Alexander Miller or Millar (1559-1616) was an Edinburgh tailor who served James VI and I.
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Alexander Miller or Millar (1559-1616) was an Edinburgh tailor who served James VI and I.
In 1584, James VI wrote to the Edinburgh incorporation of tailors, asking them to admit Miller as a free craftsmen, "gratis", with no costs. Miller had not been an apprentice in Edinburgh and must have learnt his trade elsewhere. [1] Miller became a burgess of Edinburgh, and Deacon of the Tailors, who convened in their hall on the Cowgate, now a public house called the "Three Sisters". He bought land at Long Herdmanston and Currie. [2]
When James VI returned from Denmark in May 1590, Miller was immediately set to work, starting with a cloak to wear at the coronation of Anne of Denmark:
Item the said day deliverit to Allexander Millar sevin ellis of clayth of silver of doubill threid groundit upon incarnadine to lyn his majestie cloik of reid cramosie velvot embroiderit with gold and silver and to drawe out the hois allso embroiderit with gold and silver att xxv li the ell _ £185.
Other tailors at the Scottish court included Peter Sanderson, who made clothes for Anne of Denmark and her children. Miller also made clothes for the pages of the King and Queen. With another tailor, James Inglis, he made a costume for an African servant at court in October 1590, who is known only as the "Moor", including an orange velvet "jupe" and breeches and a doublet of shot-silk Spanish taffeta festooned with white satin passementerie. [3]
On 18 June 1591 the king ordered masque costumes from Miller. James VI and his valet, probably John Wemyss of Logie, performed in a masque at Tullibardine. [4] The occasion was the wedding of Lilias Murray and John Grant of Freuchie. [5] The costumes involved red and pink taffeta, dressed with gold tock or gauze, with buckram head-pieces and Venetian masks. [6]
Costumes for James VI to wear at the baptism of Prince Henry in 1594 included a suit of violet satin and cloth of gold, with a violet velvet cloak. [7] Miller made clothes for Prince Charles in November 1601, which were packed in buckram and sent to Dunfermline Palace. [8]
Miller made clothes for King James to wear in April 1603 when he travelled to London at the Union of the Crowns, including a green outfit for hunting lined with green Spanish taffeta. Miller came with the King to England, and made doublets and pairs of satin and velvet hose. He lived for a time in Bread Street ward. [9] He made robes of the Order of the Garter for King James and Prince Henry. [10]
In August 1604, King James indicated that Robert Jousie and Alexander Miller were owed money by the Master of Gray, a former Master of the Scottish royal wardrobe for an old debt from the 1580s. Gray sent his receipts to Lord Cecil to show that he did not owe any money. [11]
Miller was given permission by Edinburgh council to build a house on common ground in the Wester Mure in 1610. [12] In 1611 he brought legal action against James, Lord Torthorwald for bad debt. [13]
Alexander Miller died on 2 May 1616 and was buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard in Edinburgh. His monument was demolished or moved in the nineteenth century. [15] The Latin inscription was recorded and translated by the historian William Maitland. [16] It has been suggested that a monument in the churchyard, later reused to commemorate Robert Purves was Miller's. [17]
His wife Jonet Huntar died on 29 April 1592. His family included two daughters, Barbara, and Sara Miller, wife of Thomas Fleming of Longhermiston. Alexander Miller left £1000 Scots to the town which contributed to the fund for rebuilding Greyfriar's Kirk. [18] In 1637 a royal warrant was issued to pay Sara Miller £900 Sterling for unpaid work by her father. [19]
The Heriot's Hospital foundation bought land in Broughton from Miller and Fleming in 1626. [20] In 1642 she contracted to give various sums of money to the lawyer William Purves who was marrying her daughter Marjory Fleming. This included another debt, of 5000 merks owed to her father, for a loan in 1610 made to the courtier Sir James Sandilands. [21]
A farthingale is one of several structures used under Western European women's clothing - especially in the 16th and 17th centuries - to support the skirts in the desired shape and to enlarge the lower half of the body. The fashion originated in Spain in the fifteenth century. Farthingales served important social and cultural functions for women in Renaissance Europe as they expressed, primarily when worn by court women, high social position and wealth.
A doublet is a man's snug-fitting jacket that is shaped and fitted to a man's body. The garment was worn in Spain, and spread to the rest of Western Europe, from the late Middle Ages up to the 17th century. Until the end of the 15th century, the doublet was usually worn under another layer of clothing such as a gown, mantle, or houppelande when in public. In the 16th century it was covered by the jerkin. Women started wearing doublets in the 16th century, and these garments later evolved as the corset and stay. The doublet was thigh length, hip length or waist length and worn over the shirt or drawers.
Servais de Condé or Condez was a French servant at the court of Mary Queen of Scots, in charge of her wardrobe and the costume for masques performed at the Scottish royal court.
The masque at the baptism of Prince Henry was a celebration at the christening of Prince Henry at Stirling Castle, written by the Scottish poet William Fowler and Patrick Leslie, 1st Lord Lindores.
On 17 May 1590, Anne of Denmark was crowned Queen of Scotland. There was also a ceremony of joyous entry into Edinburgh on 19 May, an opportunity for spectacle and theatre and allegorical tableaux promoting civic and national identities, similar in many respects to those performed in many other European towns. Celebrations for the arrival of Anne of Denmark in Scotland had been planned and prepared for September 1589, when it was expected she would sail from Denmark with the admirals Peder Munk and Henrik Gyldenstierne. She was delayed by accidents and poor weather and James VI of Scotland joined her in Norway in November. They returned to Scotland in May 1590.
Robert Jousie was a Scottish textile merchant, financier, and courtier. He was involved in the collection and administration of the English subsidy of James VI.
John Gibb of Knock and Carribber (c.1550–1628) was a Scottish landowner and courtier.
Elizabeth or Elspeth Gibb was a Scottish courtier.
Tullibardine Castle was a castle located in the village of Tullibardine, 2 miles (3.2 km) north of Auchterarder in Perth and Kinross, Scotland.
James Inglis was a Scottish tailor who served James VI of Scotland.
Peter Sanderson was an Edinburgh tailor who worked for Anne of Denmark wife of James VI of Scotland.
The wardrobe of Mary, Queen of Scots, was described in several contemporary documents, and many records of her costume have been published.
Thomas Arthur was a Scottish tailor who worked for James V of Scotland.
William Betoun or Beaton was a Scottish embroiderer who worked for James VI of Scotland and his wife Anne of Denmark.
Anne of Denmark (1574–1619) was the wife of James VI and I, King of Scotland, and King of England after the Union of Crowns. In 1617, she was depicted in a painting by Paul van Somer with an African servant holding her horse at Oatlands Palace. There are archival records of Africans or people of African descent, often called "Moors" or "Moirs", in her service. One of the first publications to mention Anne of Denmark's "Moir" servant in Scotland was edited by James Thomson Gibson-Craig in 1828.
Hans Poppilman was a Danish cook who served Anne of Denmark in Scotland and England.
Alexander Oustean or Oustian or Austin was a Scottish tailor and member of Edinburgh burgh council.
Peter Rannald was a Scottish tailor who worked for Anne of Denmark, the wife of James VI of Scotland.
Søren Johnson was a Danish courtier in Scotland, serving Anne of Denmark, queen consort of James VI and I as master of the wardrobe.
A safeguard or saveguard was a riding garment or overskirt worn by women in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Some safeguards were intended to protect skirts or kirtles worn beneath. Mary Frith, dramatised as the character Moll Cutpurse in The Roaring Girl, wore a black safeguard over breeches.