Lindsay was born in
Edinburgh in 1845, the eldest daughter of Eliza Esther (née Murray) and
Alexander Colquhoun-Stirling-Murray-Dunlop, an MP and lawyer. She was educated at home, and went on to be one of the first students at the
University Classes for Women in Edinburgh where she impressed her professors. Lindsay was one of its founders. In 1889, she used her membership of the Liberal Party to form a local women's association that was known as the ''Glasgow and West of Scotland Women's Liberal Association''. She was the vice-chair of the Association, and when, in 1891, it merged with other organisations to create the
Scottish Women's Liberal Federation (SWLF) she became its chair. It was only her health that prevented her from continuing in that role after 1899. == Personal life ==