HERITAGE


avail. In a letter to her brother, his frustration is palpable, describing the Earl as ‘without fortune, beauty, accomplishments...’ On 6 August 1773, with his legal training


completed, Cyrus returned to his native Virginia, where he established a private legal practice. And as this became successful, the financial worries of the Griffins began to ease. Cyrus later became an appeals court judge, during which time he and Christina were regulars on the Philadelphia and New York social circuits, attending balls and exclusive dinner parties. Alongside his wealth and social standing,


Cyrus Griffin’s political standing also began to flourish. As well as being a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, he was twice a delegate to the Continental Congress – the convention that became the governing body of the US during the American Revolution – first in 1778-1781 and again from 1787 to 1788, when he resigned as its last President after the ratifi- cation of the new US Constitution, prior to the inauguration of George Washington as president of the new United States of America. For a few months then, Christina Stuart


Griffin was effectively America’s First Lady, the only Scot to have held such a position. And yet in spite of all of this, the lack of contact with her family was something that plagued Christina throughout her time in America. We know this thanks to a descendent of


Christina, the present owner of Traquair House, Catherine Maxwell Stuart. She came across a series of letters written by Christina and members of her family, whilst researching for a book she has co-written with archivist Margaret Fox.


94 WWW.SCOTTISHFIELD.CO.UK


A Family Life Revealed was conceived initially as


a history of the house itself. Indeed, dating back to 1107, the former royal hunting lodge, which is Scotland’s oldest continually occupied house, has a long and fascinating history. In the Scottish Wars of Independence it was used as a fortified tower, during which time it was briefly occu- pied by English troops. It was transformed into a family home in the 1500s, and once hosted Mary, Queen of Scots and her baby son, James. However, as the letters, photographs and


other historical documents in the family archive were examined, it became clear that the book was as much a history of the long-forgotten lives of the Stuarts who resided at Traquair between 1491 and 1875 as the house itself. Within this archive are numerous letters sent


by Christina Stuart Griffin from America, none of which were answered. The distress this must have caused her is highlighted in a letter written by Christina’s son, John, to her parents, describ- ing ‘the anxiety my mother must feel from not having heard from you in a long time’. And in a letter from Christina to her cousin,


Lady Winifred Maxwell, alongside her finan- cial struggles she also laments the fact that she had not heard from either of her sisters over the last twenty years, and expressed her sadness at having been forgotten by her family. Indeed, Christina died in October 1807


having neither been back on Scottish soil nor having seen any of her family from Scotland. Her death was followed three years later by Cyrus who, in a letter to her brother in 1788, Christina described as ‘the most affectionate husband and best father in the world’. They are buried next to each other in the churchyard at Bruton Parish


Top left: Traquair House, the family home of the Stuarts. Above: George Washington, the first president of the United States. Right: Cyrus Griffin.


CENTRE - VICTORIAN TRADITIONS/SHUTTERSTOCK


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