James Murray (died 1613) was a younger brother of the laird of Polmaise near Stirling. In 1568 he was a friend of Regent Moray and William Kirkcaldy of Grange, and looked after the keys of the coffer in Edinburgh Castle where the jewels of Mary, Queen of Scots, were kept. He seems to have been…
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…
Margaret Home, Countess of Moray, died in 1683. Her son, Alexander Stuart, Earl of Moray, and Secretary of State for Scotland, was in London. His son, Charles Stuart, was in Edinburgh and Fife in May 1683, settling her affairs with their factor Hugh Paterson of Bannockburn. They made inventories, discovered a cache of silver plate…
Jane Savage Paulet, Marchioness of Winchester, by Gilbert Jackson 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,…
In March 2019 I looked at the history of Dumbarton Castle from 1500 to 1700 for Historic Environment Scotland, highlighting events and people. It was interesting to read of one of the keepers in 1620, Sir John Stewart of Methven who built a castle on his estate Ireland at Mongavlin, while neglecting his duties at…
In July 1676 James, 2nd Marquis of Douglas recorded his use of relatively plain hangings which were now becoming unfashionable, writing to his factor about new hangings for the hall at Douglas Castle. The marquis was ashamed of the old hangings of plain sad coloured (grey or brown) cloth and requested new cloth which would…
An English diplomat Thomas Randolph wrote that the merry men of Edinburgh had a joke, that Inchkeith Island in the Forth, between Edinburgh and Fife, ought to be called the Isle des Femmes, because there were so many women on it. Usually called the Island of Horses, Mary of Guise, queen regent of Scotland preferred…
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