Carolina Oliphant, Lady Nairne
Carolina Oliphant, Lady Nairne (1766-1845), was a songwriter who set new words to traditional Scottish melodies. She was born into a strongly Jacobite family; indeed, her parents had returned from exile in France only two years before Carolina’s birth, and she was named in honor of Prince Charles Edward. She was educated to consider the Stuart kings the rightful heirs to the throne, and her song lyrics are deeply informed by the Jacobite movement. She wrote most of her songs before her marriage to her distant cousin, William Murray Nairne, in 1806. Lady Nairne likely felt that writing—and especially publishing—songs was unbefitting her rank and gender, as she published most of them pseudonymously or anonymously. Her best known songs include “Wha'll be King but Charlie?”; “Charlie is my darling”; “The Hundred Pipers”; “He's owre the Hills”; and “Will ye no' come back again?” A collection of her songs was published posthumously under the title Lays from Strathearn.
Bibliography
William Donaldson, The Jacobite Song: Political Myth and National Identity (Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 1988).