Elias Le Tellier

Elias Le Tellier and his wife Esther Le Tellier worked for Anne of Denmark

Elias Le Tellier was a French goldsmith who worked for Anne of Denmark in Edinburgh and moved to London at the Union of the Crowns in 1603. His first name was sometimes recorded as "Elie" and his last name written as "Laiteller" or "Taylor".

Career

In 1597, Elias Le Tellier carried messages and money for the English ambassador in Scotland Robert Bowes in association with Bowes's servant Christopher Shepherdson. ^[1] In 1597, George Heriot was appointed goldsmith to Anne of Denmark. According to Robert Birrel's Diary, Heriot displaced a French goldsmith called "Clei", pehaps a reference to Elias or Elie. ^[2] Anne of Denmark had previously employed a German-born goldsmith Jacob Kroger. ^[3]

At the same time, James or Jacques Le Tellier worked as a goldsmith for James VI. ^[4] The historian Winifred Coutts discovered court records mentioning the Le Tellier and Des Granges families, which possibly indicate that they faced difficulties as foreign workers in Edinburgh's Canongate. They were not members of the Edinburgh incorporation of Goldsmiths. Elias and his son Harry Le Tellier, with a colleague Samson des Granges, quarrelled with an Edinburgh goldsmith, James Crawfurd. Anne of Denmark's chamberlain, the master of work, William Schaw was able to intervene in the legal action resulting from their feud. ^[5]

Elias Le Tellier lived in a tenement in the Canongate and the owner, a merchant Robert Johnston, sought to have him evicted. ^[6] James Le Tellier twice attended baptisms as a witness in the Canongate in 1600 and 1601. Elias Le Tellier and his wife Esther moved to London and resided at Charing Cross, and continued to be associated with George Heriot. ^[7] Samson des Granges, whose father Nicolas was from Guernsey, also moved to London and was the father of the painter David des Granges. ^{[8] [9]}

Elias' wife Esther Le Tellier was a silkwoman to Anne of Denmark in 1606, with an annual wage of £20. She was a member of the Granges family and has been identified as the aunt of the painter David des Granges. She attended his christening in 1611. ^{[10] [11]} The registers of the French Church in Threadneedle Street also show that she attended christenings with the goldsmith Abraham Harderet. ^[12] In 1613, Elias and Esther tried to recover money they had lent to James Douglas of Spott by appealing to the Privy Council of Scotland. ^[13]

References

1. John Duncan Mackie, Calendar State Papers Scotland, 13:1 (Edinburgh, 1969), p. 74 no. 54.
2. Memoirs of George Heriot (Edinburgh, 1822), p. 12 quoting 'Diarey of Robert Birrel' (Edinburgh, 1798), p. 48.
3. Maureen Meikle, 'Anna of Denmark and Scottish Court Finances', Women in Scotland, c.1100-c.1750 (Tuckwell, 1999), p. 107: Mary Anne Everett Green, Calendar State Papers Domestic, Addenda 1580-1625 (London, 1872), pp. 364-5, TNA SP15/33/30-32.
4. G. E. P. How, "Canongate Goldsmiths and Jewellers", The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, 74:435 (June 1939), p. 287.
5. Winifred Coutts, The Business of the College of Justice in 1600 (Stair Society, 2003), p. 70.
6. Winifred Coutts, The Business of the College of Justice in 1600 (Stair Society, 2003), pp. 64, 73.
7. David Masson, Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, 10 (Edinburgh, 1891), pp. 130, 142.
8. William Moens, Registers of the French Church, 1 (Lymington: Huguenot Society, 1896), p. 81.
9. John Murdoch, "The Seventeenth-Century Enlightenment", The English Miniature (Yale, 1981), p. 135: Lionel Cust, "Foreign Artists of the Reformed Religion", Proceedings of the Huguenot Society, 7 (1905), pp. 80–81.
10. Mary Edmond, 'Limners and Picturemakers', Walpole Society, 47 (1978-1980), p. 123.
11. Jemma Field, "Clothing the Royal Family: The Intersection of the Court and City in Early Stuart London", Peter Edwards, Monarchy, the Court, and the Provincial Elite in Early Modern Europe (Brill, 2024), p. 251. doi : 10.1163/9789004694149_014
12. William Moens, Registers of the French Church, 1 (Lymington: Huguenot Society, 1896), p. 62.
13. David Masson, Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, 10 (Edinburgh, 1891), pp. 130, 142: Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, 11 (Edinburgh, 1894), pp. 111–112.