HE IS one of Scotland’s most famous 19th-century novelists who mixed with literary giants such as Byron, Wordsworth and Sir Walter Scott.

However, James Hogg, author of The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, had a shameful secret of his own which was hidden by his family for more than 150 years.

Newly published letters written by the “Ettrick Shepherd” reveal the identity of his illegitimate daughters. Their names have been kept a closely guarded secret by successive generations of Hogg’s family since his death in 1835.

Only now, after the death of an elderly descendant in New Zealand who kept the letters under lock and key, has the family agreed to give a Scottish academic access to the archive.

Gillian Hughes, a research fellow at Stirling University, has studied thousands of letters and church records and discovered that the author fathered two daughters by different women before he married.

His first daughter Kate was born to Katherine Henderson and the second, Elizabeth or “Betsy”, was the child of Margaret Beattie. Both women lived in Dumfriesshire.

Although Hogg admitted being the girls’ father and contributed to their upkeep, he refused to marry either of their mothers.

In one letter to his wife-to-be, Margaret Phillips, Hogg wrote: “It was incumbent on me to tell you every secret relating to every part of my conduct with which the world had aught to do or which might ever reach your ears before proceeding one step farther in our proposed change of life.”

He also wrote of his two “lovely daughters” to his friend and confidant John Aikten, describing his infrequent meetings with the girls, who were both brought up in Dumfriesshire.

Seemingly relaxed about the situation, he continues: “The mothers are both married long ago to men much more respectable in life than ever I was . . . and even with their nearest relations I have never been for a day out of favour.”

However, he also reveals his “red faced shame” when called in front of the parish kirk to admit his relationship with Henderson and later Beattie.

Academics have also traced letters to “Betsy”, instructing her to “always tell the truth” and “attend church often”.

Excerpts of the letters were included in a memoir of the author written by his youngest daughter Mary Garden in the 1890s, but she carefully avoided any passages relating to her illegitimate half-sisters.

Times Recommends

• Postmen: We bind the nation together
• Tewkesbury: when the memories flood back
• Cast Offs actress: I’m happy that my face fits