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Sir David Cunningham of Robertland: Murderer and ‘Magna Britannia’s’ First Architect

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2016

Aonghus Mackechnie
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Extract

The year 1603 was one of the British Isles’ most critical dates, due to regnal union. Scotland’s King James VI became, in addition, England and Ireland’s new King James I, and sought immediately to convert regnal into full union, building a Magna Britannia: Great Britain. He sought uniformity in all areas political and religious. That project foundered, not least due to English apprehension towards the influx of Scots promoted to major English posts. One such appointee was the King’s master of works in Scotland, David Cunningham of Robertland, whom James appointed Surveyor of the Works in England.

Cunningham seems therefore to have been a highly significant person, worthy of close study, but current research limits this. How can an architectural figure who may have built nothing be important to architectural study? Who was this Cunningham of Robertland? Why did James appoint him to the highest architectural position in his gift, not once but twice, and when each time there must have been alternative candidates? Seeking an answer to these questions opens up an exploration of the wider issue of the status and function of the master of works and the Surveyor in this period, as will be seen.

Type
Research Article
Information
Architectural History , Volume 52 , 2009 , pp. 79 - 115
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Copyright © Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain 2009

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References

Notes

1 The main substance of this paper was given on 5 October 2007 in a lecture entitled ‘Sir David Cunningham of Robertland: the Scottish architectural scene and James VI & Fs Magna Britannia’ at the London leg of the ‘Fruits of Exchange’ conference organized by Professor Ian Campbell and Professor Andrew Saint: four hundred years almost to the day from Robertland’s death.

2 I am grateful to Dr Bill McQueen for disentangling the confusion over Robertland’s immediate family tree.

3 See the account of the feud in Brown, Keith M., Bloodfeud in Scotland 1523-1625: Violence, Justice and Politics in an Early Modern Society (Edinburgh, 1986), pp. 85–105 Google Scholar. This was a period when both Highland and Lowland families were often feuding; the Johnstones and Maxwells, for instance, fought a battle at Dryfe Sands near Lockerbie in 1593, while in 1598 the MacLeans and MacDonalds fought at Gruinart on Islay.

4 Robertland was stated to have been the ringleader, and the contemporary historian David Calderwood (1575-1651) recorded that ‘Hugh, Erie of Eglintoun, passing out of his owne hous to Stirling […] was beset by the Laird of Robertland, and […] [other Cunninghams] […], and slaine’, The History of the Kirk of Scotland by Mr David Calderwood, ed. Thomas Thomson, 4 vols (Edinburgh, 1842-49), IV, p. 547.

5 Moysie, David, Memoirs of the Affairs of Scotland 1577-1603 (Edinburgh, 1830), p. 57 Google Scholar; Thomson, Thomas, The Historie and Life of King James the Sext, 1566-1596 (Edinburgh, 1825), pp. 239–40 Google Scholar. Perhaps Robertland and his accomplices were ‘instruments’ of Glencairn, showing that he had the power to get lairds to act as they did. A statement of a family’s status involved — especially in the Gaelic world — not simply who their family was, but who their alliances were, and the numbers and standing of their followers. Glencairn knew this well, for not only was he a Highlands property owner, but his wife Margaret was of the Glenorchy (later Breadalbane) Campbells. (William Gillies, ‘The Invention of Tradition, Style’, Highland, in The Renaissance in Scotland: Studies in Literature, Religion, History and Culture, ed. MacDonald, A. A. et al. (Leiden, 1994), p. 144.Google Scholar Glencairn and his father-in-law, Campbell of Glenorchy, went on to gain prominence in the royal favour, Glencairn becoming a Privy Councillor and Commissioner to Parliament (Brown, Bloodfeud, p. 87; The Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, ed. Burton, J. Hill and Masson, D., 1st series, 14 vols (Edinburgh, 1877-98), iv, p. 257; Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 60 vols (Oxford, 2004), 14, p. 660 Google Scholar.

6 Brown, Bloodfeud, p. 88; Fraser, William, Memorials of the Montgomeries Earls of Eglinton, 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1859), 11, pp. 223–28.Google Scholar

7 National Archives of Scotland (hereafter NAS), GD148/230.

8 Cunninghame, Topographised by Timothy Pont A.M., 1604-1608, with Continuations and Illustrative Notices by the late James Dobie of Crummock, F.S.A. Scot., ed. John Shedden Dobie (Glasgow, 1876), p. 65. If the Commendator’s daughter was Robertland’s wife, then they cannot have been long married at that point, she having been declared a virgin in a sasine [title] of March 1585. Reference to ‘bairne or bairnes’ suggests that her second pregnancy was underway (NAS, GD 39/1 /122).

9 Christian IV and his regents had previously written to James asking for Robertland’s pardon and, in Copenhagen, George Keith (the Earl Marischal) and the Chancellor [from 1590 Sir] John Maitland of Thirlestane added their support. An approach was made on 27 November by the chief ladies-in-waiting to the Scottish chancellor and a wider party subsequently went to the Old Bishop’s Palace where James was present. Robertland was pardoned that same day. In around 1586, Maitland purchased the ‘Castlehill of Lauder’, where an English fort of 1547 stood, and built a new castle or mansion there, which he renamed after his Borders property of Thirlestane. According to the Buildings of Scotland authors, the new building ‘stands at the forefront of [the architectural innovations and experiment of the time]. Indeed, the plan was unique’. The building dates they give of 1587-90 are stated to be probable, thus not ruling out entirely the possibility of Robertland and Maitland having discussed the new building’s design together; however, Michael Pearce (pers. comm.) has shown work was already begun by March 1586/87. See Stevenson, David, Scotland’s Last Royal Wedding (Edinburgh, 1997), pp. 37, 94–95 Google Scholar; Riis, Thomas, Should Auld Acquaintance be Forgot […]: Scottish-Danish Relations c.1450-1707, 2 vols (Odense, 1988), I, pp. 139–40 Google Scholar; 11, p. 58; Cruft, Catherine and others, Buildings of Scotland: Borders (New Haven and London, 2006), pp. 716–23 Google Scholar. Michael Pearce has identified Schaw as being of the Broich family.

