Clothes and jewellery in a will of Annabell Murray, Countess of Mar A will of Annabell Murray, Countess of Mar (died 1603), dated 16 November 1602 is held by the National Library of Scotland.[1] Various bequests detail her magnificent jewellery and costume. Annabell was the keeper of Prince Henry at Stirling Castle, and took part…
Rebecca Graham makes a band, 1603
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…
An emerald jewel of Mary, Queen of Scots
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…
Lord Elgin’s advice and instructions for buying a Van Dyck
Thomas Bruce, Earl of Elgin (1599-1663) was keen to acquire a portrait that he had heard was a masterpiece, the sitter being someone he admired. He was anxious this new treasure would not be spoiled in transit. He sent these instructions to his cousin Alexander Bruce at the Hague on 15 September 1659. Bruce had…
Lady Binning’s feather
Katherine Erskine married Thomas Hamilton, later 2nd Earl of Haddington, and was known as Lady Binning. She died in 1635, and her mother Marie Stewart, Countess of Mar, was anxious to recover jewels which her servant Charles Mowatt had pawned. He had also died. Marie Stewart gave her agent John Wallace an inventory of the…
Fabrics from a Dundee merchant, 1573
A Dundee merchant’s letter offering dress fabrics, June 1573 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’, and cloth he expected to arrive at midsummer. One fabric was 'very light for gowning in summer'. This…
Shopping for Mary Queen of Scots in 1548
Among the papers of Mary of Guise there is a record of cloth of gold bought in 1548 for 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 as a diplomat, as a soldier during the…
Second-hand clothes in sixteenth-century Edinburgh
Visual sources for costume and clothing in sixteenth-century Scotland are very rare, but there are archival sources. Personal clothing appears, albeit infrequently, in wills. The wills of Edinburgh merchants and stall holders regularly include their entire stock books of textiles running a gamut from local woollens to figured Italian velvets imported via the markets of…
Furnishing the tower house: nobles, lairds, merchants & craftsmen
This post is about the furnishings of tower houses, and the documentary record. The first thing to note is that Scottish furnishings from the sixteenth- and seventeenth centuries are very rare. This may be contrasted with the apparent survival of quantities of English chunky Jacobethan furniture, and it occurs to me that a rather smaller…
Anna of Denmark: Costume, Colours, and Identities in Scotland
This is a talk I gave at Riddles Court in Edinburgh and Jesus College, Oxford, in 2019 about Anna of Denmark in Scotland, 1589 to 1603 Introduction In Scotland Anna of Denmark had her own household separate from the kings’. These people lived with her and worked with her. An ambassador called it ‘her small…
Objects and the archive 