Margaret Hartsyde

Margaret Hartsyde was a daughter of Malcolm Hartsyde of Kirkwall, Orkney.[2] She is first recorded as one of the serving women in Anne of Denmark's chamber in 1601.[3] She came with the queen to England in 1603. When the court was at Winchester in September 1603 the queen ordered fabrics for new clothes for Hartsyde and other women who had made the journey from Scotland, including Anne Livingstone, Margaret Stewart, and Jean Drummond.[4] She subsequently married another royal servant called John Buchanan, before 11 August 1603, when they were given a joint pension of £200 annually.[5]

In 1603, the French ambassador, the Marquis de Rosny, gave Anne of Denmark a mirror of Venice crystal in a gold box set with diamonds, and a gold table clock with diamonds to Lucy Russell, Countess of Bedford, and as gold box with the French king's portrait to Lady Rich. Rosny also gave a diamond ring to "Margaret Aisan, a favourite lady of the queen's bedchamber", this may have been Margaret Hartsyde. Perhaps the ambassador had recognised her importance although she lacked the aristocratic status of the other women.[6] The nuance of a gift to such a minor courtier as "Margaret Aisan" was noted by older historians, including Nathaniel Wraxall.[7]

In December 1603 Arbella Stuart discussed with Mary Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury the delicate issue of buying New Year's Day gifts for Anne of Denmark. Stuart recommended asking Hartsyde because she was discreet, and would let her "understand the Queenes minde with out knowing who asked it".[8] The role of chamberers and chamber women in giving valuable advice to gift-givers can be seen in records of the court of Elizabeth I, and conferred prestige and power.[9]

Anne's Scottish secretary William Fowler complained to Sir Robert Cecil about "Margaret", one of the queen's servants, possibly meaning Margaret Hartsyde. Fowler was clearly jealous of her position and claimed that paperwork sent for Anne to sign was delayed by her women, and "Margaret" had too much authority, and was able to prompt the queen to act for others and "importune procurers".[10]

One of her letters to Sir William Livingstone of Kilsyth described how Anne of Denmark was surprised by his leaving the court, and had expected him to deliver a jewel to her which he ought to send to queen as soon as possible. She was hoping to buy a house in Libberton in Lanarkshire with her husband.[11]

The Privy Council suggested economies in the royal households by reducing the amount of food allowed in October 1605. Food allowances were assigned to individual members of the household in "messes" and "dishes". The allowance for one aristocratic courtier, Jean Drummond was a "diet of 7 dishes" and this might be reduced to the "chamber mess of two" which other ladies at court received. Evidently Drummond enjoyed special favour and had a number of servants and followers. Margaret Hartsyde's allowance, though not as generous as Drummond's, was also proposed to be reduced, from "4 dishes of meat".[12]

Hartsyde handled large sums of money, and in 1606 paid the goldsmith George Heriot £500 towards the queen's bill for jewels. In 1607 Heriot gave Hartsyde a ring worth £30 for the queen, and wrote in his account that she had told him the purchase was "by her Majesty's direction", evidence that Hartsyde was trusted with the queen's business.[13]

In September 1604, Dudley Fortescue of Chilton in Suffolk hanged himself at Blunt's Hall in Little Wratting. As a suicide, his property and goods were forfeit to the crown. King James awarded his goods to Margaret Hartsyde, and the Privy Council wrote to Sir Nicholas Bacon to make sure she got full benefit.[14]

Margaret Hartsyde and her husband acquired lands in Scotland, possibly exciting jealousy by their rise in status.[15] This included a plot of land close to the back gate of Holyrood Palace, which they obtained from the royal carpenter and architect John Murray in April 1606.[16] On 12 June 1606 Anne of Denmark gave them a charter for the Mains of Edmonston near Niddrie and Cauldcotts, lands in the Musselburgh portion of her Dunfermline Abbey estate.[17] John Buchanan was made a burgess of Edinburgh in August 1606 and the town gave him a gold angel coin for spices and wine for a celebratory banquet.[18]

