Margaret Home, Countess of Moray

Her siblings were her brother, James Home, 2nd Earl of Home (d. 1633) who married firstly, Catherine Cary (1609–1626) eldest daughter of Viscount Falkland and the playwright Elizabeth Tanfield Cary author of The Tragedy of Mariam,[1] and in 1626 married secondly Grace Fane (d. 1633) daughter of Francis Fane, 1st Earl of Westmorland and Mary Mildmay, and her younger sister, Anne Home, Countess of Lauderdale (d. 1671), who married John Maitland, 1st Duke of Lauderdale.

She and her husband refurbished their house at Donibristle, employing English artisans including the painters, Edward Arthur[4] and George Crawford, and installed a fountain with a bronze figure of Mercury balanced on a tortoise.

[9] In 1652, Margaret Home made over lands in Moray from her dowry or terce to her husband, so that he could sell them to meet their debts.

The Countess lived as a widow till 1683, she maintained Moray House in Edinburgh and its gardens, and planted woods at Donibristle.

After her death, her factor, the lawyer Hugh Paterson, working with one of her grandsons to make inventories, found a fortune in silver plate hidden in a cupboard at the Canongate.