Over here in Scotland we have very exact records covering the births, marriages and deaths of the population of this country at that time. If we add in a alledged title (lady) then we would inevitable turn up even more evidence as the upper classes of society were even better recorded than the lower classes. In over thirty year of research on the Maxwell name I have never come across any Lady Audley Maxwell. Further to this Audley is not a Scottish name at all, more akin as it is, to the south of England.
Inevitably when the authors of your referance were writing their piece and possibly working either from memory or as you so rightly say ‘folk-lore’, errors or more likely fabrications slipped in.
Genealogy is in fact based on exact names, precise dates and no suppositions. Finding two people with the same name does not mean they are related.
If more care was taken in writing posting in this forum, I am certain it would prove an exceptionally useful tool to researchers but alas, very few will go that extra inch to make the diffence.
Anthony Maxwell
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