Baillie and Poetess

Alexander Skene of Newtyle, author of "Memorials" or "The Government of the Royal Burghs of Scotland" was a prominent Aberdeen baillie. His wife Lilias Gillespie, also a Quaker, was Aberdeen's first poetess. Her hymns and lyrical devotions are full of quiet strength and beauty and no doubt reflect on her own profound spiritual experience.
They were contemporaries of Robert Barclay of Ury by Stonehaven, one of the leading lights of the early Quaker movement and author of the theological work "Barclay's Apology"