Grisell Baillie was born in Redbraes Castle, Berwickshire, home of her mother and father – Grisell Ker and Sir Patrick Hume. At the age of 11 she was sent by her father to deliver a message to his friend Robert Baillie who was then imprisoned in Edinburgh. It was when on this mission that Grisell met Baillie’s son George, who she later married. This and other acts of heroism are recorded on her memorial.

The Hume family fled to Holland following the execution of Robert Baillie. After the Revolution of 1688, Grisell was offered and declined a position as maid of honour to Queen Mary II, but chose to move back to Scotland and to marry George Baillie (in 1692). For most of their married life, the couple and their two daughters lived at Mellerstain – a house commissioned by George Baillie in 1725, and located near Kelso in Berwickshire. Grisell Baillie’s meticulous records of household expenditure are preserved here and provide an invaluable source of information for social historians.