John Kinloch (post master)
John Kinloch or Killoch was keeper of the royal tennis courts, a post master and stable owner in 16th-century Edinburgh and the proprietor of house used for lodgings and banquets.
Career
John Kinloch was a son or relative of Henry Kinloch, a
Henry Kinloch hosted the French ambassador
The ambassador of Savoy, Jean, Count de Brienne, arrived in Edinburgh on 2 November 1566 and was lodged in Henry Kinloch's house in the Canongate. He went to Stirling on 12 December for the baptism of Prince James, escorted by George Seton, 7th Lord Seton. Another French ambassador, Philibert Le Voyer, sieur de Lignerolles, stayed in August 1567.[6]
Henry Killoch was paid for supplying wine and balls, presumably tennis balls, to Mary and Darnley.[7] Kinloch's tennis court was mentioned in a legal case in 1563.[8] In the 17th-century Alexander Peiris offered lodgings and built or rebuilt a tennis court near Holyrood Palace in 1623,[9] his guests included Anne Halkett, and he may have taken over the Kinloch's establishment or had a similar business.[10]
John Kinloch, probably Henry's son, was a goldsmith in the Canongate.[11] On 17 April 1582 James VI made John Killoch and Robert Schaw keepers of the royal tennis courts, called "caichpollis", throughout Scotland. They were to supply balls and rackets to the value of £100 and also receive a yearly fee of £40.[12]
Kinloch's House, diplomats, and the royal marriage
In September 1589 when
On 6 May 1593 the
Two Danish ambassadors, Steen Bille and Niels Krag lodged at Kinloch's house in the summer of 1593. James Melville of Halhill, a gentleman of Anne of Denmark's chamber, visited them to discuss the second Raid of Holyrood.[17] Andrew Sinclair told a Scottish merchant that Christian IV of Denmark was coming to Scotland in 1597 and Anne of Denmark should prepare a lodging in Kinloch's house near the gates of Holyrood Palace. Christian IV did not visit Scotland.[18]
James VI came to Edinburgh from Falkland Palace in July 1602 and stayed a night at John Kinloch's house and the next day after dinner moved to John Preston's house. After these two nights he returned to Falkland.[19]
English visitors at the Union of the Crowns
After the death of
Postmaster
Killoch appeared before the Privy Council of Scotland and made an obligation to supply post horses for the king's messages. He was to keep two horses exclusively for the royal mail, keep a ledger of the official packets of letters, have two leather mail bags, and two post horns.[23]
The Duke of Lennox was in Scotland as High Commissioner of the Parliament from July 1607. He stayed at first at Holyrood Palace, and later lodged in John Kinloch's house in Edinburgh in September and October, on 8 October the Duke had breakfast at Kinloch's and then rode to Dunipace and his servants distributed coins to the poor of the Canongate and Leith Wynd foot. His master cook William Murkie had worked for Anne of Denmark.[24]
John Killoch and his wife Janet Gray lost the ownership of his property near the Holyrood asylum cross on 11 September 1608.[25] Business apparently remained the same, Theophilus Howard, Lord Walden stayed in "John Killoch's house" in 1613.[26]
By 1617, John Killoch's position as post master had been taken by Henry Killoch, who was probably his son. In July 1617 Andrew Abernethy of Glencorse assembled 43 horses at Holyrood to carry the king's trunks to Dunbar. He left his own horse unattended tied to a cart in the palace yard and went to speak to the Master of the King's Carriage, William Murray, husband of the noted baker and poet Christian Lindsay. He returned to find the horse gone and spent £12 asking locals who the thief, a man with a red coat was, to learn it was the postmaster Henry Kinloch and his servant John Forres. The Privy Council found that Henry Killoch had no right to take horses as postmaster and should return the horse, worth £60 Scots, or give Abernethy £50.[27]
References
- ^ Charles B. Boog Watson, BOEC, vol. 12 (Edinburgh, 1923), p. 125.
- ^ Diurnal of Occurrents (Edinburgh, 1833), pp. 86-7
- ^ Alma Calderwood, Buik of the Kirk of the Canagait (SRS: Edinburgh, 1961), p. 66.
- ^ Alma Calderwood, Buik of the Kirk of the Canagait (SRS: Edinburgh, 1961), p. 60.
- ^ John Mackay, History of the Burgh of the Canongate (Edinburgh, 1879), p. 76: Alma Calderwood, Buik of the Kirk of the Canagait (SRS: Edinburgh, 1961), p. 60: NRS CH2/11/181 f. 72r p. 142.
- ^ A Diurnal of Remarkable Occurrents in Scotland (Bannatyne Club, 1833), pp. 102-3, 119.
- ^ Accounts of the Treaurer, vol. 11, p. 523.
- ^ William Angus, Protocol Book of Gilbert Grote (Edinburgh, 1914), p. 48 no. 211
- ^ Accounts of the Masters of Work, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1982), p. lxxxvii fn.2.
- ^ John Gough Nichols, Autobiography of Anne Lady Halkett (London, 1875), p. 56.
- ^ Marguerite Wood, 'Hammermen of the Canongate', BOEC, 319 (Edinburgh, 1933), p. 11.
- ^ Gordon Donaldson, Register of the Privy Seal: 1581-84, vol. 8 (Edinburgh, 1982), p. 133 no. 805.
- ^ Maureen Meikle, 'Anna of Denmark's Coronation and Entry', Julian Goodare & Alasdair A. MacDonald, Sixteenth-Century Scotland (Brill, 2008), p. 280.
- ^ David Calderwood, History of the Kirk of Scotland, vol. 5 (Edinburgh, 1844), p. 63: James Thomson Gibson-Craig, Papers Relative to the Marriage of James VI (Edinburgh, 1828) p. 31
- ^ Amy L. Juhala, 'Edinburgh and the Court of James VI', Julian Goodare & Alasdair A. MacDonald, Sixteenth-Century Scotland (Brill, 2008), p. 354.
- ^ Historical Manuscripts Commission, 4th Report: Mrs. Erskine Murray (London, 1874), p. 527, now held by the National Library of Scotland.
- ^ Thomas Thomson, Memoirs of his own Life by Sir James Melville of Halhill (Edinburgh, 1827), p. 415.
- ^ HMC Salisbury Hatfield, vol. 7 (London, 1899), p. 247.
- ^ John Duncan Mackie, Calendar State Papers Scotland, 13:2 (Edinburgh, 1969), p. 1026 no. 836.
- ^ John Leeds Barroll, Anna of Denmark, Queen of England (Philadelphia, 2001), pp. 43-45.
- ^ David Calderwood, History of the Kirk of Scotland, vol. 5 (Edinburgh, 1844), p. 231: 'The Diarey (sic) of Robert Birrell', in John Graham Dalyell, Fragments of Scottish History (Edinburgh, 1798), pp. 59-60
- ^ Dawson Turner, Descriptive Index (Great Yarmouth, 1851), p. 134 no. 90, now British Library Add. MS 19401 f.185.
- ^ David Masson, Register of the Privy Council: 1599-1604, vol. 6 (Edinburgh, 1884), p. 566.
- ^ 'Household Account of Ludovick Duke of Lennox', Miscellany of the Maitland Club, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1833), pp. 161-191, at 188, 190
- ^ Laing Charters (Edinburgh, 1899), p. 375 no. 1545.
- ^ Robert Chambers, Domestic Annals of Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1858), pp. 450-1: Bannatyne Miscellany, vol. 3 (Edinburgh, 1855), p. 210.
- ^ David Masson, Register of the Privy Council: 1616-1619, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1894), p. 181.