The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1888-03-10 00:00:00

A SCOTCH ADVENTURESS.

It is a wonderful story, writes an Edinburgh cor-
respondent concerning the adventure of a Mrs.
Gordon 13ai11ie, whose cas.cer Edinburgh detectives
have been investigatin'k The woman must be
amazingly clever, self-possessed, and fertile in re-
source. She came to Edinburgh on 14 February to
plead the cause of the crofters, and especially of
the two Clashmore women who were sentenced to
nine months' imprisonment. She had also to pro-
pound her great scheme for the solution of the crofter
difficulty by the emigration of the surplus population to
lands in Australia of which she is the proprietress. Her
advent was heralded by the publication of an interview
with, and portrait of the heroine in the Pall Mall
Gazette. On her arrival. in Edinburgh she put her-
self in communication with well-known sympathisers
with the crofters. One of these was Professor
Mackie, who was captivated with her manners, her
good sense, and her earnestness. She dined at the
professor's house one evening, and there presented
him with a handsome bouquet, value one sovereign—
not yet paid. She also visited Lady Elizabeth Moore,
Mrs. Duncan ISPLaren, Mr. Murdoch McLeod, and
others. She visited the prison and had an interview
with the female prisoners. She told her friends here
that she was really, in her own right, Countess
of Moray, only some little irregularity in the
marriage of one of her ancestors kept her out of her
title ; but she owned estates in the north
and Skye, and she had recently become possessed of
75,000 acres in Australia which she wished to utilise
for the benefit of the crofters. She hired a handsome
equipage for her use while in Edinburgh, the cost of
which, it seems, has not yet been met. She ordered
a handsome brooch to be manufactured for her by
one of the leading jewellers. It was to embody the
crest of the 6' Gordon Baillie" family, and the
Bruce motto " Fitimus." The brooch is still in the
hands of the makers. "Mrs. Gordon Baillie " left
Edinburgh rather suddenly on the evening of Sunday,
the 19th of February, in a third-class carriage, ex-
plaining however, that she would change to another,
at Carstairs. The Edinburgh police declare that they
have traced the history of this adventuress back
or many years. Before 1869, they s ay, she was an
evening teacher in the,Model Lodging House at Dundee,
where she was known as Mary Ann Bruce Sutherland.
She then resided with her mother, who was a washer-
woman. In 1869 she left Dundee, and travelled in
France and Italy. In 1872, having returned to
Dundee, she was tried before a jury in the Sheriff's
Court on numerous charges of fraud, and being found
guilty was sentenced to nine months' imprisonment—
the same term as the Clashmore women with whom
"Mrs. Gordon Baillie" sympathises. Soon after her
discharge she changed her name to Annie Ogilvie
Bruce. In the Theatre for August, 1878, there is
some account of her doings during a three
months' visit to . London. In the Times of 31
Jan., 1877, Miss Bruce is mentioned in con-
nection with a case at the Mansion House, against
one Kate Miller. In the Times of 21 Feb., 1887, the
case is continued. It is there disclosed that Miss
Bruce represents herself as a daughter of the Earl of
Moray. When she was about to be married it was
proved that she had been married in November, 1876,
to Thomas White, who appeared on the stage under
the name of Knight-Ashton. The adventuress is
next noticed in the monthly report Of the London As-
sociation for the Protection of Trade for January,
1884, where special attention is drawn to her doings
and her autograph is exhibited. It must have been
after that that she assumed the name of "Gordon
Baillie," for in November, 1884, the enthusiasm of the
Crofters in Skye was roused to a high pitch by the
presentation to John Macpherson, the "Glendale
Martyr," of "Mrs. G ordon B aillie's gr,andf aces sword,"
accompanied with a letter from that lady, in which she
said that it was a "small mark of a lady sympathiser's
interest in your gallant struggle against the oppressors of
the people." She added, "1 send you this sword for
defence, not defiance, in defence of home and family."
Professor Blackie's verdict to-day is, "I verily
believe she would have deceived the devil himself."
There seems to be no doubt that she recently visited
Australia. Dr. Cameron Lees heard a good deal about
her when there last autumn, and met many persons
who had made her acquaintance, some of whom won-
dered that he did not know so high-minded a woman.
She succeeded in convincing Bishop Sandford, of Tas-
mania, that she was the daughter of an old friend of
his, and that he had known her as a girl in Edinburgh.
When Dr. Cameron Lees expressed his doubts about
her the Bishop promptly shut him up with these
confessions. The interesting question is—where is she
now?