Margaret Wood (courtier)

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Margaret Wood was a Scottish Catholic courtier. [1]

Family background

She was a daughter of Patrick Wood, Laird of Bonnyton and Nicholas or Nicola Wardlaw, Lady Bonnyton, who was a daughter of Henry Wardlaw of Torrie and a former lady in waiting to Mary, Queen of Scots. She was sometimes known as "Madame Torrie". [2] [3]

Contents

Armorials stones from Bonnyton Castle, home of the Wood family Bonnyton Farm - geograph.org.uk - 377158.jpg
Armorials stones from Bonnyton Castle, home of the Wood family

Her mother, Nicholas Wardlaw, came to the christening of Patrick Young, at St Vigeans Church in August 1584, and asked Peter Young that the child be named Patrick. In 1604, Peter Young baptised a daughter, Nicholas, named after Lady Bonnyton who was the godmother. [4]

The Catholic author George Conn described Margaret Wood as the sister of James Wood, the younger laird of Boniton or Bonnington (Bonnyton) near Montrose in Maryton parish, and wife of James (or William) Gray, tutor of the House of Schivas. She had been brought up among the maidens of the household of Anne of Denmark. She joined a nunnery at Carpentras. [5] Her sister Magdalen Wood married George Leslie of Kincraigie. [6]

At court

Anne of Denmark bought clothes for some of the ladies in waiting and servants in Scotland, including a warm woollen gown of black cloth and plaiding for "Magie", possibly to be identified as Margaret Wood. The gowns were made in 1593 for the "maidens" or "damsels" who served in the queen's chamber. [7]

In 1598 she organised the baptism of the child of a woman in Ellon parish, Elizabeth Burn from the Yett of Birness. [8] Wood told her to take the baby to "the burn next to Barrowley" near Buffel Hill, where a man dressed in black plaid performed the ceremony. [9]

Her brother, James Wood, returned to Scotland from France in April 1599 travelling with the English poet Henry Constable. The English diplomat George Nicholson noted that he was a Catholic and had a disagreement with his father. [10] James Wood was arrested at Mass in Edinburgh. [11] Margaret Wood also attended the Mass at Andrew Napier's house, and was described as a servant of Henrietta Stewart, Marchioness of Huntly, rather than Anne of Denmark. The Privy Council ordered the Marchioness to dismiss Margaret and a companion named Barclay. [12]

James Wood had broken into their father's house, Bonnyton Castle, during as family dispute involving the lands of Birness in Aberdeenshire, which he given to Barbara Gray (a kinswoman of Margaret Wood's husband). [13] [14] He was carrying letters from Anne of Denmark to the Pope. [15] James Wood was found guilty of theft and rebellion and executed on 27 April 1601. [16] [17]

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References

  1. ↑ Maureen M. Meikle & Helen M. Payne, 'From Lutheranism to Catholicism: The Faith of Anna of Denmark', The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 64:1 (2013), p. 57.
  2. ↑ Annie Cameron, Warrender Papers, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1932), p. 384.
  3. ↑ John Charles Gibson, The Wardlaws in Scotland: A History of the Wardlaws of Wilton and Torrie (Edinburgh, 1912), pp. 70–72: Charles Thorpe McInnes, Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland, 12 (Edinburgh: HMSO, 1970), pp. 19, 395–396.
  4. ↑ Hugh Young, Sir Peter Young, Knight Of Seaton (1896), pp. 61, 64.
  5. ↑ Georgii Conaei, De duplici statu religionis apud Scotos (Rome, 1628), pp. 161-2, 'Margarita Woda baronis soror, ac clarissimi viri Jacobi Grayi Toparchae de Schives uxor, fratris studio ad fidem Catholicam traducta, diu inter nobiles reginae Annae puellas cum vixisset, sanguine, modestia, pudicitia celebris, tandem solum vertit, viuitque Carpentoracti FRANCISCI Cardinalis BARBERINI benignitate & praesidio foelix': Alasdair Roberts, 'Popery in Buchan and Strathbogie in the early 17th century', Scottish Church History (1997), p. 140
  6. ↑ Charles Joseph Leslie, Historical Records of the Family of Leslie, vol. 3 (Edinburgh, 1869), p. 336.
  7. ↑ Michael Pearce, 'Anna of Denmark: Fashioning a Danish Court in Scotland', The Court Historian, 24:2 (2019), pp. 143, 147: National Records of Scotland, E31/14 f.31r.
  8. ↑ Margaret H. B. Sanderson, "Catholic Recusancy in Scotland in the Sixteenth Century", Innes Review, 21:2 (Autumn 1970), pp. 96–97. doi : 10.3366/inr.1970.21.2.87
  9. ↑ Christine Peters, Women in Early Modern Britain, 1450-1640 (Bloomsbury, 2017), p. 141: Catherine McMillan, 'Scho refuseit altogidder to heir his voce: Women and Catholic Recusancy in North East Scotland, 1560-1610', Scottish Church History (June 2016), p. 40, citing CH2/146/1/36, 16 May 1599.
  10. ↑ John Duncan Mackie, Calendar State Papers Scotland, 13:1 (Edinburgh, 1969), p. 419 no. 335.
  11. ↑ David Calderwood, History of the Kirk of Scotland, 6 (Edinburgh, 1845), pp. 102–105
  12. ↑ David Masson, Register of the Privy Council, vol. 6 (Edinburgh, 1884), pp. 233, 235.
  13. ↑ Annie Cameron, Warrender Papers, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1932), p. 384.
  14. ↑ Georgii Conaei, De duplici statu religionis apud Scotos (Rome, 1628), p. 160.
  15. ↑ Maureen Meikle, 'Once a Dane, Always Always a Dane? Queen Anna of Denmark's Foreign Relations and Intercessions as a Queen Consort of Scotland and England, 1588-1619', Sara Ayres, The Court Historian, 24:2 (August 2019), pp. 168-180
  16. ↑ Francis Shearman, 'James Wood of Boniton', Innes Review 5 (1954), pp. 28-32
  17. ↑ Calendar State Papers Scotland, 13:2 (Edinburgh, 1969), pp. 813-4 no. 654.
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