Mrs. Macfarlane

Life

Mrs MacFarlane, born near the end of the 1600s to Colonel Charles Straiton, married John MacFarlane, a man much older than herself, at age nineteen. She entered the historical record after the death of John Cayley on 2 October 1716. Cayley was wounded and then killed by two shots from his own pistols, which had been lent to John MacFarlane. The motive was said to be self-defence: MacFarlane feared she would be sexually assaulted.

She gave this account to her servant, Barbara Martine, upon returning home. When her husband came back, she told him she had been tricked into going to Cayley’s lodgings three days earlier and attacked there. John MacFarlane found the body and advised his wife to flee rather than stand trial. Other accounts note that MacFarlane had changed her underwear before Cayley arrived.

Cayley, a customs commissioner, was known to the family. Following her husband’s advice, she was outlawed. Verses were composed supporting her claim of self-defence.

Some sources say she later lived in Edinburgh, hidden in a secret room by the Swinton family. Sir Walter Scott reported that his aunt, Margaret Swinton, told him she had met Mrs MacFarlane in her parlour, where she then vanished into a concealed apartment. The Swintons swore Scott’s aunt to secrecy, saying MacFarlane’s life depended on it. Her husband remarried in 1719, which is taken to mean she had died by then.