Margaret stole jewels from Anne in London and attempted to sell them back to George Heriot. She was sent for trial in Edinburgh and convicted of "unlawful subracting and detening" in June 1608, even though she had signed a confession. It was alleged she had concealed stolen jewels by adding them to the costumes of the royal children's dolls,[19] in the phrase of the time, "to busk babeis".[20]

She was not sentenced to death but banishment to Orkney was proposed. John Buchanan was found not guilty. King James and Anne of Denmark were displeased by this verdict. The king's advocate Thomas Hamilton and the Privy Council wrote to King James on 24 June saying that Hartsyde had the best lawyers in Edinburgh on her side, including Thomas Hope, and that in clearing her of a charge of "theft", the assize had "very far mistaken their duty." He recommended the king order her "to be declared infamous in all time coming" as "a restraint and terror to all other servants".[21]

Anne of Denmark had hoped she would be convicted and condemned by the laws of Scotland and wrote to Lord Balmerino expressing her disappointment.[22] The jewels, it was claimed, had been a gift from the queen. It was rumoured that Margaret had been indiscreet with the queen's secrets, revealing what a "wise chambermaid" would not have done.[23][24][25][26] King James wrote to lawyers in Edinburgh querying their judgement, calling them "pettyfoggeris", and ordered the Privy Council to interview anyone who had set their hands to the case.[27]

The Privy Council replied to King James om 18 August 1608. They did not then have a statement from the lawyers at the trial and so could not begin a formal process or challenge against them.[28] A second hearing in Linlithgow pronounced Hartsyde guilty of an "infamous" crime against the royal persons, and she was imprisoned in Blackness Castle.[29]

Hartsyde and Buchanan went to Orkney and paid £400 sterling for the value of the jewels. In March 1618 the King, by Anne of Denmark's intercession, gave John Buchanan freedom to travel in Scotland,[33] and freedom to travel anywhere in the kingdom was granted to Margaret and John on 15 March 1619.[34] Eventually in October 1619, James declared Margaret Hartsyde innocent, saying she had been "by the sinisterous information of certain of her unfrendis for the tyme, pursued criminallie".[35] The legal process against her was held to be deleted and the Justice Clerk would not issue extracts of it.[36]

Dovecote at Scotscraig, near Tayport

John Buchanan was made Chamberlain of Orkney and Shetland in May 1622, and was keeper of Birsay Palace, Newhouse on Orkney, Scalloway Castle, and the house at Sumburgh Ness in Shetland.[37] There were two competitors for this office, Robert Monteith and Sir Robert Maxwell.[38] Buchanan presided on the trials at Kirkwall of Marable Couper of the Northside of Birsay and Annie Taylor for witchcraft in 1624.[39] Buchanan and Hartsyde bought properties in Orkney, including Elvick, the How, and Shapinsay mill, Harroldsgarth, and Sound.[40]

By 1624, Buchanan became "Sir John Buchanan of Scotscraig". Scotscraig was near Tayport, Fife. John Lauder, Lord Fountainhall saw their initials "SJB" and "DMH" for Dame Margaret Hartsyde, carved on the windows of the house at Scotscraig in 1671.[41] Their children included:

• Possibly, John Buchanan, baptised at St Martin-in-the-Fields, 3 April 1608.[42]
• Margaret Buchanan (died 1657), who in 1628 married Arthur Erskine (d. 1651), a son of Marie Stewart, Countess of Mar.[43]
• Catherine Buchanan, who married William Forbes younger of Rires. He was a descendant of Margaret Beaton, a lady in waiting to Mary, Queen of Scots.[44]

The date of Margaret Hartsyde's death is unknown. A royal charter of April 1643 mentions that Margaret Hartsyde and John Buchanan had died in the years after 1635. Their son-in-law Arthur Erskine inherited Scotscraig.[45] The lands of Edmonston and Cauldcotts near Edinburgh were later acquired by Sir Thomas Hope.

• Archibald Constable, Memoirs of George Heriot (1822).