She was the daughter of Alexander Laidlaw who was a merchant of Scottish descent and his Irish wife Ann Keddy.

Her father's family knew Sir Walter Scott and she was sent to Edinburgh to study the piano with Robert Müller.

There she met Robert Schumann who created eight pieces for piano named Fantasiestücke, in her honour, the same year of 1837.

It is not clear how close their relationship was, but Laidlaw is presumed to be the reason he started to compose again after a break of four months.

[1] It was Schumann's idea to reverse her first two names so that it was Anna Robena Laidlaw who was appointed court pianist to the queen of Hanover in 1840.