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…
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…
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…
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…
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