Annotation:Lady Betty Boyle
X:1 T:Lady Betty Boyle's Reel M:C| L:1/8 R:Reel S:Gow - 3rd Repository (1806) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:Bb d|B2 (D/E/F) (E/F/G) (F/G/A)|(B/c/d/e/) fB A(cc>)d|BfAf GBFB|EGFA BB,B,:| f|(d/c/B) df gBfB|ecdB Accf|(d/c/B) Af eGFd|GcFA BB,B,f| (d/c/B) df gBfB|(e/d/c) (d/c/B) A(cc>)d|ecGE dBFD|EGFA BB,B,||
LADY BETTY BOYLE. AKA - "Lady Betty Doyle." AKA and see "Betty Boyle," Lady Madelina Sinclair's Reel (2)." Scottish, Reel. B Flat Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. Composed by Edinburgh fiddler-composer and bandleader Robert "Red Rob" Mackintosh (c. 1745-1808). John Glen (1891) finds the earliest appearance of the tune in print in biography:Neil Stewart's 1761 collection (p. 63), and Robert Mackintosh's 1783 collection (p. 32). John Glen (1895, "Biographical Sketches", xii) remarks "It cannot be supposed that biography:Nathaniel Gow lived on the best of terms with his brother musicians...The only instance in which any compositions by Robert Mackintosh appeared in the Gow publications are "Lady Hamilton Dalrymple" in the Fourth Collection (1800), p. 23; "Lady Wallace" and "Lady Charlotte Campbell's Reel (2) (medley) Reel and Strathspey" in the Second Repository (1802), pp. 14 & 31; and "Lady Betty Boyle" in the Third Repository (1806), p. 32, and in all cases excepting the last Mackintosh's name is suppressed."
Mackintosh later re-titled the reel as "Lady Madelina Sinclair's Reel (2)" in his Fourth Collection of New Strathspey Reels (c. 1804).
Lady Elizabeth "Betty" Boyle was the eldest daughter of John, the 3rd Earl of Glasgow, who married in 1786 Sir George Douglas, bart., Member of Parliament for Roxburghshire, a year after he acceded to his title. They had one son and one daughter. She died in 1801.
