James Mosman
James Mosman or Mossman (died 1573) was a Scottish goldsmith. He and his son John Mosman were supporters of the cause of Mary, Queen of Scots. James Mosman was executed in 1573 for counterfeiting coins in Edinburgh Castle.[1] John Mosman carried letters for Mary, Queen of Scots, and was under surveillance by Francis Walsingham.
Career
He was a son of John Mosman, a goldsmith working in Edinburgh. He married Mariota Arres, and secondly in 1571, Janet King. Mosman and Arres rebuilt the John Knox House on the High Street in Edinburgh. Moubray House is adjacent to the west.
Mosman and Arres were given permission in May 1557 by Mary of Guise to extend the cellars of another house they owned under the High Street. This house was on the south side of the Royal Mile between houses belonging to Alan Dickson and Richard Hoppar.[2]
On 16 December 1558 Mosman weighed and valued the treasures of St Giles' Kirk including the reliquary of Saint Giles' arm bone.[3]
James Mosman and his workshop made gold chains for Mary, Queen of Scots to give as diplomatic gifts.[4] He was an assay master in the Scottish mint and made dies for the coinage. Other mint officers included, David Forrest, General of the coin house, Andrew Henderson, warden, John Balfour, comptroller warden, and James Gray, sinker or maker of dies. Grey was another goldsmith, he sold pearls to Mary and refashioned and mended a basin and laver for her.[5]
In April 1566, Mosman sold the queen rings and other pieces which were probably intended as presents to her attendants.[6] In 1567 he was converting a piece of Mary, Queen of Scots' jewelry when she was imprisoned in Lochleven Castle.[7] Mosman gave this chain set with little diamonds, which he was making into a hairband garnishing, to Robert Melville, and his brother Andrew Melville of Garvock took it to the captive queen.[8]
Mariota Arres died in 1571, and soon after James Mosman married Janet King. She was a daughter of Alexander King, an Edinburgh advocate.[9]
Marian Civil War
James Mosman remained loyal to Mary when she was exiled in England. Mosman worked in
Mosman and Cockie were executed in 1573, following a trial at the
John Mosman and Walsingham
His son John Mosman, Janet King, and James Cockie's children were given pacifications by the Parliament of Scotland in October 1581. John Mosman was sometimes known as "John Mosman younger" to distinguish him from his uncle, who was an established Edinburgh goldsmith. He carried a letter to John Lauder at Sheffield, a member of Queen Mary's household, from his father James Lauder, a court musician, in October 1582. He also wrote to John Lauder from London, asking him to reply and tell him if Queen Mary was not planning to benefit him. In November he wrote to Mary asking for a reward as the son of her "grace's master coiner and true subject", enough to start a trade and support his brothers and sisters. He had previously sent her an account of outstanding sums she owed his father. He had spent four months in London waiting for a reply from her and spent all his money.[14]
John Mosman was interviewed in London by the Scottish poet and spy William Fowler, who found him plain and simple and fit only for carrying letters. He became involved with the correspondence of the French ambassador Michel de Castelnau and was monitored by Francis Walsingham. Despite Fowler's judgement of his skills, Walsingham intercepted a number of letters in March 1583 which referred to Mosman's verbal reports, and he wished that he had been arrested as a "bad instrument". Fowler advised Walsingham that Mosman could be caught with letters of Mary, Queen of Scots and the French diplomat La Mothe Fénelon in a ship at Gravesend.[15]
An English diplomat in Scotland,
References
- ^ P. F. Tytler, History of Scotland, 7 (Edinburgh, 1842), p. 388.
- ^ Register of the Privy Seal: 1556-1567, 5:1 (Edinburgh, 1957), p. 27 no. 125.
- ^ James Marwick, Extracts from the Records of the Burgh of Edinburgh: 1557-1571 (Edinburgh, 1875), pp. 27-8
- ^ James Balfour Paul, Accounts of the Treasurer: 1559-1566, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1916), pp. 76, 344, 352, 360, 492.
- ^ James Balfour Paul, Accounts of the Treasurer: 1559-1566, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1916), pp. 76, 152, 344, 352, 360, 492.
- ^ James Balfour Paul, Accounts of the Treasurer: 1559-1566, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1916), pp. 76, 344, 352, 360, 492.
- ^ William Boyd, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 4 (Edinburgh, 1905), p. 616.
- ^ Joseph Robertson, Inventaires de la Royne Descosse (Edinburgh, 1863), p. clvi.
- ^ David McOmish, 'A Community of Scholarship', Steven J. Reid & David McOmish, Neo-Latin Literature and Literary Culture in Early Modern Scotland (Brill, 2017), p. 63.
- ^ John J. Reid & Alexander J. S. Brook, 'The Scottish Regalia', PSAS (December 1889), p. 54: Inventaires (Edinburgh, 1863), p. clii.
- ^ Bruce Lenman, 'Jacobean Goldsmith-Jewellers as Credit-Creators: The Cases of James Mossman, James Cockie and George Heriot', Scottish Historical Review, 74:198 (1995), pp. 159–177
- ^ Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1571-1574, vol. 4 (Edinburgh, 1905), p. 602.
- ^ Malcolm Laing, The Historie of King James the Sext (Edinburgh, 1804), pp. 236-7: William Boyd, Calendar State Papers Scotland vol. 4 (Edinburgh, 1905), p. 602: National Records of Scotland, E35/11.
- ^ William Boyd, Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1581-1583, vol. 6 (Edinburgh, 1910), pp. 185, 193.
- ^ Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1581-1583, vol. 6 (Edinburgh, 1910), pp. 196, 210, 335, 350, 353-4, 659.
- ^ Bowes Correspondence (London, 1842), pp. 382–383.
- ^ Joseph Stevenson, Bowes Correspondence (London, 1842), p. 464.
Further reading
- Charles John Guthrie, John Knox and his House, 2nd Edition (Edinburgh, 1905)
- John Knox House: Edinburgh World Heritage Trust
- Gold buttons of Mary, Queen of Scots, and Anna of Denmark