As I said in an earlier post, I’ve been enjoying reading several books of historical fiction by Ann Rinaldi. I wonder if Ms. Rinaldi or another writer of historical fiction has ever heard of Lady Grizel Baillie.

Born at Redbraes Castle in Merse, Scotland on Christmas Day of 1665, she was the eldest of Lady Grisel and Sir Patrick Hume’s eighteen children. As her mother’s health was frail, the care of her brothers and sisters fell on young Grisell’s shoulders and throughout her life she exhibited a strong sense of duty and responsibility. At the age of twelve, she was dispatched by her father to take a letter to the imprisoned Robert Baillie of Jerviswood and was expected to collect intelligence while inside the prison.

That’s only the beginning of her story. According to the biographical article I read here, Grizell’s father later had to go into hiding in his own familly’s burial vault because he was suspected of being part of a plot to assassinate Charles II and his brother James. Grizell “would slip items from off the dinner table and carry them, under the cover of night, to her father’s hiding place.” The situation in Scotland became so difficult that the entire family (including all eighteen children) fled to Holland and lived there for three years. There Grizell renewed an acquaintance with the son of the prisoner to whom she had delivered the letter at age twelve, and she managed to get her parents, in spite of their initial reluctance, to consent to her marriage to George Baillie. She was also busy during this time composing a books of songs. And there’s more . . .
Spies, political intrigue, love thwarted and then triumphant–wouldn’t Lady Baillie’s life make a fantastic novel?