10 Meikle, Maureen M., ‘A Meddlesome Princess: Anna of Denmark and Scottish Court Politics, 1589-1603’, in The Reign of James VI, ed. Goodare, Julian and Lynch, Michael (East Linton, 2000), pp. 126–40 Google Scholar. As Meikle observed, Anna’s actions on behalf of others were creditable; for example, she tried to stop the feud between the Kerrs of Cessford and of Ancrum and even ventured into international diplomacy, making James write to Elizabeth on behalf of a Dane who had been the victim of English pirates.

11 The Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, iv, pp. 601,787; Papers relative to the marriage of King James the Sixth of Scotland, with the Princess Anna of Denmark […] AD 1589 (Edinburgh, 1828), appendix III, pp. 23, 28, 30-31.

12 NAS, GD 86/304, 311; GD 148/308, 315, 320.

13 Exchequer Rolls, vol. 22 (1589-94), pp. 176, 301 and vol. 23 (1595-1600), pp. 372-73. Other land rights held by Robertland are noticed in Dobie, Cunninghame, pp. 115, 139, 187, 318.

14 Meikle, , ‘Meddlesome Princess’, p. 138 Google Scholar; McKean, Charles, ‘Some Later Jacobean Villas in Scotland’, in The Renaissance Villa in Britain 1500-1700, ed. Airs, Malcolm and Tyack, Geoffrey (Reading, 2007), p. 77 Google Scholar. The Earls of Glencairn (the foremost branch of the Cunninghams) and their kin were, or tended to be, Protestant; the Montgomeries tended to be Catholic.

15 Paterson, James, History of the Counties of Ayr and Wigton, 2 vols (Paisley, 1866), III, pt ii — Cuninghame, p. 609 Google Scholar.

16 Calendar of the State Papers relating to Scotland […] 1547-160) (hereafter CSP Scotland), ed. Joseph Bain et al., vols (Edinburgh, 1898-1969), XIII, pt I (1969), p. 172, George Nicolson to Lord Burghley, Edinburgh, 15 March 1597/8: ‘Yesterday at noon the Duke of Houlster [Holstein], the Queen’s brother, came hither and making himself known to the laird of Robertland sent word to the Queen of his coming’. Ulrik arrived in Scotland on 14 March 1598 (Riis, Should Auld Acquaintance be Forgot, II, p. 296). Ulrik was banqueted in Bailie MacMorran’s House at Riddle’s Court ( Chambers, Robert, Domestic Annals of Scotland, 3 vols (Edinburgh, 1858), 1, p. 298 Google Scholar).

17 Thomas Cunningham is best known to Scottish historians for the journal kept by his son, also Thomas, , ‘agent for Scotland in the Netherlands and Conservator of the Privileges of the Scottish Nation there’: The Journal of Thomas Cunningham of Campvere 1640-1654, ed. Courthope, Elinor Joan, 3rd series (Edinburgh, 1928), p. xi Google Scholar. On 10 November 1593 John gave Robertland £45 12s Scots as complete payment of all counts and reckonings between them (NAS, GD 103/2/105).

18 CSP Scotland, XIII, p. 631, George Nicolson to Sir Robert Cecil, Edinburgh, 8 April 1600: ‘This bearer, Thomas Cunninghame of Campvere, coming hither to visit his friends, and now returning through England homewards, having with him a horse which his cousin, the laird of Robertland, has given him, and having some money owing him in London, his brother John has desired me to pray your Honour to give him passport for his passage with his horse to Campvere’.

19 CSP Scotland, XIII, p. 541, George Nicolson to Sir Robert Cecil, Edinburgh, 29 August 1599: ‘They say Anthony Atkinson, searcher of Hull, took the 20 muskets with their furniture and 2 rapiers and daggers from a Scots gentleman, the laird of Robertland’s son, called Cunningham, servant in chamber to Count Maurice, who complains not and is come to see his friends and to return, and that what should the King do with muskets, give him beans and peas and it might serve him. At which the King grieves, the muskets being for his domestics and the rather because he hears his subjects have been lately ill used along almost or all the coast of England, especially at Yarmouth, where he hears they said to his subjects that he was banded with Spain and Denmark against England’. Diplomacy required that all the weapons be sent on. On 22 August James wrote requiring the arrest of all Hull ships; Alexander Brown had ‘bought within the country of Flanders certain muskets […] of purpose to have brought [them] to our realm and to have sold the same to the officers and servants of our house’ (ibid., p. 533).

20 The terms ‘work’ or ‘works’, ‘wark’ or ‘warks’ (each is used in respect of the master of work[s]) often meant ‘building(s)’; hence ‘Mar’s Wark’ in Stirling, a palace built for the Earl of Mar, Regent 1571-72.

21 Accounts of the Master of Works 1529-1615, ed. Paton, Henry M. et al 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1957), 1, pp. xvi–xxi Google Scholar; MacKechnie, Aonghus, ‘James VI’s Architects and their Architecture’, in The Reign of James VI, pp. 154–69 Google Scholar; MacKechnie, Aonghus, ‘Scots Court Architecture of the Early Seventeenth Century’ (unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1993), chs 6-7Google Scholar; McKean, Charles, The Scottish Château: the Country House of Renaissance Scotland (Stroud, 2001)Google Scholar, Appendix 1; McKean, Charles, ‘Sir James Hamilton of Finnart — a Renaissance Courtier-Architect’, Architectural History, 42 (1999), pp. 141–71 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Pearce, Michael Webb, ‘Epitaph and Subject: Sir Robert Drummond of Carnock’ (unpublished MPhil thesis, University of Dundee, 2009 Google Scholar), ch. 1. Further afield, the changing role of the architect has been discussed by Kanerva, Liisa, Between Science and Drawings: Renaissance Architects on Vitruvius’s Educational Ideas (Helsinki, 2006)Google Scholar; Kanerva, Liisa, ‘Between Science and Drawings: Renaissance Architects on Vitruvius’s Educational Ideas’, Renaissance Quarterly, 61:4 (Winter 2008), pp. 1257–59.Google Scholar

