Jane Maxwell is indeed a figure that cannot fade from the eighteenth century social history. Her personal magnetism was in tune with the temperament of those destined for the stage. Her personality was the subject of much adverse criticism as it raised many jealousies. No sooner did she appear in any circle of society than she dominated it. Horace Walpole once called her 'The Empress of Fashion'. She held court in London and in Edinburgh, where everybody who was anybody flocked to her salons. Jane was the second daughter of Sir William Maxwell, the third baronet of Monrieth, Wigtonshire. She was born in Edinburgh and was brought up vigorously and in comparative poverty. Luck came to her as a girl of 18 for she won the heart of the greatest nobleman in the land, namely, the fourth Duke of Gordon, who had succeeded his father at the age of 9. The marriage took place in 1767 and from that day to the time of her death some 45 years later, she was a figure to be reckoned with in the world of fashion and the highest social circles in the land.