William Portington (1544-1628) was an English carpenter and joiner, originally from St Albans, employed by Elizabeth I and James VI and I. He was master carpenter of the Office of Works. [1]
Portington was employed by Sir Nicholas Bacon, the Lord Keeper, for his buildings on Fetter Lane. Sir Nathaniel Bacon of Stiffkey and Sir Nicholas Bacon of Redgrave paid him £20 in May 1579. [2]
Portington was employed in April and May 1603 during preparations for the coronation of King James and other ceremonies, supervised by Simon Basil and William Spicer. His account survives in the library of the University of Edinburgh. He repaired and altered the privy lodgings at the Tower of London and built new sheds for the kitchen and a pump to bring water from the Thames to the kitchen cistern. He repaired the "standard" or fountain at Westminster Palace. [3]
Portington worked for Robert Cecil at his London house in the Strand, [4] and is thought to have made the Great Hall screen at Knole for Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset. [5]
He made masque scenery including the temple and rock for The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses performed in January 1604. [6] He provided the shelving in Anne of Denmark's silkworm house. [7]
He built the "hearse" or catafalque in Westminster Abbey for the funeral of Prince Henry in 1612. [8]
Portington owned a house in St Martin's Lane, which he let to the crown for the use of the painter Daniël Mijtens.
His portrait was given to the London Company of Ironmongers by Matthew Bankes in 1637. [9] The picture shows him with dividers and compass. [10]
Anne of Denmark was the wife of King James VI and I; as such, she was Queen of Scotland from their marriage on 20 August 1589 and Queen of England and Ireland from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until her death in 1619.
John Bacon was a British sculptor who worked in the late 18th century. Bacon has been reckoned the founder of the British School of sculpture. He won numerous awards, held the esteem of George III, and examples of his works adorn St Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey in London, Christ Church, Oxford, Pembroke College, Oxford, Bath Abbey and Bristol Cathedral.
Sir Nicholas Bacon was Lord Keeper of the Great Seal during the first half of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England. He was the father of the philosopher and statesman Sir Francis Bacon.
Robert Baillie was a Church of Scotland minister who became famous as an author and a propagandist for the Covenanters.
James Macpherson was a Scottish writer, poet, literary collector, and politician. He is known for the Ossian cycle of epic poems, which he claimed to have discovered and translated from Gaelic.
James Thomson was a Scottish poet and playwright, known for his poems The Seasons and The Castle of Indolence, and for the lyrics of "Rule, Britannia!"
Knole is a country house and former archbishop's palace owned by the National Trust. It is situated within Knole Park, a 1,000-acre (400-hectare) park located immediately to the south-east of Sevenoaks in west Kent. The house ranks in the top five of England's largest houses, under any measure used, occupying a total of four acres.
Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset was an English statesman, poet, and dramatist. He was the son of Richard Sackville, a cousin to Anne Boleyn. He was a Member of Parliament and Lord High Treasurer.
Edward Sackville, 4th Earl of Dorset KG was an English courtier, soldier and politician. He sat in the House of Commons from 1621 to 1622 and became Earl of Dorset in 1624. He fought a duel in his early life, and was later involved in colonisation in North America. He supported the Royalist cause in the English Civil War.
Lucy Russell, Countess of Bedford was a major aristocratic patron of the arts and literature in the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras, the primary non-royal performer in contemporary court masques, a letter-writer, and a poet. She was an adventurer (shareholder) in the Somers Isles Company, investing in Bermuda, where Harrington Sound is named after her.
Richard Sackville, 3rd Earl of Dorset was the eldest surviving son of Robert Sackville, 2nd Earl of Dorset, by his first wife, Margaret, a daughter of the Duke of Norfolk.
The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses was an early Jacobean-era masque, written by Samuel Daniel and performed in the Great Hall of Hampton Court Palace on the evening of Sunday, 8 January 1604. One of the earliest of the Stuart Court masques, staged when the new dynasty had been in power less than a year and was closely engaged in peace negotiations with Spain, The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses stood as a precedent and a pattern for the many masques that followed during the next four decades.
Sir Thomas Robinson, 1st Baronet (1703–1777), of Rokeby, Yorkshire, was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1727 to 1734 and was a Governor of Barbados. He was an architect, collector and an extravagant character, whose life was the inspiration for numerous anecdotes.
Sir Nathaniel Bacon, of Stiffkey in Norfolk, was an English lawyer and Member of Parliament (MP).
John Murray, 1st Earl of Annandale was a Scottish courtier and Member of Parliament.
Mary Middlemore was a Courtier and Maid of Honour to Anne of Denmark, subject of poems, and treasure hunter.
The coronation of James I and his wife Anne as King and Queen of England and Ireland was held on 25 July 1603 at Westminster Abbey. James had reigned as King James VI of Scotland since 1567. Anne was anointed and consecrated with prayers alluding to Esther, the Wise Virgins, and other Biblical heroines. It was the first coronation to be conducted in English instead of Latin. A planned ceremonial Royal Entry to London was deferred until 15 March 1604.
James VI and I (1566–1625), King of England, Scotland, and Ireland, died on 27 March 1625 at Theobalds, and was buried at Westminster Abbey on 7 May 1625.
Oliver Browne was a London upholsterer and furniture maker in the 17th century who worked for aristocrats and the royal court. His business partners included John Baker, another upholsterer or "upholder", who worked for the royal family. Baker had been "upholster" for the household of Prince Henry. Baker's son, also John Baker, continued the business after the Restoration.
James Duncan of Ratho was a Scottish tailor and landowner who worked for Anne of Denmark in England.
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