Annotation:Mrs. Peterkin of Grange Hall's Reel
X:1 T:Mrs. Peterkin of Grange Hall's Reel C:William Christie (1778-1849) N:Christie was a dancing master, fiddler N:and composer from Cuminestown, Aberdeenshire. M:C| L:1/8 R:Reel B:Christie - Collection of Strathspeys, Reels, Hornpipes, B:Waltzes &c. (Edinburgh, 1820, p. 39) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:F B|{AB}c2 (.A.F) GECB|AcBd c_edB|{AB}c2 (.A.F) GECc|BDGE {E}F2 F:| c|{fg}a2 .c.a {ga}b2 .e.g|(fa)(gb) (ab)(ga)|{fg}a2 .c.a {ga]b2 .e.g|acge f2 Tf>g| {fg}a2 .c.a {ga}b2 .e.g|(fa).g.b (ab).g.a|(fg) (ef) (de) (cd)|BDGE {E}F2F||
MRS. PETERKIN OF GRANGE HALL'S REEL. Scottish, Reel (cut time). F Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. "Mrs. Peterkin of Grange Hall's Reel" was composed by Cuminestown, Aberdeenshire, fiddler-composer, dancing master and postmaster biography:William Christie (1778-1849). Grange Hall, Parish of Kinloss, Moray, northeast Scotland, is a country house and associated grounds, built in 1805 and said to have been originally designed by William Stark of Edinburgh. There is some confusion about whether the estate was originally purchased by John Gordon Peterkin in circa 1800 or by his father, but one of the Peterkins built the mansion house. Unfortunately, the money for the estate probably derived in part from slave-ownership. The estate of Chatham in St. James, Jamaica, was owned by the Peterkin family and was run by the father's brother, Alexander, in 1817. It is not clear how much interest John Gordon Peterkin took in the Jamaican property[1].
John Gordon Peterkin had a sister, Mary Anne, who would have been aged twelve at the time of Christie's publication, so it can hardly be she who is the "Mrs. Grant" of the title. The siblings' parents were James Peterkin of Grange, Moray, and Ann Gordon, and, if the mother resided with her son at Grange Hall, then perhaps it is she who was "Mrs. Peterkin" (there is no record that John was married). Mary Anne (1808-1854) married Major Grant of Invererne and took the name Grant Peterkin; she succeeded her brother when he died in 1832. The estate remains in the Grant Peterkin family.
