Vice-regal consort 1821-1825 : Anna Maria, Lady Brisbane (1786-1862)

Lady Brisbane was a shadowy presence in New South Wales. Mostly invisible to the colonists, her preference to live privately had a profound influence on her husband’s government between 1821 and 1825. Born Anna Maria Makdougall on 12 April 1786 at Makerstoun, Roxburghshire, Scotland, she was the third child of Sir Henry Hay Makdougall (1752-1824) and Isabella Douglas (1750-1796) who had married in 1782. Local legend held that the Makdougalls of Makerstoun were cursed and that no son would inherit from his father. 1 The family history recorded the tragic young deaths of successive generations. The only son of Henry and Isabella, George was born in 1787 but died in 1795. Anna Maria’s two older sisters died at Funchal, Madeira, Portugal in 1810, leaving Anna Maria as the eldest and heiress. A younger sister had died in the previous summer. Two other sisters Henrietta (b.1790) and Elizabeth (b.1791) survived to old age, but never married. Their mother Isabella Douglas died in 1796, probably with baby Margaret (b.1796), when Anna Maria was ten. Their father did not remarry