Anne Livingstone, Countess of Eglinton

Livingstone went to England in the household of Princess Elizabeth in 1603. She, or perhaps Princess Elizabeth herself, kept an account of expenses for clothing, jewels, gifts, and writing equipment written in Scots language while travelling from Scotland in italic handwriting.[1] It mentions Newcastle, York, Leicester, Windsor, Nonsuch, Oatlands, Winchester, Salisbury, and Coombe Abbey. The purchases include "a pair of whalebone bodies, the one side of taffeta, the other of canvas" for 20 shillings. The account records gifts to the writing master and dancing master at New Year.[2]

When the court was at Winchester in September 1603 the queen ordered fabrics for new clothes for Livingstone and other women who had made the journey from Scotland, including Margaret Stewart, Jean Drummond, Margaret Hartsyde, and perhaps Anna Hay.[3] Her cousin Anna Hay was only 11 years old and Livingstone was probably of a similar age. Arbella Stuart commented on children's games played in the queen's household at Winchester.[4][5]

She subsequently joined the household of Anna of Denmark, wife of James VI of Scotland and I of England as a chamberer.[6] On 11 December 1605 (after the Gunpowder plot) King James wrote to her father that her behaviour was satisfactory, but she would not be allowed home or given "room" - employment at that time.[7] However Rowland Whyte described "Lady Levingston" dancing with others at Hampton Court in October 1606, when the queen entertained the French ambassador the Count de Vaudemont.[8]

In 1612, she married Sir Alexander Seton of Foulstruther, son of Robert Seton, Earl of Winton and Margaret Montgomerie, who adopted the surname Montgomerie and became Earl of Eglinton. There were some legal obstacles on the way to him becoming the earl.[9] Montgomerie came to be known as "old Graysteel", a nickname referring to a character in an old poem enthralled to a powerful woman.[10]

Some of Anne Livingstone's correspondence survives. She wrote to husband in November 1612, hoping that Anne of Denmark and the king's favourite, Lord Rochester, would help him (in his struggle to secure his earldom). She expressing her thanks to Lady Jane, meaning Jean Drummond, an influential courtier close to Anne of Denmark.[11]

In 1613, William Seton of Kylesmure (1562-1635), an uncle of her husband, discussed a letter from Jean Drummond, and asked Anne Livingstone to write both to Jean Drummond and Anne of Denmark. William Seton noted that Anne Livingstone had served Princess Elizabeth from her infancy, and later Anne of Denmark. The issue was her husband's right to the Eglinton earldom. He asked Anne Livingstone to ensure that Jean Drummond and the queen inform King James that the queen had known and approved of plans for her marriage, only on the basis that Alexander Seton of Foulstruther would become Earl of Eglinton. In this letter William Seton makes it clear that Anne of Denmark had promoted the marriage of her lady in waiting and the elevation of her husband to the peerage.[12]

Later letters from Jean or Jane Drummond, who became the Countess of Roxburghe, show how Anne Livingstone maintained contact with the court and queen. She offered Drummond gifts of aqua-vitae and linen.[13] Drummond helped her by explaining to the queen why Eglinton had not chosen her as her child's godparent in 1613, and by interceding in "ane matter that tuiches Hir Majesties honour and His Majesties bothe", the gift of the Eglinton earldom to her husband, which was legally complicated. Drummond wrote in March 1613 that King James had not yet made any pronouncement on the question of the Eglinton earldom before going to Newmarket after the wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Frederick V of the Palatinate. Drummond carefully managed Livingstone's reputation with the queen, and wrote a letter during the progress to Bath, describing how she had intercepted a letter Livingstone had sent to the queen via Margaret Murray that might not show her to the best advantage.[14]

A letter from Jean Ruthven at Whitehall describes purchases for Anne Livingstone, who wanted a "resting chair" like Jane Drummond's, a lantern, a piccadill, and lace in the latest fashion.[15]

Anne Livingstone shared news of the court from John Murray of the bedchamber and his wife Elizabeth Schaw, especially about the Earl of Somerset. She addressed her letters for the couple jointly to "Dear Brother", and three survive. She hoped that John Murray would encourage the king to further her family's interests.[16] Alexander Seton, 1st Earl of Dunfermline sent the Murrays news of her illness during the birth of her son Alexander and recovery in November 1615.[17] On 19 August 1617 she presented their son James Murray at his christening in the Chapel Royal at Holyrood Palace.[18]

In Scotland, she lived at Seton Palace, Callendar House, Polnoon Castle and Eglinton Castle. A household account from 1618 reveals that she supervised the production of linen, buying lint in Edinburgh, and played the virginals.[19] Anne gave linen to her sister-in-law, Isabella Seton, dowager Countess of Perth, and exchanged books with her.[20]

