Mungo Russell (merchant)

Last updated

Mungo Russell (died 1591) was a Scottish merchant and treasurer of Edinburgh burgh council from 1575 to 1583. He was involved in setting up a paper mill at Dalry.

Contents

Career

Robert Waldegrave printed the Basilikon Doron of King James VI. Basilikon Doron.jpg
Robert Waldegrave printed the Basilikon Doron of King James VI.

Mungo Russell was primarily a textile merchant, and his brother Alexander (d. 1588) was also a merchant active in Edinburgh. Mungo sold linen cloth called "lane" to Mary, Queen of Scots in 1566. His wife's will mentions that he imported "lane and camerage" from Antwerp. [2] As town treasurer, he purchased sweetmeats and a confection flavoured with rose water known as "scotchets" to banquet an English diplomat Francis Walsingham in August 1583. [3]

Russell obtained the lands of "Dalry-Mills" (now by Murrayfield) to the west of Edinburgh and from 1582 built Roseburn House. [4] He was associated with a paper mill on the Water of Leith operated on the estate by two German entrepreneurs Peter Grote Haere and Michael Keyser. They had been appointed paper makers to King James VI by privy seal letter. Some paper used in Scottish official documents and registers at this time has a royal "I.R.6" watermark. [5] [6]

Russell stocked paper of several qualities, including gilt-edged paper used for writing letters. Russell supplied paper to the printer Robert Waldegrave who relocated to Edinburgh in 1590. [7] He supplied fine purple Florentine velvet to make a canopy for the entry and coronation of Anne of Denmark in Edinburgh in May 1590. [8]

Russell died on 8 September 1591. His registered will records many current transactions and his stock of textiles. Most of the fabric listed was imported and the prices are recorded in Flemish money. He sold some cloth to tailors in Edinburgh, including Alexander Oustean. One fabric known as "tokdoir" or toque d'or was a gilt tinsel used in court masque costumes. [9] A number of people owed him money, including John Mowbray of Barnbougle, William Baillie of Provan (for materials bought by his wife Elizabeth Durham), Agnes Leslie, Lady Lochleven, the carpenter Frances Mansioun, and Archibald Douglas, whose wife Barbara Napier was the widow of the bookseller George Ker. Russell owed money to Zachary Jocond, a hatmaker in Rouen. His legacies included a gift to Thomas Fenton, who was "keeper of the king's pets", the royal menagerie at Holyrood Palace. [10]

Family

Mungo Russell married Katherine Fisher. Their children included Gideon and Clement Russell. The children's nurse was Jonet Ramsay. After Katherine's death from the plague in 1585, [11] Mungo married Isobel Ker, and their children included William Russell. Mungo had three daughters, Isobel, Margaret, and Jean Russell.

At Roseburn House, a carved door lintel is inscribed "AL MY HOIP IS IN YE LORD" with the date 1582. A heraldic shield is flanked by the initials, "M.R" and "K.F" for Russell and Fisher. [12] Another carved stone, a fireplace lintel possibly brought from another building, includes an allusion to the Scottish royal succession: "God keipe oure crowne & send gud succession". [13] Gideon Russell, who died in 1601, continued building the house and his will details his debts owed to masons, carpenters, and to Hew Lyell (d.1619), a Leith timber supplier. [14]

In February 1594, Gideon Russell and his wife Margaret Stewart made a new contract with the German paper makers Michael Keysar and John Seillar. They were making paper at the West Mill of Dalry. Gideon undertook to build a new drying room for the paper. The contract shows that the Russell family had entered into a commercial partnership with the German craftsmen and entrepreneurs. After Robert Waldegrave's death, on 12 January 1604 an Edinburgh court ordered Marion Waldegrave to pay Michael Keysar £16 for 15 reams of printing paper. [15]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford</span> English nobleman, soldier and politician

Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford, KG of Chenies in Buckinghamshire and of Bedford House in Exeter, Devon, was an English nobleman, soldier, and politician. He was a godfather to the Devon-born sailor Sir Francis Drake. He served as Lord Lieutenant of Devon (1584-5).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dalry, Edinburgh</span> Human settlement in Scotland

Dalry is an area of the Scottish capital city of Edinburgh. It is located close to the city centre, between Haymarket and Gorgie. The area is now primarily residential. It is centred around Dalry Road, which has numerous shops, restaurants and small businesses. Lying outside the old city walls and west of the castle, the area began as part of the agricultural estate of Dalry House, the exception being the Dalry Mill, recorded as the oldest paper mill in Scotland, now demolished.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roseburn</span> Human settlement in Scotland

Roseburn is a suburb of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Provan Hall</span>

Provan Hall is a historic place composed of two buildings built about the 15th century and situated in Auchinlea Park, Easterhouse, Glasgow. It is owned by the National Trust for Scotland and leased by Glasgow City Council. The two parallel buildings, enclosing a courtyard, are protected as a category A listed building. The building has recently been renovated and now operates as a small museum. It is managed by Provan Hall Community Management Trust. It has been used as a set for filming ‘Outlander’.

Events from the year 1590 in the Kingdom of Scotland.

Janet Fockart was a Scottish merchant and moneylender.

