The missing miniature: finding Jean Dempster – Newhailes

Miss Christian Dalrymple is a fascinating figure from Scottish history. In the same period that Jane Austen wrote of women being left homeless after the death of a patriarch, Christian inherited Newhailes in her own right. Christian never married in the 46 years that she owned Newhailes, but her surviving diaries detail the emotional support she received from her friends. Likewise, they reveal that the value she placed on friendship was not limited to written sentiment; it can also be understood through objects that remain at Newhailes.

A name that appears frequently in the diaries is Mrs Jean Dempster, who shared a close friendship with Christian since their childhood. After a Hogmanay party at Newhailes in 1798, Jean started showing some worrying health symptoms; four months later she was dead. Her death took Christian by surprise, and to cope with her grief Christian purchased commemorative mourning objects: ordering hair lockets and commissioning a portrait-miniature from Anthony Stewart, a miniaturist in Edinburgh. Christian extensively detailed the commission process: documenting trips to Edinburgh, satisfactions on the posthumous portrait resembling her friend, and her impatience for the miniature to be finished.