WALDIE, originally Waitho or Watho, and afterwards Waltho or Waldie, the surname of a Roxburghshire family, the first of which that can be traced in any record, Thomas Waitho, was public and papal notary to the abbacy of Kelso. John Waltho, proprietor, by succession, of a considerable portion of the Marklands of Kelso, had a son, George, living in 1652, who was the first to spell his name Waldie. He got a charter of his lands from the Earl of Roxburgh in 1664.

His descendant, another George Waldie, died in 1745. This gentleman had a son, John Waldie, Esq., of Berryhill and Hayhope, who married Jean, eldest daughter and heiress of Charles Ormston, Esq., of Hendersyde, an old Kelso family. That estate had been purchased in 1715 from Edmonstone of Ednam, and by this marriage it came to the family of Waldie. He had 2 sons, George and Robert.

George Waldie of Hendersyde Park, the elder son, married in 1779, Ann, eldest daughter of Jonathan Ormston, Esq., of Newcastle-on-Tyne, and died in 1826. He had one son, John Waldie, D.L., born in 1781, who succeeded him, and 3 daughters. 1. Marie Jane, married Richard Griffith, Esq., Dublin, with issue. 2. Charlotte married in 1822, Stephen Eaton, Esq., of Stamford, issue, 2 sons and 2 daughters. 3. Jane, married in 1820, George Edward Watts, afterwards Admiral Watts; issue, a son, William Charles, who died in 1861.

Robert, the second son of John Waldie, Esq., was a school-fellow at Kelso, of Sir Walter Scott, in the first volume of whose Life by Lockhart, mention is made of him and of his mother, a Quaker lady. The kind attentions he received from the Waldie family, says his biographer, “have left strong traces on every page of his works in which he has occasion to introduce the Society of Friends.” Mr. Lockhart adds, “I remember the pleasure with which he read, late in life, ‘Rome in the Nineteenth Century,’ an ingenious work, produced by one of Mr. Waldie’s grand-daughters, and how comically he depicted the alarm with which his ancient friend would have perused some of its delineations of the high places of Popery.”

The grand-daughter, here referred to, was Mrs. Eaton, 2d daughter of George Waldie, Esq. of Hendersyde Park. Besides ‘Rome in the Nineteenth Century,’ published in 1820; she was authoress of ‘At Home and Abroad;’ ‘Three days in Belgium;’ ‘Days of Battle,’ &c. Born in 1788, she died in 1859 Her youngest sister, Mrs. Watts, (born in 1790, died in July 1826), was early distinguished for her taste in literature and art. She executed between 40 and 50 pictures in oil colours, besides numerous pieces in water colour and pencil. Many of her paintings were exhibited at the Royal Academy and British Gallery, and were justly admired. She was at Brussels during the battle of Waterloo, and visited the field while as yet the bodies of the dead were scarcely interred. Her sister, Mrs. Eaton, was with her, both sisters being then unmarried. Mrs. Watts took a panoramic sketch of the field, a copy of which she carried with her to London, and published it, with a description by herself. This little work, entitled, ‘Waterloo, by a near Observer,’ went through ten editions in the course of a few months. In 1820 appeared her ‘Sketches in Italy,’ and met with great success.