22 Pearce, Epitaph and Subject. The Schaw armorial survived in Dunvegan Castle on Skye. (See Campbell, Ian, ‘James IV and Edinburgh’s First Triumphal Arches’, in The Architecture of Scottish Cities: Essays in Honour of David Walker, ed. Mays, Deborah (East Linton, 1997), pp. 26–33.Google Scholar)

23 The Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, XI, pp. 387-88. There was a structured hierarchy. For instance, William Sydserff of Roughlaw, ‘Maister of the Cariadge and his aydes’, also received £1,000, while another of the masters [that ‘of the Chanrie(?)’] received only £200 (Pearce, Epitaph and Subject, p. 15).

24 The Poems of Alexander Montgomerie, ed. James Cranstoun (Edinburgh, 1887), p. 221. Rod Lyall was good enough to inform me of this reference. Montgomerie (c. 1545-98), one-time court poet, Catholic, and close friend of James in the 1580s (when he was nicknamed ‘beloved Sanders’), found it near impossible to re-enter the court circle. Being a Montgomerie may have been enough to lead to his exclusion while Robertland enjoyed royal favour, although the anti-Catholicism of those around James seems to have been the main reason. The poet was a son of the laird of Hazlehead (‘Hessilheid’) who died in 1558. Alexander’s brother Hew, the new laird, was one of those given commission ‘for apprehending the slayers of Hew, Earl of Eglintoun’ and who in or by the summer of 1586 had attacked the murderers’ houses, including Robertland (see below). Montgomerie was described in that year as ‘nere in place and credytt and place to the kynge of Skottland’, although he was to lose that favour (The Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, IV, p. 95; Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 38, pp. 810-12). The word ‘brave’ seems to have been more akin to the word ‘excellent’ than to today’s meaning. Another Scots version of the word is ‘braw’ (cf. Italian ‘bravo’, Gaelic ‘breagha’).

25 Mylne, R. S., ‘The Masters of Work to The Crown of Scotland, with the Writs of Appointment, from 1529 to 1768’, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (hereafter PSAS), xxx (1896), pp. 49–68 (p. 55)Google Scholar. Carnock was another feuder (The Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, iv, pp. 95-96).

26 The Parliaments of Scotland: Burgh and Shire Commissioners, gen. ed. Margaret D. Young, 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1992), 1, p. 166.

27 The Treasurer subsequently sued Carnock for non-payment when Erskine (whom Michael Pearce has identified as Carnock’s father-in-law) failed to meet his obligations (The Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, in, pp. 619, 700, 717). Erskine was evidently forgiven, for he attended the parliament that opened on 11 September 1593 as Commendator of Cambuskenneth. See The Scots Peerage, ed. Sir James Balfour Peel, 9 vols (Edinburgh, 1904-11), v, pp. 81, 611.

28 Dummond and his immediate predecessors were landowners, as was Robertland, while it seems Schaw was not. Robertland’s successor, James Murray, was a wright in the royal works and seems to have become a landowner only in 1612, after which he became known as [from 1633 Sir] James Murray of Kilbaberton.

29 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 49, pp. 206-07.

30 Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (hereafter RCAHMS), Inventory of Fife, Kinross and Clackmannan (Edinburgh, 1933), p. 112. The RCAHMS translation of Schaw’s epitaph includes the following:

a man illustrious for his rare experience, his admirable rettitude, his unmatched integrity of life, and his consummate qualities, William S[c]haw, the King’s Master of Works, Master of the Ceremonies, and Chamberlain to the Queen. He died 18 April 1602, having sojourned among men for two and fifty years. In his eagerness to improve his mind he travelled through France and many other kingdoms. Accomplished in every liberal art, he excelled in architecture. Princes in particular esteemed him for his conspicuous gifts. Alike in his professional work and in affairs he was not merely tireless and indomitable but consistently upright. His innate capacity for service and for laying others under an obligation won him the warm affection of every good man […] Queen Ann[a] ordered a monument to be set up to the memory of a most admirable and most upright man lest the recollection of his high character, which deserves to be honoured for all time, should fade.

Another inscription printed in the same source (p. 112) states that Schaw was ‘the true-hearted friend’ of Alexander Seton. The expression ‘many other kingdoms’ might be a Presbyterian-friendly euphemism to embrace Rome.

31 Stevenson, David, The Origins of Freemasonry: Scotland’s Century: 1590-1710 (Cambridge, 1988), p. 28 Google Scholar.

32 Accounts of the Master of Works 1529-1615,1, p. xxviii.

33 Accounts of the Master of Works 1616-1649, 11, ed. J. Imrie and J. G. Dunbar, * vols (Edinburgh, 1982), II, p. lix. Unlike Schaw, Spicer, Basil and Jones, but like Robertland, both Kilbaberton (1633) and Alexander (1635) were knighted in post.

34 MacKechnie, Aonghus, ‘Sir William Bruce: “the chief introducer of Architecture in this country”‘, in PSAS, 132 (2002), pp. 499–519 Google Scholar; Wemyss, Charles, ‘Merchant and Citizen of Rotterdam: The Early Career of Sir William Bruce’, Architectural Heritage, 17 (2005), pp. 14–30 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ottenheim, Konrad, ‘Dutch Influences on William Bruce’s Architecture’, Architectural Heritage, 18 (2007), pp. 135–49 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

35 Accounts of the Master of Works 1529-161;, 1, p. xxviii.

36 The History of the King’s Works, ed. Howard Colvin et al, 6 vols (London, 1963-83), 1485-1660, in, pt i, pp. 95-96; Girouard, Mark, Robert Smythson and the Elizabethan Country House (New Haven and London, 1983), p. 16.Google Scholar

37 Mylne, ‘The Masters of Work’, p. 55.

38 John Dunbar has pointed previously to several of the buildings mentioned here as exemplars, in Accounts of the Master of Works 1616-1649, 11, pp. lxv-lxxii.

