William Cookesbury or Coksbery, or Cookisbury was a London capper, haberdasher, and supplier of feathers.
Cookesbury supplied caps and hats to Elizabeth I from 1584 and was listed as the queen's capper to Elizabeth I in November 1587. [1] He made caps and hat for the queen from velvet and taffeta in 1584. Although he continued working for the queen his name is not mentioned much in her surviving accounts. [2] Cookesbury provided plumes of ostrich feathers for the horses at the funeral of Elizabeth I, their trappings were gilded by the painter Leonard Fryer. [3]
Cookesbury worked for James VI and I and Anne of Denmark after the Union of the Crowns in 1603. [4] Orders from King James include, 17 black beaver hats lined with rich taffeta, with treble black "sipers" bands and plumes of black feathers to them; a hat of black beaver richly embroidered with a plume of white feathers, a hat of ash colour beaver lined with green taffeta with a band embroidered with Venice gold and silver and a plume of gold to it, others hats, one with a plume of white feathers and a bird of paradise with a velvet band for the King's jewels, and hats for Prince Henry. It seems likely that he made matching hats for James, Henry, and Anne of Denmark. [5]
Wearing matching outfits had already become a habit at the Stuart court, Anne of Denmark and her ladies-in-waiting in Scotland, Margaret Vinstarr and Marie Stewart, and a page William Belo, had also sometimes worn matching outfits and hats. [6]
Cookesbury supplied feathers to decorate the chariots and canopies used at the Royal Entry to London in 1604. [7] He also supplied plumes of feathers for beds, which typically topped the corners of the canopy. These were made from egret feathers and dyed in various colours. [8] Plumes were also supplied to the royal horses. Cookesbury supplied "divers ffanes and fethers" for the masque costumes of The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses , which he delivered to Audrey Walsingham and Elizabeth Carey. [9]
For the wedding of Frederick V of the Palatinate and Princess Elizabeth in 1623, Cookesbury provided eight plumes of feathers, dressed with fine Venice gold and spangles. Cookesbury's son-in-law and business associate Denis Peper or Peiper supplied five hats of "tawny beaver" with tawny feathers. [10]
King James made Cookesbury and his son-in-law Denis Peiper his official suppliers of hats and feathers for his beds and stables in around 1607, and so he was known as a royal haberdasher and received a retaining fee. In 1637, an old debt of £61 due to Cookesbury was paid to Marian Motteram. [11]