Her husband had visited the exiled minister John Welsh in France at Jonzac in 1611 before their marriage; Anne is said to have helped and encouraged her husband to prevent the banishment of David Dickson the minister of Irvine, who then preached at Eglinton Castle for two months in 1622 before he was confined in Turriff despite Eglinton's continued efforts.[21] Robert Wodrow recorded a story told by his father that Anne, her sister Margaret Countess of Wigtown, and the poet Lady Culross (Elizabeth Melville), and other women had welcomed Dickson with enthusiasm at Eglinton Castle.[22] In 1627 Wigtown wrote that she should come to Cumbernauld Castle to hear Robert Bruce of Kinnaird preach, and in 1629 he wrote to her on the subject of Grace and election. John Welsh's son Josias wrote to her describing his parish at Templepatrick.[23]

The kirk minister Robert Bruce of Kinnaird wrote to her in September 1629, writing, "Madam, I cannot tell at what school your ladyship has been at, but surely your ladyship's last letter melled of grace, had a fragrant perfume of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit."[24]

Anne Livingstone died in 1632.

A distant kinsman, the kirk minister John Livingstone, described her character, piety, and regard for truth, "although bred at court".[25]

When Anne Livingstone returned to Scotland in July 1607, Anna of Denmark gave her a pearl and other jewels to hang from a pendant, a gold necklace chain of gold elements set with pearls, rubies and diamonds, "green snakes" and "S" shaped pieces, and a gold jewel showing the "Annunciation of our Lady" with diamonds and rubies.[26] Another jewel given to Anne Livingstone in August 1607, supplied by the goldsmith William Gosson, cost the king £400.[27]

The Countess left a great jewel containing fourteen diamonds and five pendant triangle diamonds to her son Hugh Montgomerie, 7th Earl of Eglinton.[28]

A portrait of a young woman c. 1610 in the private Seafield collection labelled "Lady Livingston" may be her. In the portrait "Lady Livingston" wears a miniature of Anne of Denmark, and this may be a locket and miniature now in the Fitzwilliam Museum which came from the Eglinton collection.[29] The jewelled locket may have been made by George Heriot in 1610, and the miniature in the studio of Nicholas Hilliard.[30] The Fitzwilliam miniature case has two monograms, one set with diamonds and the other in enamel, with the closed "S", the "s fermé" or "fermesse", a symbol used in correspondence of the period as a mark of affection.[31] Anne Livingstone used the closed "S" in her letter to Elizabeth, Mrs Murray. The "S" may also allude to Anne of Denmark's mother, Sophie of Mecklenburg-Güstrow.[32][33]

Other women in the entourage of Anne of Denmark had their portraits made including jewelled tablets or lockets with an "A", "AR" or "R" for "Anna Regina", including Margaret Hay, Countess of Dunfermline, and Elizabeth Grey, Countess of Kent.[34]

In her portrait she has a diamond jewel in her hair, possibly the "great jewel containing fourteen great diamonds with five pendant triangle diamonds" which she bequeathed to her son Hugh.[35]

Her children included:

• Hugh Montgomerie (1613-1669), later 7th Earl of Eglinton, who married Anne Hamilton (d. 1632), and secondly Mary Leslie.
• Henry Montgomerie of Giffin (born 1614), named after Prince Henry, Anne of Denmark was his godmother. He married Jean Campbell, a daughter of Archibald Campbell, 7th Earl of Argyll
• Colonel Alexander Montgomerie (born 1615), Anne Livingstone mentions in a letter that she was pregnant and expected a child at Martinmas.[36]
• Colonel James Montgomerie of Coylsfield (d. 1675), who married Margaret MacDonald.
• General Robert Montgomerie, who married Elizabeth Livingstone, and was wounded at the Battle of Marston Moor.[37]
• Margaret Montgomerie, who married John Hay, 1st Earl of Tweeddale, and secondly, William Cunningham, 9th Earl of Glencairn.
• Eleanor Montgomerie.[38]
• Anna Montgomerie.

After her death, a cousin of her husband, Sir John Seton bought fashionable clothes in London for her daughters.[39]

• 'Anna of Denmark, and The Eglinton Jewel', National Galleries of Scotland
• The Eglinton locket and portrait of Anne of Denmark, Fitzwilliam Museum
• The Eglinton locket and portrait miniature of Anne of Denmark, Fitzwilliam Museum
• A necklace in the Royal Collection, associated with Mary Queen of Scots, from the collections of the Earls of Eglinton, RCIN 65620
• Text of the 1603-1604 account book kept by Anne Livingstone