BAILLIE, Lady Grisell, n. Hume (or Home), born Redbraes Castle, Berwickshire, 25 Dec. 1665, died Mellerstain 6 Dec. 1746. Poet, household manager. Daughter of Grisell Ker, and Sir Patrick Hume, later Earl of Marchmont.

In 1676, Grisell Hume, aged ii, undertook a dangerous mission when her father's friend, Robert Baillie of Jerviswood, was fined and imprisoned in Edinburgh for rescuing his brother-in-law, the Covenanting Rev. James Kirkton, who was in trouble with the authorities. Anxious to get a message to Robert Baillie, Sir Patrick sent his daughter to Edinburgh Tolbooth, where she delivered his letters to the prisoner and met his son, George Baillie (1664-1738). After Robert Baillie was arrested again in 1683 for complicity in the Rye House Plot, Sir Patrick Hume realised that his own life was in danger and hid in the vaults of Polwarth Church, the troopers having taken possession of his castle of Redbraes. Grisell regularly brought him food, visiting him at midnight with the morsels she had concealed in her lap during her own dinner. When Robert Baillie was executed, Grisell Hume and her family, including her father, fled to Holland and settled in Utrecht, where she met George Baillie again.

After the Revolution of 1688, Grisell Hume was offered but declined a position as maid of honour to Queen Mary II. In love with George Baillie, she knew that she would not see him if she were to settle in London. Instead, she returned to Scotland and married him on 17 September 1692. Attractive, charming and an excellent businesswoman as well as a talented poet, Grisell was his wife for 46 years. They had two daughters, ‘Grisie’ (1692-1559) and Rachel, and a short-lived son. Living at Mellerstain after her marriage, she put all her father's affairs in order and looked after her brother's interests when he was abroad. Her husband entrusted her with the entire management of his own finances until his death in 1738. She was buried in 1746 at Mellerstain, where her famous household books have been carefully preserved. Noting in meticulous detail her household expenditure from 1692 to 1733, they provide an invaluable source for the social historian.