Maria Riddell

Maria Banks Riddell (née Woodley; 1772–1808) was a West Indies-born poet, anthologist, naturalist, editor and travel writer, who was resident in Scotland and Wales. Robert Burns paid tribute to her as "a votary of the Muses". Riddel was born Maria Woodley, daughter of a Governor of the Leeward Islands. In 1791, she married her first husband Walter Riddell. The couple settled in an estate in Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland. Her husband was the brother to a patron of Robert Burns. Burns became a close friend of Maria, and wrote love songs for her. From 1794 to 1795, she and Burns quarrelled over his behavior towards her when drunk. Following the death of her first husband, Riddell married the Welsh landowner Phillips Lloyd Fletcher. She was buried in a family vault located in Chester. Life Maria Woodley was the daughter of William Woodley, Governor of the Leeward Islands for the terms 1768–1771 and 1791–1793). She accompanied him on a visit to the islands in 1788 and wrote an account of it. The book also included a natural history of the Leeward Islands written by her.