Carolina Oliphant (1766-1845)

Scottish song writer, was born in the auld hoose of Gask, Perthshire, on the 16th of August 1766. She was descended from an old family which had settled in Pertbshire in the 13th century, and could boast of kinship with the royal race of Scotland. Her father, Laurence Oliphant, was one of the foremost supporters of the Jacobite cause, and she was named Carolina in memory of Prince Charles Edward. In the schoolroom she was known as pretty Miss Car, and afterwards her striking beauty and pleasing manners earned for her the name of the Flower of Strathearn. In 1806 she married W. M. Nairne, who became Baron Nairne in 1824.

Following the example set by Burns in the Scots Musical Museum, she undertook to bring out a collection of national airs set to appropriate words. To the collection she contributed a large number of original songs, adopting the signature B. B. Mrs Bogan of Bogan. The music was edited by R. A. Smith, and the collection was published at Edinburgh under the name of the Scottish Minstrel (1821-1824). After her husbands death in 1830 Lady Nairne took up her residence at Enniskerry, Co. Wicklow, but she spent much time abroad. She died at Gask on the 26th of October 1845.

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