39 Details of Scottish Domestic Architecture, ed. James Gillespie (Edinburgh, 1922), pis 9, 20, 31; MacKechnie, Aonghus, ‘Design Approaches in Early Post-Reformation Scots Houses’, in Scottish Country Houses 1600-1914, ed. Gow, Ian and Rowan, Alistair (Edinburgh, 1995), pp. 15–33.Google Scholar

40 Glendinning, Miles et al, A History of Scottish Architecture (Edinburgh, 1996), pp. 42–43 Google Scholar.

41 Summerson, John, The Classical Language of Architecture (London, 1980), p. 62 Google Scholar; Girouard, , Robert Smythson, p. 250 Google Scholar.

42 John Gifford’s assessment is that the aisle ‘is like a small but very classy tower house’ ( Gifford, John, Buildings of Scotland: Fife (Harmondsworth, 1988), pp. 170–71 Google Scholar). Alexander Seton is associated above all with Fyvie (1590s) and Pinkie (1613), but he had an official residence at Dunfermline Palace and in 1593 acquired the nearby estate of Dalgety, which had a major landscaped residence, now long gone. Significantly, he chose there for his family aisle and thus place of burial, perhaps confirming the role of Pinkie as a villa suburbana near the ‘capital’ of Edinburgh as against primary residence ( Seton, George, Memoir of Alexander Seton, Earl of Dunfermline, President of the Court of Session and Chancellor of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1882), pp. 141–46 Google Scholar). It has been suggested this aisle may have been an oratory, Seton being Catholic see Charles McKean, ‘Scottish Religious Architecture after the Council of Trent’, pp. 1-20 (pp. 8-9) at: www.dundee.ac.uk/history/…/22McKEANSRevuTextIllRENVOYE.pdf

43 NAS, CC9/7/7,169-70.

44 Sebastiano Serlio: On Architecture, vol. i, ed. Vaughan Hart and Peter Hicks (New Haven, 1996), pp. 318-19. Serlio’s designs were used elsewhere in Scotland; for instance, compare ibid., p. 369 with MacGibbon, David and Ross, Thomas, Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland, 5 vols (Edinburgh, 1887-92), V, p. 50.Google Scholar

45 McKean, , The Scottish Chateau, pp. 128–29, 290 Google Scholar.

46 Accounts of the Master of Works 1616-1649, II, p. Ix

47 Compare Details of Scottish Domestic Architecture, pl. 9.

48 The closeness of the family ties between the two is unclear due to the uncertainty noted above over which Jean Cunningham was Robertland’s wife. Were she in fact the daughter of the Commendator of Kilwinning, who was a son of the fifth Earl of Glencairn, then she would have been second cousin of the sixth Earl, underlining the closeness of Robertland and Glencairn. See The Scots Peerage, iv, p. 241; NAS, GD39/1/121, 122. See also NAS, GD148/308. This last is an obligation by Alexander, Commendator of Kilwinning, to fulfil the terms of a Letter of Reversion granted by his deceased father Alexander, Earl of Glencairn, and his deceased mother, Dame Jean Cunningham, in favour of David Cunningham, ‘now of Robertland’, dated 7 September 1580.

49 ‘WROCHT BE DAVID SCWGAL MASSON BURGES IN CAREL.’

50 Elizabeth’s monument was executed by Colt, Maximilian (The History of the King’s Works 1485-1660, III, pt i, p. 120 Google Scholar). Colt (fl. 1595-1645) was one of the highest-profile sculptors in England, whose other works included memorials for James and Anna’s two infant daughters. In July 1608 Colt was given the newly-created post of master sculptor or master carver to the king.

51 James was paranoid about Henry’s safety, and Anna was distressed at being separated from him. The care of Princess Elizabeth was given over to Lord Alexander and Lady Livingstone, and her early years were spent at Linlithgow Palace. On 7 May 1603, James having gone south, Anna went to Stirling Castle with some noblemen. Glencairn (representing the Cunningham interest as siding with the Queen) was among them, ‘weill accompanied with their friends’. She sought to bring Henry with her, but Lady Mar ‘gave a flat denyall’. Where Robertland was that day is unknown. Anna miscarried shortly afterwards (The Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, vi, p. 57m).

52 Stevenson, David, The First Freemasons: Scotland’s Early Lodges and their Members (Aberdeen, 1988), p. 63 Google Scholar and passim. Stevenson also highlights the prominent role of subsequent generations of the Robertland Cunninghams in his The Origins of Freemasonry, p. 187 and passim.

53 Fraser, , Memorials of the Montgomeries Earls of Eglinton, 11, p. 241 Google Scholar; Shaw, James Edward, Ayrshire 1745-1950 (Edinburgh, 1953), p. 27 Google Scholar.

54 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 14, p. 660.

55 NAS, CC9/7/7,09/03/1611; Details of Scottish Domestic Architecture, pl. 63. The Laird of Rowallan was also indebted to the Robertlands (NAS, CC9/7/7). Rowallan has ‘buckle-quoins’ on one element: a distinctive corner-stone treatment seen in Scotland on some elite seventeenth-century buildings, the earliest dateable examples belonging to the time of Robertland’s successor, James Murray (see MacKechnie, Aonghus, ‘Evidence of a post-1603 Scottish Court Architecture?’, Architectural History, 30 (1987), pp. 107–19 Google Scholar).

