John Tunstall or Tonstal was a servant and gentleman-usher to Anne of Denmark, wife of James VI and I in England, and Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I.
Contents
John Tunstall or Tonstal was a servant and gentleman-usher to Anne of Denmark, wife of James VI and I in England, and Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I.
In the summer of 1615 Anne of Denmark visited Bath twice for her health to bathe in the warm spring water. [1] John Tunstall was later paid £105-10s-9d for fitting up her lodging in Bath and some expenses of her journeys. [2]
In February 1618, Tunstall was sent to the Lady Elizabeth, Electress Palatine in Heidelberg. He carried a gift of £100 for her nurses and midwives, following the birth of Charles Louis. [3]
Tunstal served as an usher to Henrietta Maria, as did Francis Constable and Timothy Pinkney, two of the quarter waiter ushers who had served Anne of Denmark.
Tunstall helped organise the performance of a masque Gargantua and Gargamella at Somerset House, then known as Denmark House, to celebrate the birthday of Henrietta Maria, on 16 November 1626. In the performance, the court dwarf Jeffrey Hudson fenced with a giant, the Welsh porter William Evans. [4]
Tunstall had a house at Edgcome or Edgecombe (later Addiscombe) by Croydon, and the flowers he grew for Henrietta Maria, including Colchicum variegatum and Myosotis arvensis were mentioned and illustrated by the botanists John Gerard and John Parkinson. [5] His gardener sent supplies to John Newdigate, who had a house at Croydon and a portrait of Tunstall. [6] In the 1630s he objected to commissioners taking saltpetre from his pigeon-house or dovecote for making gunpowder and had it demolished. [7]
John Tunstall married Penelope Leveson, a daughter of Walter Leveson of Lilleshall in Shropshire. [8] and a sister of the vice-admiral Richard Leveson (died 1605). [9] Penelope Leveson was a cousin of the Fittons and Newdigate families. [10]
Tunstall was a godparent to the children of Anne Newdigate, and may have arranged an invitation for her and daughter Mary Newdigate (1598-1643), to attend a masque at court in January 1617, [11] [12] probably The Vision of Delight . [13] Mary Newdigate later married Edmund Bolton, whose sister may have been the Elizabeth Bolton who took part in Robert White's Masque of Cupid's Banishment at Ladies Hall, Deptford. [14] One of Anne Newdigate's daughters, Lettice Newdigate (1604-1625), attended the Ladies Hall school in 1620 (or a school in Deptford). Her portrait, aged 2, at Arbury Hall, includes one of the earliest depictions of an English knot garden. [15]
Tuntall was a godfather to Lettice or Anne Bolton, daughters of Edward Bolton and Mary Newdigate. [16] In May 1621 he was a witness to the marriage settlement of Susan Lulls, the daughter of a court goldsmith Arnold Lulls to John Newdigate (1600-1643). Tunstall may have made an introduction between the apparently wealthy goldsmith and a gentry family in some financial difficulty. [17]
Mary Fitton was an Elizabethan gentlewoman who became a maid of honour to Queen Elizabeth. She is noted for her scandalous affairs with William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke, Vice-Admiral Sir Richard Leveson, and others. She is considered by some to be the "Dark Lady" of Shakespeare's sonnets.
Gentleman Usher and Lady Usher are titles for some officers of the Royal Household of the United Kingdom. For a list of office-holders from the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 up to the present day see List of Lady and Gentleman Ushers.
Sir Richard Newdigate, 1st Baronet was an English judge, landowner and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1660.
Lieutenant-General Sir Edward Newdigate Newdegate, was a British Army officer. Until 1887 he was Edward Newdigate.
Sir Isaac Wake was an English diplomat and political commentator. He served as ambassador to Savoy for sixteen years, and later as ambassador to France.
Ladies Hall in Deptford, London is thought to have been the first girls' school in England. Founded in approximately 1615 by Robert White, the school was for aristocratic girls connected with the royal court, and they performed before Queen Anne in May 1617. The school taught basic reading and writing in English, and it is likely they covered other skills a lady was encouraged to acquire, in music, dance, and needlework. Archival evidence for the school and its pupils beyond the published text of Robert White's masque is sparse.
Sir Walter Leveson was an Elizabethan Member of Parliament and a Shropshire and Staffordshire landowner who was ruined by involvement in piracy and mental illness.
Mary Stuart was the third daughter and sixth child of James VI and I by Anne of Denmark. Her birth was much anticipated. She developed pneumonia at 17 months and died the following year.
John Newdigate was an English politician and poet who sat in the House of Commons from 1628 to 1629.
Sir Richard Newdigate, 2nd Baronet was an English landowner, entrepreneur, engineer, and politician who held the title of Commissioner for Assessment for Warwickshire, and served on the Warwickshire Commission of the Peace, as well as the Member of Parliament for Warwickshire for two separate terms. He also became well known for investing his estate’s wealth into expansions and mining ventures, and for large infrastructure projects.
The Humorous Magistrate is a 17th-century country comedy in five acts discovered by the collector Edgar Osborne, who found the manuscript in a sale at Watnall Hall in Nottinghamshire, England in 1947. It was later sold to the University of Calgary in 1972. The play exists in two manuscripts and shows clear signs of authorial revision.
Anne Newdigate was a gentlewoman and letter writer. Many of her letters have survived including those concerning her scandalous sister Mary Fitton which help to explain whether Mary was Shakespeare's "Dark Lady".
Lady Mary Tufton was an English aristocrat and philanthropist.
Arnold Lulls was a Flemish goldsmith and jeweller in London. He served the court and made several pieces intended as diplomatic gifts.
Margaret Seton, Lady Paisley was a Scottish aristocrat, courtier and a favourite of Anne of Denmark.
Francis Fitton or Fytton was an English landowner and amateur musician.
Zachary Bethell was an English courtier, an usher, and administrator in the wardrobes of Anne of Denmark and Henrietta Maria.
Christopher Shawe or Shaw was an English embroiderer and textile artist who worked on masque costume for Anne of Denmark. He was a member of the Worshipful Company of Broderers.
Mumchance or momchaunce was a 16th-century dice or card game involving betting.
Sir Richard Newdigate, 3rd Baronet was an English landowner.