Espionage in Seventeenth-Century Britain. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-198-82301-8. OCLC 1048595615.
• Cripps, Doreen (1975). Elizabeth of the Sealed Knot: a Biography of Elizabeth Murray, Countess of Dysart. Kineton, Warwickshire: Roundwood Press. ISBN 978-0-900-09343-2. OCLC 1937689.
• Pritchard, Evelyn (2007). Ham House and its Owners through Five Centuries 1610–2006. London: Richmond Local History Society. ISBN 978-1-955-07172-7. OCLC 1118277705.
• Rowell, Christopher, ed. (2013). Ham House: 400 Years of Collecting and Patronage. Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. New Haven, CT / London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-18540-9. OCLC 930829576.
• Schofield, Bertram (1949). The Knyvett Letters, 1620-1644. Norfolk Record Society.
• Seymour, Anita (2013). Royalist Rebel. Claymore. ISBN 9781781590683.