Ann Arbuthnot

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(b. 1703, Aberdeenshire, Scotland – d. May 19, 1795, Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, Scotland )

Gender: F

Anne Arbuthnot (née Hepburn) daughter of Revd Alexander Hepburn, Episcopal minister, ‘imbibed a partiality for the sceptical philosophy’ but ‘cured’ herself by reading Butler. In 1737 she married Capt. Andrew Arbuthnot, second cousin of Dr John Arbuthnot. Her husband died in 1746 and, as his vessel and cargo was also lost, his widow had less than £10 p.a. to live on. In 1784 Mrs Montagu settled on this lady, the widow of Captain Andrew Arbuthnot, ‘an annuity {of £100} which raised this poor, but grateful woman, from her contented poverty, to a state of comparative affluence. Mrs. Arbuthnot died 19th May, 1795, at the very advanced age of eighty-six’, William Forbes, An Account of the Life and Writings of James Beattie: Including Many of His Original Letters, 2 vols. (Edinburgh and London: Constable, Creech, Longman, Hurst, Rees & Orme, T. Cadell, W. Davies and John Murray, 1806), 2:155-57.

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Mentioned in 33 letters

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Please note that all dates and location information are provisional, initially taken from the library and archive catalogues. As our section editors continue to work through the material we will update our database and the changes will be reflected across the edition.

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