Annotation:Miss Charter's Minuet of Aimsfield
X:1 T:Miss Charter's Minuet of Aimsfield M:3/4 L:1/8 R:Minuet B: Daniel Dow – Twenty Minuets and Sixteen Reels or Country Dances (c. 1775, p. 11) B: https://digital.nls.uk/special-collections-of-printed-music/archive/106036449 Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:F F2- FC FF/G/|AFAc F2|G2- GcEG|CG/F/ EG C2|CF-FC FF/G/| Ac-cd/e/ fd|(e/f/g) c2=B2|c6:: cf-fc-c f/g/|afcA B2|c a2g2 a/g/| fcAF [C2G2]|CF-FC F2 FG|Ac-cd/e/ fc|{e}(3dcB A2TG2|F6:|]
MISS CHARTER'S MINUET OF AMSFIELD. Scottish, Minuet (3/4 time). F Major. Standfard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The estate of Amsfield (note spelling) dates to the first half of the 18th century when Colonel Wikipedia:Francis_Charteris_(rake)(1675-1732), a Scottish soldier and adventurer, bought lands near Haddington, which he renamed Amsfield to recall his ancestor's family seat in Nithsdale. He was fortunate in his investments, came out on the winning side of the South Seas Bubble, and was a skilled gambler. He also had a reputation for womanizing and preying upon females in the countryside, and was finally convicted of the rape of a servant, Anne Bond, in 1730. He was sentenced to death although was subsequently pardoned and died at home a few years later; he was publicly condemned in writing and art [see Hogarth's "Rakes Progress and a Harlot's Progress" where he is depicted as a fat lecher in the first plate).
Charteris had one daughter, Janet, who inherited and married the Earl of Wemyss; their second son, Francis Wemyss, later assumed the name of Charteris when he inherited.In 1745 Francis married Lady Katherine Gordon, daughter of the 2nd Duke of Gordon, and they had two sons and three daughters. It is likely fiddler-composer biography:Daniel Dow named his minuet for one of the girls, Frances, Helen and Anne. Dow's "Lady Kettie Gordon's Minuet", also in his 1775 collection, may have been composed for someone in Lady Katherine's family (she assumed her married name in 1745, and it seems unlikely that Dow composed the tune for her prior to her marriage).
