Anna Gordon

Anna Gordon (24 August 1747 – 14 July 1810), also known as Mrs Brown or Mrs Brown of Falkland, was one of the most important British ballad sources.

Life

The facts of Anna Gordon's life have been set out in a 2025 biography by Ruth Perry, titled The Ballad World of Anna Gordon, Mrs. Brown of Falkland. She was born in Old Aberdeen, youngest daughter to Lilias Forbes of Disblair and her husband Thomas Gordon (1714–1797), who was the professor of Humanity at King's College, Aberdeen. Educated to a high level by her father, she was a cultivated and well-read woman. On 13 December 1788 she married the Revd. Dr Andrew Brown (c. 1744–1805), who, following work as a chaplain in the army, became minister of Falkland, Fife (1784–1802), and then Tranent. Thus Anna Gordon is widely known among scholars as Mrs. Brown of Falkland.

However, Anna Gordon is famed as a foundational source of Scottish ballads. Thirty-five of her ballads, now considered to form the core of the Scottish ballad canon, were committed to paper sometime between 1782 and 1801; some were published by Sir Walter Scott in Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (1802-3) and Robert Jamieson in Popular Ballads and Songs (1806). Anna Gordon supplied many of the ‘A’ texts in Francis James Child'' .