ABSTRACT
The Union of 1707 poses a problem for Scottish women’s history. As a primary conduit for the expression of landed women’s political influence in the postRestoration period, the loss of the Scottish Parliament can be read as a signal of declining power for elite women in Scotland. Following Union, Scottish parliamentary representation was minimal; in the new British Parliament, 45 Members of Parliament were returned for Scotland and there were 16 Scottish peers. This was a significant reduction to the Scottish political class; the previous Scottish Parliament theoretically comprised 302 members.1 In addition the parliament was now situated in the geographically distant location of London. Scottish women were not absent from London political and intellectual life, but, without a parliament, Scotland itself lost a locus of landed political influence.2
