Margaret Wood (courtier)

Margaret Wood was a Scottish Catholic courtier. ^[1] She was a daughter of Patrick Wood, Laird of Bonnyton and Nicholas Wardlaw, Lady Bonnyton, who was a daughter of Henry Wardlaw of Torrie and a former lady in waiting to Mary, Queen of Scots. ^[2]

Armorials stones from Bonnyton Castle, home of the Wood family

The Catholic author George Conn described her 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. ^[3] Her sister Magdalen Wood married George Leslie of Kincraigie. ^[4]

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. ^[5]

In 1598 she organised the baptism of the child of a woman in Ellon parish, Elizabeth Burn from the Yett of Birness. 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. ^[6]

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. ^[7] James Wood was arrested after breaking into his father's house. A family dispute involved the lands of Birness, part of his mother's "conjunct fie", which he had given to his wife, Barbara Gray (a kinswoman of Margaret Wood's husband). ^{[8] [9]} He was carrying letters from Anne of Denmark to the Pope. ^[10] He was found guilty of theft and rebellion and executed on 27 April 1601. ^{[11] [12]}

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. 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
4. Charles Joseph Leslie, Historical Records of the Family of Leslie, vol. 3 (Edinburgh, 1869), p. 336.
5. 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.
6. Christine Peters, Women in Early Modern Britain, 1450-1640 (Bloomsbury, 2017), p. 141: See also, 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.
7. John Duncan Mackie, Calendar State Papers Scotland, 13:1 (Edinburgh, 1969), p. 419 no. 335.
8. Annie Cameron, Warrender Papers, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1932), p. 384.
9. Georgii Conaei, De duplici statu religionis apud Scotos (Rome, 1628), p. 160.
10. 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
11. Francis Shearman, 'James Wood of Boniton', Innes Review 5 (1954), pp. 28-32
12. Calendar State Papers Scotland, 13:2 (Edinburgh, 1969), pp. 813-4 no. 654.