An array of household lists were made after the death of Anna of Denmark, for accounting wages and payments. One of them (TNA SP 14/107 f.124) allots extra reward payments and gives lengths of service. It mentions Edward Ashburner, yeoman of the leash (15 years service), Richard Polhill (15 years), yeoman of bows and lymehounds,…
When James VI travelled to Denmark to meet his bride Anna of Denmark, he sent the royal master of work William Schaw to Edinburgh in March 1590 to make preparations for his return. Accounts of payments made from the queen's dowry record that Schaw returned with a Danish or German turner or wright. One entry…
Catherine Tollemache was a daughter of Lionel Tollemache and Elizabeth Murray (later Duchess of Lauderdale). In 1677, she came to Edinburgh with her mother and the Duke of Lauderdale and stayed at Moray House in the Canongate. The Duke was the uncle of James Stuart, Lord Doune, and Catherine married him in December 1677. After…
William Fowler (died January 1572), an Edinburgh merchant, served as a treasurer of the French revenues of Mary, Queen of Scots.1 He was also a textile merchant, and his registered will lists his merchant stock of fabrics and ready made items such as hats, bonnets, belts, and "counterfeit pearls for masking".2 I've transcribed much of…
Lady Mary or Marie was a daughter of Anne Gordon, Countess of Moray. A record of her mother's income and expenditure survives in a series of accounts covering a part of the 1620s and 1630s. The accounts have a lot to say about Lady Mary, her parrot, wool bought for a frame used for a…
Payments for food for the household of Catherine de' Medici were recorded daily, on long narrow strips of parchment. Usually the strips were signed by her Italian master of household J-B Seghiro or Seghizo (or Seghiso). Originally from Modena, he died in 1571 aged 84 and was buried in Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois, Paris.1 Joa Bapta Seghizo,…
Mary Mildmay Fane, Countess of Westmorland, wrote to her daughter Grace Fane, Countess of Home, at Dunglass Castle in Scotland, with court news, medical advice, and occasional cheerful recollections.1 In January 1627, she mentions the Queen's masque, "put off till Candlemasday, Mrs Care is in it whoe ioyes not much (by her countenance & dressing…
One Latin household books survives from the reign of James IV, (National Records of Scotland, E32/1). It covers dates from 1511 to 1512, giving daily expenses of food for the households of James IV and that of Margaret Tudor. The accountant was the Bishop of Caithness. Like the later Scottish household books, it includes entries…
Hugh Paterson was a lawyer, joint deputy-keeper of the signet, and builder of Bannockburn House. He was made a baronet in 1686, apparently by the influence of Alexander Stuart, 5th Earl of Moray. Paterson had worked for the earl’s mother Margaret Home, Countess of Moray. She bequeathed him a small necklace of pearls, bracelets, and…
Rebecca Graham worked making textiles in Edinburgh, weaving fringes and passementerie. She made a band or sash for Elizabeth Stewart in 1603, the younger sister of Margaret Stewart, Countess of Nottingham. Graham's business can be compared with the London silkwomen, who worked in a legal framework giving them some exemption from customs of coverture that…
