John Burrell or John Burel ( fl. 1590) was a Scottish poet sometimes said to have been a goldsmith. In 1596 he dedicated his collection of poems to

Ludovic Stewart, 2nd Duke of Lennox Ludovic Stewart, 2nd Duke of Lennox and 1st Duke of Richmond (29 September 157416 February 1624), lord of the manor, lord of the Manor of Cobham, Kent, was a Scotland, Scottish nobleman who through their paternal lines was a second cousin o ...

. He was the author of a poetical description of the entry of Queen Anne (Anne of Denmark) into

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

in 1590, titled '' The Discription of the Queenis Maiesties most honourable entry into the town of Edinburgh''. According to Burel, performers with wearing black masks or

visard A visard (also spelled vizard) is an oval mask of black velvet, worn by travelling women in the 16th century to protect their skin from sunburn. The fashion of the period for wealthy women was to keep their skin pale, because a tan suggested th ...

s and paint represented the " Moirs of the Inds". They had come to salute Scotland's new queen and offer e their "most willing minds" to her service:

Into the service of our Queene,
Thay offert thair maist willing mynds,
Thir ar the Moirs of quhom I mene,
Quha dois inhabit in the Ynds;
Leving thair land and dwelling place,
For to do honour to hir Grace.

These "Moirs" were described as people who lived in comparative ease and comfort by the golden mountain of "Synerdas". Among the title-deeds of a small property at the foot of Todricks Wynd, Edinburgh, there was found a disposition of a house by ''John Burrel, goldsmith, yane of the printers in his majesties cunzie house'' (king's mint) in 1628. From the minuteness with which the poet describes the jewellery displayed on Queen Anne's entry, it appears that he had a special technical knowledge of such matters, and it has been suggested that the poet was the same person. The poem, along with another by the same author, titled ''The Passage of the Pilgrims, divided into four parts'', was published in Watson's '' Collection of Scots Poems'' and the former is also included in Sir

Robert Sibbald Sir Robert Sibbald (15 April 1641 – August 1722) was a Scottish physician and antiquary. Life He was born in Edinburgh, the son of David Sibbald (brother of Sir James Sibbald) and Margaret Boyd (January 1606 – 10 July 1672). Educated at t ...

's '' Chronicle of Scottish Poetry''. Neither of the poems possesses any literary merit. His translation of a medieval verse drama ''Pamphilus'' based on works of

Ovid Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the th ...

seems to address the events of 1591, when the young courtier

was advised to end his relationship with Lilias Ruthven. Burrell may have been involved in the entertainment of the

Duke of Holstein The Duchy of Holstein (german: Herzogtum Holstein, da, Hertugdømmet Holsten) was the northernmost state of the Holy Roman Empire, located in the present German state of Schleswig-Holstein. It originated when King Christian I of Denmark had hi ...

Riddle's Court Baillie John MacMorran (1553-1595), a merchant and Baillie of Edinburgh, was killed during a riot at Edinburgh High School. His house at Riddle's Court is a valued monument on Edinburgh's Lawnmarket. Career John MacMorran was a merchant involv ...

by the burgh of Edinburgh in 1598. The account for the banquet includes payments to the schoolmasters Johne Black and Robert Burrell, to William Douglas, and to "Johne Burrell", who received £3-6s-8d Scots. In 1601 Francis Mowbray wrote to

Sir Robert Cecil Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, (1 June 156324 May 1612), was an English statesman noted for his direction of the government during the Union of the Crowns, as Tudor England gave way to Stuart rule (1603). Lord Salisbury served as the ...

from Edinburgh complaining about John Burrell who was in London and had ridiculed him in verse and had a sonnet against him published. Mowbray enclosed a copy of the printed poem (which survives) and wanted the poet put in prison.

John Duncan Mackie John Duncan Mackie CBE MC (1887–1978) was a distinguished Scottish historian who wrote a one-volume history of Scotland and several works on early modern Scotland. Biography Born in Edinburgh, Mackie was educated at Middlesbrough High S ...

, ''Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1597-1603'', vol. 13 (Edinburgh, 1969), pp. 807-8: Jamie Reid Baxter, 'Politics, Passion and Poetry in the Circle of Lennox: John Burel and his surviving works', L. A. J. R. Houwen, Alasdair A. MacDonald,

Sally Mapstone Dame Sally Mapstone (born 1957) is an academic and principal and vice-chancellor of the University of St Andrews. Early life and education Sally Mapstone was born in 1957 in Hillingdon, Middlesex, England, and grew up in West London. She read ...

, ''A Palace in the Wild: Essays on Vernacular Culture and Humanism in Late-medieval and Renaissance Scotland'' (Peeters, 2000), pp. 201-2.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burrell, John 16th-century Scottish people Scottish poets Scottish goldsmiths