Gillis Mowbray
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Gillis Mowbray or Gilles Moubray was a servant of Mary, Queen of Scots, associated with a small collection of jewellery held by the National Museums of Scotland, known as the "Penicuik jewels". Her first name is also spelled "Geillis" or "Geilles".[1]
Gillis was a daughter of John Mowbray of Barnbougle and Elizabeth or Elspeth Kirkcaldy, a sister of the soldier William Kirkcaldy of Grange. When William Kirkcaldy of Grange was about to be executed in 1573, Gillis Mowbray's father, the Laird of Barnbougle, who was Kirkcaldy's brother-in-law, wrote to Regent Morton to plead for his life, offering money, service, and royal jewels worth £20,000 Scots.[2] Mary made a will in 1577, bequeathing 100 Écu to a "Gilles", probably another member of her household.[3]
Gillis Mowbray travelled to London in 1585, hoping for permission to join her sister Barbara in Mary's household.[4] Mary wrote to Francis Walsingham for a passport for Gillis Mowbray on 30 September 1585.[5] Walsingham agreed that Gillis could join the household, but mentioned his reservations in a letter to Amias Paulet, wishing that he and Queen Elizabeth had advance knowledge of her arrival in England and ordering that any women servants who intended to leave Mary's service when Gillis joined the household should be lodged apart for a time so they could not be given secret messages to carry.[6]
Barbara Mowbray married Gilbert Curle, one of the secretaries of Mary, Queen of Scots at Tutbury Castle on 24 October. Paulet described Barbara Mowbray as Mary's "principal gentlewoman". Shortly after the wedding, in November, Gillis joined Mary's household, travelling first to Derby.[7][8]
Her position at first was maid to Curle's sister Elizabeth, and she was later described as one of Mary's gentlewomen.[9] In February 1586, Mary had discussions with Jean Arnault de Cherelles, the secetary of the French ambassador, at Chartley in the presence of Amias Powlet. She said that Gillis Mowbray had told her that James VI had sent a rich jewel to a Danish princess, a token of marriage negotiations. Gillis had heard the story when the Danish ambassadors were in Scotland before she left for London.[10]
Mowbray remained at Chartley while Queen Mary was taken to Tixall. She was subsequently one of four damoiselles remaining with Mary, the others being Jean Kennedy, Renée Beauregard, and Elspeth or Elizabeth Curle.[11]
Mary bequeathed Geillis Mowbray jewels, money, and clothes, including a pair of gold bracelets, a crystal jewel set in gold, and a red enamelled "oxe" of gold.[12][13] She kept Mary's virginals, a kind of harpsichord, and her cittern.[14]
At Mary's funeral, Gillis or Barbara Mowbray, or both sisters, remained in Peterborough Cathedral with Andrew Melville of Garvock, when Mary's other household servants left during the Protestant service and waited in the cloisters.[15]
According to a list made in 1589, Gillis Mowbray (but perhaps Barbara), and her sister Jean Mowbray received pensions from Spain paid in gold ducats.[16]
In 1603 Gillis' half-brother Francis Mowbray fell to his death from Edinburgh Castle.[17]