Wardlaw, Elizabeth (1677–1727)

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Wardlaw, Elizabeth (1677–1727)

Scottish poet. Name variations: Elizabeth Halket. Born April 1677 in Fife; died 1727; dau. of Janet (Murray) Halket and Sir Charles Halket of Pitfarraine; m. Sir Henry Wardlaw of Pitcruivie, June 13, 1696.

Best remembered as the supposed author of the ballad "Hardyknute," which she claimed to have discovered as a fragment in a vault in Dunfermline. It was published as an example of an ancient Scottish epic (1719) and Allan Ramsay published it in The Ever Green (1724). The authenticity of the ballad was called into question (1765), when it appeared in Reliques of Ancient English Poetry by Bishop Thomas Percy; the controversy gave rise to false speculation that Lady Wardlaw might also have reworked the ballad "Sir Patrick Spens."