James MacCartney was a Scottish medical practitioner and apothecary in Edinburgh in the 1590s who collected information for the English diplomat Robert Bowes.

Career

MacCartney was a relation of Thomas Hamilton of Priestfield. He was usually known as "Dr MacCartney" and sometimes given the codename "Tertius". He signed his letters to Bowes with a sketch of a flower with three petals. In September 1595 MacCartney wrote to Bowes about the Catholic earls, with the news that Elizabeth Douglas, Countess of Erroll was now allowed by James VI to rebuild

Old Slains Castle Slains Castle (otherwise known as Old Slains Castle) is a ruined castle near Collieston in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is not to be confused with New Slains Castle, a separate building located five miles to the north-east. Built in the13th century ...

, and the

Earl of Huntly Marquess of Huntly (traditionally spelled Marquis in Scotland; Scottish Gaelic: ''Coileach Strath Bhalgaidh'') is a title in the Peerage of Scotland that was created on 17 April 1599 for George Gordon, 6th Earl of Huntly. It is the oldest existing ...

would be able to do the same at Huntly Castle if stonemasons were available. Both castles had recently been slighted on royal orders.

Margaret Douglas, Countess of Bothwell Margaret Douglas, Countess of Bothwell (died 1640) was a Scottish aristocrat and courtier. She was a daughter of David Douglas, 7th Earl of Angus and Margaret Hamilton, daughter of John Hamilton of Samuelston, sometimes called "Clydesdale John", ...

, whose husband Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell was a rebel, had been shown some favour by the king at Hamilton Palace. MacCartney sent copies of verses made at court, including the King's own lines about William Fowler, a poet who served Anne of Denmark as her secretary, and promised a verse made about the Treasurer, Walter Stewart of Blantyre. These verses do not survive. He also forwarded verses presented at court by an Irish poet Walter Quin in December 1595. In December 1595 MacCartney and the surgeon James Henrysoun were asked to perform an autopsy on Jonet Lyle who was thought to have been poisoned. A letter of June 1596 mentioned a possible border raid near Carlisle and that Anne of Denmark, who was now pregnant, was moving to Dunfermline Palace, at the suggestion of the

Octavians The Octavians were a financial commission of eight in the government of Scotland first appointed by James VI on 9 January 1596. James VI's minister John Maitland, 1st Lord Maitland of Thirlestane had died on 3 October 1595, and his financial sit ...

, a group of financial administrators with some overlap with her council.''Calendar State Papers Scotland'', 12 (Edinburgh, 1952), p. 252 no. 211:

Julian Goodare Julian Goodare is a professor of history at University of Edinburgh. Academic career Goodare studied at the University of Edinburgh in the 1980s, afterwards engaged as a postdoctoral fellow. He lectured at the University of Wales, and at the Univ ...

, 'The Octavians', Miles Kerr-Peterson & Steven J. Reid, ''James VI and Noble Power in Scotland, 1578-1603'' (Routledge, 2017), pp. 177.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:MacCartney, James Court of James VI and I Scottish apothecaries