her husband, to be having an affair with Captain Everard Fawkener, later a lieutenant, of the 11th dragoons (11th Hussars). Rannie then fled to the home of her brother-in-law, Archibald Cockburn. Her husband filed for divorce and it was granted within five weeks, on 21 November 1778. As per the laws of the age, as the confessed adulterous party, Elizabeth Rannie forfeited the entire property she had brought into the family, and never saw her children again, then aged between 6 and 12 years old. Later life and death Elizabeth and Everard Fawkener were married on 2 December 1778, almost immediately after her divorce from Dundas. Everard Fawkener was the son of Sir Everard Fawkener, an English merchant who was chiefly known for his friendship to Voltaire. Through his father, Everard Fawkener met with Voltaire in 1774. Through his brother, William Augustus Fawkener, Everard held the civil service post of the Commissioner of Stamps from 1783 until his death in 1803. Little is known of the marriage between Fawkener and Rannie, except that in 1784 she calls him a ‘brute’. There was no issue and the marriage presumably ends with his death in 1803. Little is known of the later life of Elizabeth Rannie, except that she never saw her children again and lived a poverty stricken existence. Decades later, her son discovered she was still alive in Cornwall, where she died at the age of 97 in 1847. Legacy Notable descendants of Elizabeth Rannie, in addition to her son, include grandsons Henry Dundas, 3rd Viscount Melville and Richard Saunders Dundas. To this day, the peerage of Viscount Melville is descended from Elizabeth Rannie, and takes its name from the castle that Rannie brought into her marriage with Dundas. Melville castle remained in the Dundas family until the 1980s. In Popular Culture In 2011, BBC Radio Scotland produced a three-part series entitled "Disposable Brides", focussing on bad marriages in Scotland in the 18th century. Narrated by Susan Morrison, episode 2 focussed on Elizabeth Rannie. In 2020, in the wake of the George Floyd protests, the role of Henry Dundas in abolition was brought to light, and through that commentary appeared in the press on his marriage to then child-bride Elizabeth Rannie. References 1750 births 1847 deaths Scottish noblewomen