56 McKean, , The Scottish Chateau, pp. 156–68 Google Scholar.

57 Ibid., pp.156-58,187.

58 Details of Scottish Domestic Architecture, pls 22,45; Colvin, H. M., A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600-1840, 4th edn (New Haven and London, 2008), p. 343 Google Scholar; Pearce’s, Michael research is cited in Charles McKean, ‘Jacobean Villas in Scotland’, p. 77. Google Scholar Maybole’s triplet semicircle dormer heads recall the double-arched, or M-shaped, lintels at Blair (Dairy) and Kelburn, the latter (with clumpier moulding) bearing the initials of John, Lord Boyd, and his spouse Marion Crawford who died in 1596 (Scots Peerage, TV, pp. 92-193). A third such lintel within this little Ayrshire group is at Maybole’s sixteenth-century Tolbooth, originally ‘Blairquhanes Place’, the town residence of the Kennedys of Blairquhan ( RCAHMS, Tolbooths and Town-Houses: Civic Architecture in Scotland to 1833 (Edinburgh, 1996), pp. 141–42 Google Scholar).

59 McKean, Michael, The Scottish Chateau, p. 179 Google Scholar; Isaac Millar drawing in RCAHMS, LA/412; Lynch, Michael, Scotland: a New History (London, 1991), p. 249 Google Scholar.

60 MacGibbon, David and Ross, Thomas, Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland, 5 vols (Edinburgh, 1887-92), IV, pp. 368–70 Google Scholar; Gifford, John, Dumfries and Galloway (London, 1996), p. 412 Google Scholar (‘novum castrum de Inche’: the new castle of Inch).

61 NAS, GD 86/374. The house had been given over to the Montgomeries (Robert, Master of Eglinton) by ordinance of the Privy Council and an Act of Parliament passed 29 July 1587. In August 1586, Robertland’s wife ‘and bairnes’ were amongst those who complained to the Privy Council of the Montgomeries’ punitive aggression; they had damaged, and allegedly burnt, a number of the murderers’ houses (‘specialie the house of Corsewall’ [Corsehill]), having ‘brokin doun and destroyit the haill corbellis, gestis [= joists] and stanchellis [= iron window bars [cf. ‘stanchions’] of the rest of thair houssis and alluterlie distroyit the same’. Robertland was ordered to be kept by the Montgomeries (nominally, Robert, the Master of Eglinton) with six men paid to protect it paid for from Robertland’s living (Aikett was to be kept by four), each man to be paid £6 monthly, and £36 per month was duly claimed. On 24 March 1590/91 the Privy Council instructed the house to be restored to Robertland (The Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, iv, pp. 94-95, 601). In 1587, John, Lord Hamilton, attempted to protect the family by taking the ‘tower and fortalice’ on the basis that he had been made assignee by James Shaw of Sauchie to the gift of the life-rent escheat [possession through forfeiture] of Robertland. The Privy Council eventually agreed Hamilton’s claim in 1589 (The Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, IV, pp. 215, 387). A daughter of the Laird of Glengarnock killed at the Battle of Pinkie (1547) married Alexander Schaw of Sauchie (Dobie, Cunninghame, p. 174). Corsehill Castle has been described as ‘A very ruinous mansion, near Stewarton, evidently of a late date. It was the seat of the family of Cunningham’ ( MacGibbon, David and Ross, Thomas, Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland, 5 vols (Edinburgh, 1887-92), in, p. 495 Google Scholar). Robertland’s wife’s sister married John Cunningham of Corsehill (Dobie, Cunninghame, p. 65). John Cunningham of ‘Corssall’ appears to have been one of the murderers. In 1585 and 1586, Patrick Cunningham of ‘Corsseir was responsible for writing documents for Glencairn at Kilmaronock concerning the murderers, many — and possibly all — of whom were present (Fraser, Memorials of the Montgomeries Earls of Eglinton, 11, p. 226).

62 Generously, John Dunbar has helped with this inscription.

63 A similarly-moulded, similarly round-arched pediment was later used at Woodside House, Beith, suggesting Robertland had possibly established a model for local masons. Other dormer heads on that house, which bear a sequence of dates, appear to replicate a similar moulding. It is tempting to relate the roundarched element at Robertland to both the Minto monument and Maybole.

64 Stevenson, Christine, ‘Occasional Architecture in Seventeenth-Century London’, Architectural History (hereafter AH), 49 (2006), pp. 35–74 (p. 39)Google Scholar.

65 Goodare, Julian, ‘James VI’s English Subsidy’, in The Reign of James VI, pp. 110–25 Google Scholar.

66 CSP Scotland, XI, p. 377, Mr John Colville to Mr Henry Lock; I am grateful to Michael Pearce for drawing my attention this reference, now published by Julala, Amy, ‘An Advantageous Alliance: Edinburgh and the Court of James VI’, in Sixteenth Century Scotland: Essays in Honour of Michael Lynch,ed. Goodare, Julian and MacDonald, Alasdair A. (Leiden, 2008), pp. 337–63 (p. 350)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also MacKechnie, Aonghus, ‘James VI’s Architects’, pp. 163–64 Google Scholar. Iain Malcolm suggested the order in May 1594 to purchase 1,000 ‘stane wecht of leid’ indicates that the chapel had a leaded roof (pers. comm.), but Michael Pearce has since discovered that purchase was bound for Falkland (pers. comm.). The material of the original roof covering therefore remains unknown. Metal would have given it the character of Danish royal works of the period, such as Kronborg, which often had sheet metal roofs (Accounts of the Master of Works 1529-1615, 1, p. 314; Skovgaard, Joakim, A King’s Architecture: Christian IV and his Buildings (London, 1973 Google Scholar), ch. 5 and passim). Malcolm has also made the point that the Chapel Royal once had tie-beams binding the wall-heads internally, which a lead roof would have necessitated (pers. comm.). Today it has modern steel ties. In 1629, the chapel ‘foir entrie’ had a sculptural overdoor arrangement including ‘armes housingis crownellis [pediments] and siferis [etc.]’ (all long gone), indicating that the centre was topped by a complex sculptural feature. This may be predictable but it remains significant that Kronborg’s chapel, similarly set on the quarter facing on the approach, also has rich overdoor sculpture (Accounts of the Master of Works 1616-1649, n, p. 256).

67 Michael Pearce has suggested that Schaw might have been edited out of the story to emphasize James’ role rather than because of his Catholicism (pers. comm.).

