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 Schaw was master of work to James VI and Anna of Denmark, and chamberlain of her Dunfermline estates. He was in charge of royal buildings, signing accounts and receipts, and was probably the designer of the 1594 Chapel Royal at Stirling Castle.1 Schaw was responsible for refurbishments at the Prince's Tower at Stirling around…
Mary Mildmay Fane, Countess of Westmorland, wrote letters to her daughter Grace Fane, Countess of Home, discussing her health and hopes of pregnancy.1 Grace lived in Scotland at Dunglass Castle. As noted in the catalogue of the Moray Papers, the six surviving letters include some court news and a few lines of code or cipher.…
William Bruce was a diplomat in Poland, and wrote letters with news to Robert Cecil.1 King James gave him a yearly allowance of £100 in May 1604.2 Bruce became involved in a plan to send a portrait of a Polish prince (Władysław IV Vasa) to Anna of Denmark in 1608. Bruce's draft letters explain the…
Six letters from Mary Mildmay Fane, Countess of Westmorland, to her daughter Grace, Countess of Home (died 1633), survive in the Moray papers, probably kept as keepsakes by her sister-in-law, Margaret Home, Countess of Moray (died 1683). The Countess of Westmorland wrote to Grace on 9 January 1626/7 describing Christmas at Apethorpe in Northamptonshire. The…
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…
Mary Fane, Countess of Westmorland, wrote to her daughter, Grace, Countess of Home, on 22 April 1631 with news of the death of Lady Jane Savage. She had died following treatment for an infection in her mouth: '... your cosen the Lady Marquis of Winchester is dead, she had the tooth-ach exceedingly, all the while she…
The Countess of Home and her daughter, the Countess of Moray, bought stills and limbecks in London, and a 'warm cupboard' for sweet meats used for setting marmalade in glasses Mary Sutton Dudley, Countess of Home, wrote to her daughter, Margaret, Lady Doune, with advice about the sickness of her child Francis. She mentioned that…
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…
When Mary, Queen of Scots was deposed and a prisoner in Lochleven Castle, her half-brother James Stewart was made Regent of Scotland. As Regent Moray he needed money to rule and to subdue his enemies, the supporters of his sister. He raised funds by coining her silverware, and asking his treasurer Robert Richardson and his…
