Elizabeth Schaw, Countess of Annandale

Elizabeth Schaw (died 1640) was a Scottish courtier and a lady-in-waiting to Anne of Denmark.

Family background

Elizabeth Schaw was a daughter of Sir John Schaw of Broich and Arngomery, a niece of William Schaw,[1] The Bishop Andrew Knox (bishop) called her his aunt.[2] Another Elizabeth Schaw, a cousin, the wife of Henry Lindsay, 13th Earl of Crawford, was also a servant of Anne of Denmark.[3]

elizabeth Schaw was an executor of her childless uncle William Schaw's property. Her sister married Robert Mowbray, a grandson of the treasurer Robert Barton, and following his death she married James Colville of East Wemyss in 1601, which caused a family feud between Francis Mowbray, Robert's brother, and Schaw and Colville.[4]

Courtier

In the years before her marriage, at court in England, Anne of Denmark gave her gifts of her old clothing including five gowns, a satin doublet, and a skirt.[5]

She married John Murray of the bedchamber and of Lochmaben, probably in 1611, and in England was known as Mrs Murray, and later Countess of Annandale. The couple were an important conduit for Scottish appeals to the King. Anne Livingstone, Countess of Eglinton, wrote to her in 1615, addressing the letter to "My Dear and loving Brother". The poet David Murray of Gorthy delivered the letters from London.[6]

She returned to Scotland on leave from the household in 1613 and visited several places including Falkland Palace and stayed with her friend Marie Stewart, Countess of Mar at Alloa Tower. The lawyer Thomas Hamilton wrote to her husband, "she hopes to take well with her natural air, and nevertheless intends to make goodly haste to you, and to come as near the term appointed by her majesty as she may ... she must give this time to her friends who are desirous to salute and welcome her to the country."[7]

In July 1615 she was involved in an incident in court politics when Henry Gibb, a new and minor servant of the king, delivered her a scandalous letter from Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset, the Lord Chamberlain, for the queen. She sent news of this, and the queen's support for her and her husband, to the Countess of Eglinton.[8]

King James authorised payment of her pension for attending Anna of Denmark on 14 November 1622.[9]

She had three daughters.[10] Their son James (d. 1658), later Earl of Annandale and Viscount Stormont, was baptised in the Chapel Royal at Holyrood Palace on 19 August 1617, William Couper preached and Anne Livingstone, Countess of Eglinton, presented the child.[11]

References
  1. HMC 4th Report, vol. 4, p. 299.
  2. Original Letters Relating To The Ecclessiastical Affairs of Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh: Bannatyne Club, 1851), p. 397.
  3. HMC Mar & Kellie, vol. 1 (London, 1904), p. 118.
  4. Jamie Reid-Baxter, 'Politics, Passion and Poetry in the Court of James VI: John Burel and his surviving works', in Mapstone, S, Houwen, L.A.J.R., and MacDonald, A.A. (eds.) A Palace in the Wind: Essays on Vernacular Culture and Humanism in Late-Medieval and Renaissance (Peeters, 2000), pp. 199-200.
  5. Jemma Field, 'The Wardrobe Goods of Anna of Denmark', Costume, vol. 51 no. 1 (March, 2017), pp. 3-27, p. 21, supplement pp. 11, 30, 34-5, 36, 37-8.
  6. William Fraser, Memorials of the Montgomeries, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1859), p. 199: James Maidment, Letters and State Papers of James the Sixth (Edinburgh, 1838), pp. 289-91, now NLS Adv. MS 33.1.1 vol. 10 no. 120: Thomas Birch (Folkestone Williams), Court and Times of James the First, vol. 1 (London, 1848), p. 367: Sarah Dunningan, C. Marie Harker, Evelyn S. Newlyn, Woman and the Feminine in Medieval and Early Modern Scottish Writing (Basingstoke, 2004), p. 220, references to other letters.
  7. Melros Papers, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1837), 126-8, now NLS Adv. MS 31.1.1 vol. 4 no. 58: Original Letters Relating to Ecclesiastical Affairs, vol. 2, pp. 354, 459, 466.
  8. Norman Egbert McClure, Letters of John Chamberlain, vol. 1 (Philadelphia, 1939), p. 609: Letters and State Papers James VI (Edinburgh, 1838), pp. 288-291.
  9. HMC 4th Report: Earl de la Warr (London, 1874), p. 299.
  10. Alan R. MacDonald, 'Murray, John, first earl of Annandale', ONDB, doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/19625.
  11. David Calderwood, History of the Kirk of Scotland, vol. 7 (Edinburgh, 1845), p. 277.
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