Tower. She had been admitted to his room, and by exchanging clothes with his wife's maid, he escaped the attention of his guards. He fled to France, while the countess returned to Scotland to ensure the transfer of the estate to their son. She joined him in Paris and they went to Rome, where they lived, attached to the court of James Stuart, the Pretender, until his death. In Literature The story of the Earl of Nithsdale's escape from the Tower of London inspired James Hogg's Ballad of the Lord Maxwell first published in the Royal Lady's Magazine in October 1831. References |- 1676 births 1744 deaths William 5th Earl of Nithsdale Escapees from England and Wales detention Lords Herries of Terregles People of the Jacobite rising of 1715 Prisoners in the Tower of London Scottish escapees Scottish Jacobites Scottish Roman Catholics