68 MacKechnie, Aonghus, ‘The Royal Palace of Dunfermline’, in Royal Dunfermline, ed. Fawcett, Richard (Edinburgh, 2005), pp. 101–38 Google Scholar. The gateway was inscribed: PROPYLEUM ET SUPERSTRUCTAS AEDES, VETUSTATE ET INJURES TEMPORUM COLLAPSAS DIRUTASQUE, A FUNDAMENTIS IN HANC AMPLIOREM FORMAM RESTITUIT ET INSTAURAVA ANNA REGINA FREDERICO DANORUM REGIS AUGUSTISSIMI FILIA ANNO SALUTIS 1600 [This porch, and the house built above it, having through age and the injuries of time fallen down and come to ruin, have been restored from the foundation, and built on a larger scale by Queen Anna, daughter of Frederick, the most august prince of Denmark, in the year 1600] ( Henderson, Ebenezer, The Annals of Dunfermline (Glasgow, 1879), p. 254)Google Scholar.

69 Old Scone was forfeited to the crown after the Gowrie conspiracy and given in 1604 (thus while Robertland was master of works) to the above-mentioned David Murray of Gospertie, later Lord Scone and Viscount Stormont, who appears to have built or completed it. See McKean, , The Scottish Chateau, pp. 179, 209 Google Scholar; Walker, David, ‘Scone Palace, Perthshire’, in The Country Seat, ed. Colvin, H. and Harris, J. (London, 1970), p. 210 Google Scholar. Barnes was built for John Seton (d. 1594), one of James’ courtiers who had also served in Spain, and who was brother of the future chancellor. See plan in RCAHMS, Inventory of East Lothian (Edinburgh, 1924), p. 47.Google Scholar

70 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 8, pp. 292-93.

71 CSP Scotland, XIII, p. 971; Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 8, pp. 292-93.

72 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 8, pp. 292-93; 10, pp. 610-11, 654. These entries agree on the marriage date but not the year.

73 MacKechnie, , ‘James VI’s Architects and Their Architecture’, pp. 154–69 Google Scholar.

74 Gifford, , Fife, pp. 157–58 Google Scholar. (Its centre-doored thirteen-bay façade almost hints at the Chapel Royal’s 6+1+6 façade treatment.) A similar parapeted flat roof seems to have been required by James for Falkland as part of the preparations for his ‘homecoming’ in 1617 (The Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, X, pp. 517-18).

75 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 27, pp. 875-79.

76 The Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, VII, p. 487; Maurice Lee Jr, ‘James VI’s Government of Scotland after 1603’, Scottish Historical Review, vol. LV, part 1, no. 159 (April 1976), pp. 41-53 (p. 43).

77 The National Archives, PRO, SP/14/62, no. 5. Copy in RCAHMS.

78 Accounts of the Masters of Works, 11, p. lxix.

79 Brown, P. Hume, Early Travellers in Scotland (Edinburgh, 1891), p. 133 Google Scholar.

80 NAS, CC9/7/7; The History of the King’s Works 1485-1660, iv, pt ii, p. 771.

81 The Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, VII, p. 499.

82 Dunbar’s monument in Dunbar Parish Church was by Maximilian Colt. Nichols stated that Dunbar died at Whitehall on 29 January 1611 ‘when he was about to solemnise magnificently his daughter’s marriage with Lord Walden’ ( Nichols, John, The progresses, processions and magnificent festivities of King James the First, his Royal Consort, family and court collected from original manuscripts, scarce pamphlets, corporation records, parochial registers, &c, Illustrated with notes, historical, topographical, biographical, and bibliographical, etc., 4 vols (London, 1828), 1, p. 248n)Google Scholar.

83 This is possibly the same apartment in which Schaw, as ‘principal warden and chief master of the masons’, held early freemasons’ meetings, for example, in 1599 and on 8 June 1600 (Stevenson, First Freemasons, pp. 24, 63 ).

84 The Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, vi, p. 576. Although James’ impoverishment is well documented, he had his English pension and money he had bullied from courtiers, and he possessed rich furnishings which were transported from palace to palace in the royal progresses.

85 The Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, vi, p. 5.

86 Ibid., vi, p. 9.

87 Parish of Holyroodhouse or Canongate Register of Marriages 1564-1800, ed. F. J. Grant (Edinburgh, 1915), p. 652. His spouse was Martha Murray. She died prematurely and Murray subsequently married Katherine Weir.

88 Accounts of the Masters of Works 1529-1615, 1, p. xxix. Some sixteenth-century masters of works had also been ‘overseers’.

89 Mylne, , ‘The Masters of Work’, p. 55 Google Scholar.

90 The History of the King’s Works 1485-1660, in, pt i, pp. 105-06 and iv, pt ii, pp. 46, 324.

91 Nichols, , The progresses, processions and magnificent festivities of King James the First, 1, p. 427 Google Scholar. The editors of the King’s Works were the first to link Robertland with the ‘Sir David Coningham de Coningham’ knighted that day, who Nichols took to represent Cunningham of Cunninghamhead (The History of the King’s Works 1485-1660, III, pt i, p. 105). Royston is long gone. Robertland may have been given work to do there.

92 The History of the King’s Works 1485-1660, in, pt i, pp. 105,106, io6n. On 20 August 1604, grant was made to Andrew Kerwyn of the office of Paymaster of the King’s Works, with reversion to Cunningham, Patrick (Calendar of State Papers: Domestic Series, of the Reign of James I, 1603-1610, ed. Greene, Mary Anne Everett (London, 1957), p. 145)Google Scholar. On 30 July 1604 a grant was made to a Robert Cunningham of £80 ‘as a free gift’ (ibid., p. 626). In summer 1603, Inigo Jones appears to have been with the Earl of Rutland’s embassy to Denmark to deliver the Order of the Garter to Christian IV, which brought him into a second social circle that esteemed Robertland. Timothy Wilks has suggested that Jones and Robertland’s old friend Duke Ulrik may have been friends in 1604-05 ( Harris, John and Higgott, Gordon, lnigo Jones: Complete Architectural Drawings (New York, 1989), p. 13 Google Scholar); Wilks, Timothy, ‘The Peer, the Plantsman, and the Picture Maker: The English Embassy to the Court of Christian IV on Denmark, 1603’, The Court Historian, 12 (2007), pp. 155–71 CrossRefGoogle Scholar (p. 169). References to John (1602) and ‘Mester David’ (1632-46) Cunningham as Danish royal gardeners are intriguing (Riis, Auld Acquaintance, 11, p. 191; cf. Wilks, ‘The Peer, the Plantsman, and the Picture Maker’, pp. 155-71).

