'My Lady is Building you a House': The Role of Women as Architectural Patrons and Designers in Scotland, c. 1660 to 1720

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My thesis will explore the roles of elite Scottish women as architectural patrons and designers during the period c. 1660 to 1720, after the Restoration of the Stuart monarchy until the early decades of the Union with England. It will argue that elite women were active and opinionated patrons and were widely involved with the design, commissioning and construction of buildings, including country houses, urban properties and churches, sometimes on behalf of an absentee male relative or spouse but often as the head of their family suo jure. I will explore the broad cultural movement of architectural patronage among elite Scottish women and examine how this patronage provided opportunities for women to express their authority and agency within the confines of 17th-century Scottish society. I will assert that the social, economic and political instability of post-Restoration Scotland created opportunities for elite women to engage with architectural design and patronage to a far greater extent than previously acknowledged. I will establish the profound influence of elite female patrons in post-Restoration Scotland by scrutinising the types of building women commissioned, the ways women shaped commissions and construction, their motivations for building, and the impact of class, titles, age, and marital status on the roles they assumed as patrons and designers. My research will unite disparate strands of study on women's architectural patronage and explore how the patronage of individuals like the Duchesses of Buccleuch (1651-1732), Hamilton (1631-1716) and Lauderdale (1626-98) and Ladies Bruce (d.1699), Nairne (1669-1747) and Panmure (1668-1731) align with and diverge from wider trends of elite female patronage in Scotland, England and continental Europe in this period. I will identify broader trends in Scottish women's architectural patronage in this period and explore the importance of social and familial networks for the dissemination of knowledge and establishment of taste. By examining the input and achievement of these women together we will begin to see trends that will improve our understanding both of the design and commission of buildings in 17th-century Scotland and more broadly in the practical and aesthetic education and interests of elite women in this period. I will view my main cases studies through a comparative lens, taking into account what we know about elite female architectural patronage in England and other European countries, such as France, Italy and the Netherlands. This research also creates opportunities for further exploration of non-elite women's roles in architectural commissions and associated trades.