Margaret Purves and George Litilljohn had a booth on Edinburgh’s royal mile, selling hats and textile accessories. They also supplied goods to stallholders known as “cramers” for resale. Much of their stock was imported from Flanders and debts for merchandise in Flemish money are listed in Margaret’s 1606 will. The business model seems very similar…
Fabrics from a Dundee merchant, 1573
A Dundee merchant’s letter offering dress fabrics, June 1573, survives in the Morton papers held by the National Library of Scotland. Peter Clayhills wrote to Agnes Leslie, Lady Lochleven, sending her order of fabrics. He offered her summer dress fabrics, and velvet from the stock that had ‘come home’ from abroad, and cloth he expected…
Shopping for Mary Queen of Scots in 1548
Among the papers of Mary of Guise held in the National Library of Scotland there is a record of cloth of gold bought in 1548 to make three gowns for Mary Queen of Scots (1542-1587). Her agent Henri Cleutin, sieur d’Oysel, was instructed to buy the fabric from merchants who supplied the French court. Cleutin, known…
Objects and the Archive 