Abbotsford Club Abbotsford Club The Abbotsford Club was a text publication society founded in Edinburgh in 1833 or 1834. This was the year after the death of Sir Walter Scott, whose residence of Abbotsford House gave the society its name, and whose literature the club's publications sought to illuminate. The club was modelled on the Roxburghe Club, of which Scott himself had been a member, as well as the Bannatyne Club, which was founded by Scott, and the Glasgow-centred Maitland Club. The founder and first secretary of the club was William Barclay Turnbull, a young Edinburgh lawyer. The stated objective of the
Abbotsford House were Scott's son-in-law, John Gibson Lockhart, J. R. Hope Scott, QC, and his daughter (Scott's great-granddaughter), the Hon. Mrs Maxwell Scott. The house was opened to the public in 1833, but continued to be occupied by Scott's descendants until 2004. The last of his direct descendants to hold the Lairdship of Abbotsford was his great-great-great-granddaughter Dame Jean Maxwell-Scott (8 June 1923 – 5 May 2004). She inherited it from her elder sister Patricia Maxwell-Scott in 1998. The sisters turned the house into one of Scotland's premier tourist attractions, after they had to rely on paying visitors to afford the upkeep