93 The History of the King’s Works 1485-1660, III, pt i, p. 406. On 17 April 1604, grant for life was made to Basil of the office of Overseer in the Tower, while Thomas Baldwin was made comptroller of the works in his place (CSP Scotland, 1603-10, p. 312).

94 Calender of State Papers (Domestic) 1605-1610, p. 286.

95 The History of the King’s Works 1485-1660, IV, pt ii, p. 46; Harris and Higgott, lnigo Jones, p. 108. An exploration of English buildings where Robertland may have been involved might include Bromley-le-Bow, one of whose chimneypieces bears James I’s royal arms. One of the supporters is the Scottish unicorn, the design of which is nearly identical to Scottish examples such as Winton, near Edinburgh.

96 Thurley, Simon, Whitehall Palace: An Architectural History of the Royal Apartments, 1240-1698 (New Haven and London, 1999), pp. 75–82 Google Scholar.

97 Ibid., pp. 75-82.

98 Harris and Higgott, lnigo Jones, pp. 108-09.

99 An excellent summary of the competing English/British and Scottish origin myths is in Mason, Roger, ‘“Scotching the Brut”: The Early History of Britain’, in Scotland Revisited, ed. Wormald, Jenny (London, 1991), pp. 149–60 Google Scholar, with references to fuller sources on pp. 153-54.

100 Calendar of State Papers: Domestic 1605-1610, pp. 11,14; The Scots Peerage, v, pp. 84-86. There were numerous such grants to Scots; for instance, Walter Alexander, gentleman usher to the Prince, was given ‘the keeping of the Folly John Park’ in Windsor Forest; Sir John Drummond was assigned the keeping of the Park of Shenstone, ‘void by death of the Countess of Warwick’ (ibid., p. 78). Kellie (from 1619 Earl of Kellie, Viscount of Fentoun, and Lord Erskine) was resented by some. He was one of the first Scots under James VI /1 to marry a rich English widow and one of the four Scots who ‘lay suckling at the brests of the [English] state’ (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 18, pp. 565-66). Kellie was also Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard.

101 Girouard, Mark, ‘Designs for a Lodge at Ampthill’, in Colvin and Harris, The Country Seat, pp. 13–17 (p.15)Google Scholar.

102 The History of the King’s Works 1485-1660, iv, pt ii, p. 45.

103 Ibid., p. 45. John Thorpe produced some of the drawings.

104 Lee, ‘James VI’s Government of Scotland after 1603’, p. 42.

105 Nichols, , The progresses, processions and magnificent festivities of King James the First, 1, p. 593 Google Scholar.

106 Ibid., pp. 593-600. James Murray, master cook, had followed James from Scotland. He had the alternative name ‘Murach’, suggesting a Gaelic-speaking Highland origin (ibid., p. 597).

107 Wormald, Jenny, ‘Royal Dunfermline to Royal Whitehall: the Stresses of Moving House’, in Royal Dunfermline, ed. Fawcett, Richard (Edinburgh, 2005), pp. 199–208 (p. 205)Google Scholar; Wormald, Jenny, ‘James VI and I: Two Kings or One?’, in History: the Journal of the Historical Association, 68, no. 223 (June 1983), pp. 187–209 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

108 Wormald, ‘Royal Dunfermline to Royal Whitehall’, p. 205.

109 Wormald, ‘James VI and I: Two Kings or One?’, p. 190.

110 Scots Peerage, IV, p. 241; The Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, IV, pp. 256-57.

111 Cruden, Stewart, The Scottish Castle (Edinburgh, 1960), pp. iv–v Google Scholar.

112 McKean, Charles, ‘A Scottish Problem with Castles’, Historical Research, 79:204 (May 2006), pp. 166–98 (pp.166, 168)Google Scholar; MacKechnie, , ‘Design Approaches in Early Post-Reformation Scots Houses’, pp. 15–16 Google Scholar.

113 See McKean, , The Scottish Chateau and McKean, ‘A Scottish Problem with Castles’, pp. 166–98 Google Scholar. The quotes are from the latter, pp. 166,168.

114 Correspondence of Sir Robert Kerr, First Earl of Ancrum and his son William, Third Earl of Lothian, ed. David Laing, 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1875), 1, pp. 62-76.

115 On 24 August 1650, Cromwell and his army

haifing past […] from Berwick to the place of Colingtoun [Colinton], without any oppositioun maid be ony of the gentillmenis houssis by the way quhair they past, until they come to the hous of Reidhall […]; in the quhilk hous […] the Laird of Reidhall with thriescoir sodgeris lay, with provisioun, and keepit and defendit the hous aganes the Englisches, and gallit [hurt] his sodgeris, and pat them bak severall tymes with the los of sindry sodgeris. The Englìsche Generall, taking this very grevouslie, that such a waik [weak] hous sould hald out againes him, and be ane impediment in his way, he and his airmy lying so neir unto it

brought canon to bear, and once they ran out of ammunition Cromwell ‘causit pittardis to be brocht to the hous, wherewith he blew up the dures, enterit the hous at dures and windois’ ( Nicoll, John, A Diary of Public Transactions and Other Occurrences, Chiefly in Scotland, from January 1650 to June 1667 (Edinburgh, 1836), pp. 24–26 Google Scholar). Newark was one of many houses fortified by Cromwell in the 1650s ( Carlyle, Thomas, Oliver Cromwell’s Letters and Speeches with Elucidations, 3 vols, 3rd edn (London, 1888), 11, p. 244.Google Scholar)