Sir Robert Chieslie of Dalry was a Scottish merchant who served as Lord Provost of Edinburgh from 1694 to 1696.

Margaret Stewart, Mistress of Ochiltree was a courtier in the household of Anne of Denmark in Scotland and looked after her children Prince Henry, Princess Elizabeth, and Charles I of England

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Entry and coronation of Anne of Denmark</span> 1590 ceremony in Edinburgh, Scotland

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.

Margaret Livingstone, Countess of Orkney was a Scottish courtier and landowner. She was a daughter of William Livingstone, 6th Lord Livingston and Agnes Fleming.

Gilbert Moncreiff was a Scottish court physician.

Robert Jameson was a Scottish shipowner from Ayr.

Elizabeth or Elspeth Gibb was a Scottish courtier.

Archibald Stewart was a Scottish merchant and Provost of Edinburgh.

John Workman or Warkman was a decorative painter working in Edinburgh.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Oustean</span>

Alexander Oustean or Oustian or Austin was a Scottish tailor and member of Edinburgh burgh council.

John Russell (1550–1613) was a Scottish lawyer and author, who acted at witch trials.

James Home of Coldenknowes was a Scottish landowner, soldier, and keeper of Edinburgh Castle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Rannald</span>

Peter Rannald was a Scottish tailor who worked for Anne of Denmark, the wife of James VI of Scotland. He made her gowns and the costumes she wore at masques.

References

  1. ↑ Adam Fox, The Press and the People: Cheap Print and Society in Scotland (Oxford, 2020), p. 63.
  2. ↑ James Balfour Paul, Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1916), p. 511: National Records of Scotland ECC8/8/17 p. 223.
  3. ↑ James David Marwick, Extracts from the Records of the Burgh of Edinburgh, 1573-1579 (Edinburgh, 1882), p. 287: Amy L. Juhala, 'Edinburgh and the Court of James VI', Julian Goodare & Alasdair A. MacDonald, Sixteenth-Century Scotland (Brill, 2008), p. 353.
  4. ↑ Joyce M. Wallace, The Historic Houses of Edinburgh (Edinburgh: John Donald, 1987), p. 223.
  5. ↑ Maureen Meikle, The Scottish People 1490-1625 (Lulu, 2013), pp. 74–75: Alistair G. Thomson, The Paper Industry in Scotland 1590–1861 (Scottish Academic Press, 1974), pp. 8–10.
  6. ↑ Alfred Henry Shorter, Paper Making in the British Isles (David and Charles, 1971), p. 192: Robert Waterston, 'Early Paper Making Near Edinburgh', Book of the Old Edinburgh Club, 25 (Edinburgh, 1945), pp. 53, 56.
  7. ↑ Rebecca J. Emmett, "The Role of James VI in the Scottish Print Trade", Rachel Stenner, Kaley Kramer, Adam James Smith, Print Culture, Agency, and Regionality in the Hand Press Period (Springer, 2022), pp. 163–184.
  8. ↑ Margaret Sanderson, 'Edinburgh Merchants', Ian B. Cowan & Duncan Shaw, Renaissance and Reformation in Scotland (Scottish Academic Press, 1983), p. 197: Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1589-1593, vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1936), p. 435: Edinburgh City Archives, 'Bailies Accounts, Unlaws 1564-1664', p. 285.
  9. ↑ Michael Pearce, 'Anna of Denmark: Fashioning a Danish Court in Scotland', The Court Historian, 24:2 (2019), p. 149. doi : 10.1080/14629712.2019.1626110: Hermann W. Haller, John Florio: A Worlde of Wordes (University of Toronto, 2013), p. 728, "toccadoro".
  10. ↑ Margaret Sanderson, 'Edinburgh Merchants', Ian B. Cowan & Duncan Shaw, Renaissance and Reformation in Scotland (Scottish Academic Press, 1983), pp. 183–199, citing National Records of Scotland CC8/8/25 p. 373, and Katherine Fisher's 1585 will, ECC8/8/17, pp. 217–226.
  11. ↑ Katherine Fisher's will was registered on 28 March 1587 after her death due to plague on 12 August 1585, "Katharene Fischear", NRS CC8/8/17 pp. 217–226. Her registered will also narrates the stocks of fabrics belonging to the family business and current debts, and includes a testament or "latterwill" made by Mungo Russell on 30 July 1585 and other latterwills made in the time of "pest" at Dalry Mill. She bequeathed her clothes and jewellery to her relations.
  12. ↑ Roseburn House: HES Canmore
  13. ↑ "Roseburn House; inscribed lintel", HES Canmore
  14. ↑ "Roseburn House", Inventory of Monuments in Edinburgh (Edinburgh: RCAHMS, HMSO, 2951), p. 231 & plate 7: NRS CC8/8/17, "Gedioun Russell", pp. 302–307.
  15. ↑ Robert Waterston, 'Early Paper Making Near Edinburgh', Book of the Old Edinburgh Club, 25 (Edinburgh, 1945), pp. 56–58: Cathryn Spence, Women, Credit, and Debt in Early Modern Scotland (Manchester, 2016), p. 83: Edinburgh City Archives, Books of Decreets, SL234/1/6, 12 & 14 January 1604.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.