Elizabeth, Lady Wardlaw
Illustration — Authorship of the ballad of Sir Patrick Spens has been attributed to Wardlaw Elizabeth, Lady Wardlaw (1677–1727) was a Scottish poet and the reputed author of the ballad Hardyknute.
Also recorded as Lady Elizabeth Wardlow
Elizabeth, Lady Wardlaw
Kim Traynor · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Full name
- Elizabeth Halket.
- Born
- 1677.
- Died
- 1727.
- Nationality
- Kingdom of Great Britain.
- Occupation
- poet and writer.
- Languages
- English.
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Elizabeth, Lady Wardlaw. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q5362226 · wikipedia · Elizabeth, Lady Wardlaw
In this article
Biography
Elizabeth was born on 15 April 1677, the second daughter of Sir Charles Halket, baronet, of Pitfirran, Fife, and his wife Janet, daughter of Sir Patrick Murray. In 1696 she married Sir Henry Wardlaw, 4th Baronet, of Pitreavie and together they had three daughters and a son. The ballad of Hardyknute, published in 1719 as an old poem, was supposed to have been discovered by her in a vault at Dunfermline, but no manuscript was ever produced. In 1724 Allan Ramsay included the poem in The Ever Green, his anthology of Scottish poetry. In the 1767 edition of Percy's Reliques the poem was ascribed to Lady Wardlaw. The ballad of Sir Patrick Spens (F. J. Child, English and Scottish Popular Ballads, ii. 17) has also been asserted to be her work, one of the supporters of the theory being Robert Chambers (Remarks on Scottish Ballads, 1859). Dr. Emily Lyle suggests that Lady Wardlaw was familiar with a pre-existing version of Sir Patrick Spens and drew upon it in composing Hardyknute.
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Elizabeth, Lady Wardlaw, revision 1316852325 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 21 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Books
39,529 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Elizabeth Wilmot, Countess of RochesterAuthor
- Elizabeth WurtzelAuthor
- Elizabeth YoungAuthor
- Elizabeth-Jane BurnettAuthor
- Elizaveta PolonskayaAuthor
- Elkanah SettleAuthor
- Elkas MirzaAuthor
- Ella Cara DeloriaAuthor
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Elizabeth, Lady Wardlaw?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.