Tragic tale of Bessie and Mary Pair died of the plague in the 1640s

Burghmuir Road in Perth and onto the Old Gallows Road, must have been quite a sight.

An excellent account of this battle can be found on the madeinperth.org website. Search for Tippermuir. Cromwell’s army occupied Perth from 1651 to 1658.

Perth city in those days was very often unsanitary, the Town Lade was not only used as the city defence, but as a sewer and a source of drinking water.

The plaque in 1645 reduced Perth’s population by onesixth.

On July 24, 1645 the Scottish Parliament moved to Perth after the plague had reached Stirling, eleven days later the first Perth victims were reported.

People in Perth refused to bury the dead and corpses were left to rot in the streets.

During one epidemic in Scotland, a third of the population are thought to have died. In England during an epidemic, nine-tenths of the population were thought to have perished. The plague was described in those days as the ‘Terror of Scotland.’

The Great Plague of London started in 1665 but it did not spread to Scotland as the Scottish Government on the orders of the Privy Council closed the border and various seaports.

All trade was halted with infected countries such as England and the Netherlands, a 40-day quarantine was additionally imposed on goods imported from these places.

This 17th century version of a national lockdown worked, no cases of Bubonic Plague were recorded in Scotland at this time.

The actual grave of Bessie and Mary is at the foot of Dronach (or Dranoch or Stronach) Haugh.

Dronach can mean brambles and in some texts, it is said to mean sorrowful.

Major Augustine Barry of Lednock wrote a letter on June 21, 1781 regarding the two girls. It was published in the “Transactions of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland,” Vol. II, 1822. It gives an account of how he was shown the grave, removed the briars, thorns and fern, enclosed it with a wall, planted flowering shrubs and fixed a stone on the wall inscribed with their names.

This was the first ever written account of the story; the tale having only survived being passed down orally and made into nursery rhymes.

Bessie Bell in all probability was the daughter of the Lord of Kinvaid, Patrick Gray.

Kinvaid Castle was to the Moneydie.

A local ballad tells the tale: “Bessie Bell and Mary Gray, They were twa bonnie lasses, They biggit a bower on yon burn brae,

And theekit it ower wi’rashes.”

“They wadna lie in Methven kirkyard, Amang their gentle kin;

But they wad lie in Dronoch Haugh, To beek fornent the sin.”

Later, this excerpt from the version in “Mother Goose’s Melodies for the Nursery,”of 1878 byWilliam AdolphusWheeler came out: “Bessy Bell and Mary Gray, They were two bonny lasses; They built their house upon the lea, And covered it with rashes. “Bessy kept the garden gate, And Mary kept the pantry; Bessy always had to wait,

While Mary lived in plenty.”

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Mary Gray was the daughter of the Lord of Lednock or Lednoch, which later became Lynedoch.

Later in time, Mr Thomas Graham of Balgowan “the Gallant Graham, Hero of Barrosa” (1811 Peninsular War, Siege of Cádiz) discovered the grave had fallen into a dilapidated state.

He had the remains of the wall removed and a parapet with five foot high iron railings erected.

He covered the graves with a stone slab on which had the words inscribed “They lived, they loved, they died.”

The railing still stands but the stone slab is no longer visible, at one time being covered with stones brought by many incurable romantics who have made pilgrimages to this shrine, nowadays by earth and leaves.

The 1748 - 1843, Lord Lynedoch (Thomas Graham or Graeme) fought as a general with Wellington in Spain and Portugal, he rests in his mausoleum along with his wife and mother which is in Methven and Logiealmond (Collegiate) churchyard.

The Lynedoch Monument is on the North Inch and the Lynedoch Obelisk is near Scone, at the top of the hill, south west of the Murrayshall House Hotel.

Many hills throughout the world are named after Bessie (Bessy) Bell and Mary Gray.

Bessy Bell hill also known as Sliabh Troim (The Mountain of the Elders), is a Sperrin mountain summit in the county of Fermanagh and Omagh.

Twin sentinel hills in Staunton, Virginia, USA are named after them and two hills in the Auckland volcanic field of New Zealand were also once named after them.

Otara Hill and Green Hill in New Zealand were referred to by 19th century settlers as Bessie Bell and Mary Gray.

The love story of Bessie and Mary became even more famous when it was written as children’s nursery rhymes.

It was also translated into English and credited as being about the daughters of the English kings Henry VIII (Elizabeth (Bessy) and Mary).

I would recommend the folk song version of the Bessie Bell and Mary Gray sung by Cherish the Ladies.

Many other folk artists have recorded this song, for example Steeleye Span, Ewan McColl and Maddy Prior.

Scotland’s National Bard, Rabbie Burns was invited to visit the graves during his 3rd Northern Tour in 1787. He did not, but he did meet with the Graham’s at Blair one day. Had Rabbie Burns visited the graves, one might wonder what genius inspired song or poem might have been written about these two bonnie Perthshire lassies.

Rabbie did visit Ochtertyre in 1787 on his third northern tour, but I can see no record of a visit to the graves.

So it appears he did not stop and deal with the story.