John Geddie (secretary)

John Geddie (fl. 1575–1605) was a secretary to Anne of Denmark, queen of Scotland.

John Geddie
Bornfl. 1575–1605
OccupationSecretary to Anne of Denmark

Career

Geddie was a graduate of the University of St Andrews, and according to Scottish custom his name was usually written "Mr John Geddie". He was praised by contemporaries for his skills in calligraphy, and received a royal pension by privy seal letter in 1577 for making manuscripts of the works of George Buchanan.[1] The gift of £20 Scots annually described him as Buchanan's servitor or servant.[2] In November 1577 Geddie and another clerk, William Walwod, were given a patent for their invention of a new method of extracting water from coal mines.[3] In 1588 James VI gave him a gift of 20 French gold crowns, and a further £200 in October.[4]

In May 1590 he was given £180 for clothes to wear at the coronation of Anne of Denmark.[5] He served as a secretary in the household of Anne of Denmark from 1591,[6] junior in rank to her other secretaries Calixtus Schein and the poet William Fowler.[7] The queen bought him clothes, including a fine black velvet doublet and breeches.[8]

In 1590 he was secretary to an embassy to Denmark led by John Skene and Colonel William Stewart.[9] First they went to London and Skene sent Geddie to William Cecil to arrange their audience with Elizabeth. Geddie left Helsingør on 30 August with letters for John Maitland, Robert Bowes and Skene's wife, Helen Somerville.[10]

Geddie drew out a Latin acrostic poem for a work of his colleague William Fowler, a discourse on the history of mathematics titled 'Methodi, sive compendii mathematici'.[11]

In December 1591 Geddie discussed letters from Spain sent to Sir John Seton of Barns with the English courtier Roger Aston. In January the English ambassador Robert Bowes asked Geddie to investigate and inform him of Spanish and Catholic intrigues at court, working with Roger Aston. In Bowes' opinion, Geddie was "honest, wise, and in great credit with all the king's secret seals", and would accept a gratuity like others in English pay.[12]

Bowes mentioned that Geddie had carried a warning to the king from the rebel Earl of Bothwell in November 1592, which was false, and an attempt to incriminate Lord John Hamilton.[13]

Geddie lost royal favour in 1594 apparently for losing a comprising document that suggested James VI was negotiating with Spain.[14] These papers came in to the hands of Robert Bowes.[15]

Geddie is associated with an early view of the town of St Andrews,[16] and the musical part-books compiled by Thomas Wode, who mentioned that Geddie had promised to contribute a drawing of the royal arms.[17]

In July 1605 King James sent his unpublished manuscript Historie of the Churche to Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury. James had composed the work at Dalkeith Palace in the 1580s. This manuscript however had been written by Patrick Young following a copy made by John Geddie. James apologised that the language of this copy had been corrupted first by the version of Scots used by Geddie, and by Patrick Young's attempts to convert the text into English spelling. He joked that the result was like the Welsh spoken by the courtier Roger Aston, who was from Cheshire.[18]

References
  1. Sebastiaan Verweij, The Literary Culture of Early Modern Scotland (Oxford, 2017), p. 95.
  2. Gordon Donaldson, Register of the Privy Seal: 1575-1580, vol. 7 (Edinburgh, 1966), p. 148 no. 1023: Charles Thorpe McInnes, Accounts of the Treasurer: 1574-1580, vol. 13 (Edinburgh, 1978), p. 167.
  3. Gordon Donaldson, Register of the Privy Seal: 1575-1580, vol. 7 (Edinburgh, 1966), pp.189-90 no. 1264.
  4. Miles Kerr-Peterson & Michael Pearce, 'James VI's English Subsidy and Danish Dowry Accounts, 1588-1596', Scottish History Society Miscellany XVI (Woodbridge, 2020), p. 59: National Records of Scotland, treasurer's accounts October 1588.
  5. James Thomson Gibson-Craig, Papers Relative to the Marriage of King James the Sixth of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1836), p. 34, Appendix p. 17.
  6. 'Writ of James VI and Queen Anne of Scotland, 1591', University of St Andrews
  7. Sebastiaan Verweij, The Literary Culture of Early Modern Scotland (Oxford, 2017), p. 96: Household roll, National Library of Scotland MS. 34.2.7.
  8. Michael Pearce, 'Anna of Denmark: Fashioning a Danish Court in Scotland', The Court Historian, 24:2 (2019), p. 143: NRS E35/14 f25r.
  9. Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1936), p. 314.
  10. David Scott Gehring, Diplomatic Intelligence on the Holy Roman Empire and Denmark during the Reigns of Elizabeth I and James VI, Camden Fifth Series, 49 (2016), pp. 152, 167.
  11. Sebastiaan Verweij, The Literary Culture of Early Modern Scotland (Oxford, 2017), pp. 98.
  12. Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1936), pp. 601, 603, 617.
  13. Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1936), pp. 805, 814.
  14. Annie I. Cameron, Calendar of State Papers Scotland, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1936), p. 301.
  15. Sebastiaan Verweij, The Literary Culture of Early Modern Scotland (Oxford, 2017), pp. 95-6: Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1595-1597, vol. 12 (Edinburgh, 1952), p. 193: See also Thomas Birch, Memoirs of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, vol. 1 (London, 1754), p. 224.
  16. National Library of Scotland: Manuscript view of St Andrews
  17. Sebastiaan Verweij, The Literary Culture of Early Modern Scotland (Oxford, 2017), p. 97.
  18. Sebastiaan Verweij, The Literary Culture of Early Modern Scotland: Manuscript Production and Transmission (Oxford, 2016), pp. 56-8.
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