116 At ‘the House of Braemar’ the garrison’s horses were startled and soldiers ran to catch them, ‘wherof [Farquarson of Inverey] laying burnt the house to free them of the neighbourhood of a garrison’. MacKay, Major General Hugh, Memoirs of the War Carried on in Scotland and Ireland. 1689-1691 (Edinburgh, 1833), p. 42; An Account of the Proceedings of the Estates in Scotland 1689-1690, ed. Balfour-Melville, E. W. M., 2 vols (Edinburgh 1954-55), 11, p. 262 Google Scholar. Cromwell’s soldiers had also occupied Braemar ( Spurlock, R. Scott, Cromwell and Scotland: Conquest and Religion 1650-1660 (Edinburgh, 2007), p. 42 Google Scholar).

117 Discussions as to how far gunholes were usable have limited value given that evidently many of them were highly efficient, as was seen when Redhall stalled Cromwell’s army. Besides, guns could be fired from roofs and windows, as happened to Lt.-Col. William Cleland during the Battle of Dunkeld in 1689 (An Account of the Proceedings of the Estates in Scotland 1689-1690,1, p. 222). Even Melville House in Fife of 1697-1702 had gunholes covering the entrance.

118 The Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, v, pp. 539, 543.

119 Ibid., V, pp. 551-52.

120 Ibid., VII, pp. 233-34, 499.

121 Ibid., VII, p. 234.

122 Ibid., VII, pp. 222-23, 225, 234, 296. On 26 September 1606, the Privy Council noted a bond by James, Earl of Glencairn, not to harm Marion Cunningham, Lady Newark, elder. The bond was subscribed at ‘Kilmarranok’ and the Bar, 23 and 24 September, and was drawn up by John Mathie, ‘servitor’ to Glencairn, who would appear to be a son of the victim [The Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, VII, p. 569).

123 Stevenson, , ‘Occasional Architecture in Seventeenth-Century London’, p. 63 n. 1 Google Scholar.

124 NAS, GD 103/2/113.

125 National Library of Scotland (hereafter NLS) Denmilne MSS 33.1.1. (vol 2V3. The feud was long established, having existed in James IV’s time at Sauchieburn in 1488 ( Macdougall, Norman, James IV (Edinburgh, 1989), p. 94 Google Scholar).

126 NLS, Denmilne MSS 33.1.1. (vol 2)/2. The Privy Council continued dealing with this feud, with Robertland the younger substituting for his father on the latter’s decease. In 1608 parties were to appear before the Council in Edinburgh, one party on 14 March, the other on the 15th. They were to ‘repair to their lodgings’ on arrival in the burgh, and wait there until sent for. On 16 March 1609, the feud was officially ended before the Council, parties having ‘choppit hands together in taiken of a constant friendship’ (The Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, VIII, pp. 138-39, 252, 262-63).

127 NLS, Denmilne MSS 33.1.1. (vol 2)1 2.

128 NLS, Denmilne MSS 33.1.1. (vol 2)/13. Subsequent quotations in this paragraph come from the same source.

129 The History of the King’s Works 1485-1660, m, pt i, p. 106. Glencairn denoted Robertland one of his ‘freindis’ in 1586 (Fraser, Memorials of the Montgomeries Earls of Eglinton, 11, p. 227).

130 The Commissariat Record of Edinburgh, ed. Francis J. Grant, 3 vols (Edinburgh, 1898), II, p. 96. The reference is to ‘Sir David Cunynghame of Rothland [sic], Knyght’.

131 NLS, Denmilne MSS 33.1.1. (vol 2)/42.

132 The History of the King’s Works 1485-1660, rv, pt ii, p. 46; Harris and Higgott, Inigo Jones, p. 108.

133 Robertland’s status was remembered. A charter of 1614 in favour of his son referred to David Cunningham of Robertland ‘(filio quondam Davidis C de R architecti regii […] maister of work) et Margarete Fleyming ejus conjugi’ (Registrimi Magni Sigilll Regum Scotorum, ed. T. Thomson et al, 12 vols (Edinburgh, 1882-1914), VII (1609-20), p. 360). Sir John Summerson stated that Lindsey House, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London, was designed by a cousin and namesake of Robertland’s, and a friend of Nicholas Stone; Michael Pearce has shown that the person referred to was David Cunningham of Auchinharvy [‘Auchinhervy’], indeed a relative of Robertland and possible architect. He was a protégé of Sir Adam Newton who was appointed tutor to Prince Henry in 1599 and Dean of Durham from 1606, builder from 1607 of a ‘goodly brave house’ at Charlton, Kent ( Summerson, J., Architecture in Britain, 6th edn (Harmondsworth, 1977), pp. 164, 559 Google Scholar; Pearce, Michael, ‘Cunningham of Robertland and Cunningham of Auchenharvy’, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Sir David Cunningham, 1st Baronet of AuchinhervieGoogle Scholar.

For Newton, see Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 40, p. 689). In 1617 Stone had worked on the Holyrood Chapel Royal furnishings ( Rogers, C., History of the Chapel Royal of Scotland (London, 1882), p. cxxii Google Scholar). There is a rare example of a Scottish- (but possibly French-)looking influence at Bolsover Little Castle, a building that seems to anticipate elements of Edinburgh’s palace reconstruction of 1615-17. In contrast to the standard ‘Tudor-arched’ English norm, this has a fireplace with flat lintel, curved at the corners. The dates (the Little Castle was begun in 1612) seem to rule out any direct influence by Robertland. Smythson produced a Porta-Pia-type design (unexecuted) for the overdoor, obviously reminiscent of Newark, but far more probably derived from Inigo Jones, who used the formula for Sir Ffulke Greville in 1619 ( Worsley, Lucy, Bolsover Castle (London, 2000), p. 15 Google Scholar).