John Provand (died 1610) was a Scottish merchant in 16th-century Edinburgh. He was usually described as "Mr John Provand", indicating he had a university education. There was at this time a John Provand, Provost of the Collegiate Church of Abernethy, thought to be a different person. Provand dealt in wool, cloth, and imported textiles, and had gained his rights to trade overseas from his first wife, Katherine Henryson, who remained involved in the family business. In 1577 a valuable cargo of his was seized by English sailors or pirates using a fly-boat of

Rochester Rochester may refer to: Places Australia * Rochester, Victoria Canada * Rochester, Alberta United Kingdom *Rochester, Kent ** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area ** History of Rochester, Kent ** HM Prison ...

. Perhaps during a trip to London to seek restitution for the loss of this cargo, Provand bought books for the young

James VI James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguat ...

, who was at this time living at Stirling Castle. These included;

John Cheke Sir John Cheke (or Cheek) (16 June 1514 – 13 September 1557) was an English classical scholar and statesman. One of the foremost teachers of his age, and the first Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Cambridge, he played a great ...

on Greek pronunciation,

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on logic, and

Sebastian Münster Sebastian Münster (20 January 1488 – 26 May 1552) was a German cartographer and cosmographer. He also was a Christian Hebraist scholar who taught as a professor at the University of Basel. His well-known work, the highly accurate world map, ' ...

's ''Cosmographia''. On other occasions he sold

Plutarch Plutarch (; grc-gre, Πλούταρχος, ''Ploútarchos''; ; – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for hi ...

's ''Lives'' in two volumes and translations of the psalms by

George Buchanan George Buchanan ( gd, Seòras Bochanan; February 1506 – 28 September 1582) was a Scottish historian and humanist scholar. According to historian Keith Brown, Buchanan was "the most profound intellectual sixteenth century Scotland produced." ...

to the king's tutor Peter Young. Provand supplied silver to the mint. In September and October 1580 with Robert Gourlay he supplied silver worth £78-7s-8d. Scots to the mint in Edinburgh to be coined. They were paid a further £2,123-7s-8d. outstanding for silver supplied. When

Regent Morton James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton (c. 1516 – 2 June 1581, aged 65) was the last of the four regents of Scotland during the minority of King James VI. He was in some ways the most successful of the four, since he won the civil war that had ...

was arrested, Provand was asked about his meetings with him at Holyrood Palace. Provand said he had gone only to ask for a precept or warrant concerning wool which his wife had bought from him. Morton was to ask his tenants at Linton to carry the wool from Drochil to Edinburgh. When Morton was about to be executed on 2 June 1581, he was asked about the death of the

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in 1579 who was thought to have been poisoned, and it was suggested to him that John Provand had imported the poison. The stock of the family business was listed after his first wife Katherine Henrysoun died in October 1583. Luxury textiles and other lines in their shop included plain and figured velvets, chamlets and taffeta, Scottish linen and Flemish linen, "Flanders Arras work" (patterned fabric rather than tapestry), embroidery silks, French pins, chamois leather, Flemish pewter, silk ribbons, velvet bonnets, and belts embroidered with counterfeit pearls for gentlewomen. It is probable that Morton's wool from the Scottish Borders was traded for Flanders goods. The will also lists money owing to Provand and his wife, and legacies to countless Henryson relations and their spouses, including the apothecary

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. On 25 April 1584 the courtier John Gibb delivered a jewel, a tablet or locket with a diamond and an emerald, in a case, to the

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, Alexander Clark of Balbirnie, as a pledge for a loan of 6,000

merks The merk is a long-obsolete Scottish silver coin. Originally the same word as a money mark of silver, the merk was in circulation at the end of the 16th century and in the 17th century. It was originally valued at 13 shillings 4 pence (exactly ...

or £4,000 Scots. In October 1589 the Provost John Arnot formally gave the jewel back to the king as a marriage gift. The jewel was delivered by Clark's son-in-law John Provand to

William Fairlie William Fairlie or Fairley ( fl. 1570–1600) was an Edinburgh merchant and burgess. Fairlie was frequently asked by Edinburgh town ( burgh) council to survey and account for public works for the town council of Edinburgh. He was described as a " ...

, who commissioned the goldsmith David Gilbert to upgrade and refashion it for presentation to

Anne of Denmark Anne of Denmark (; 12 December 1574 – 2 March 1619) 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 Eng ...

during her Entry to Edinburgh in May 1590. At the Entry of Anne of Denmark, Provand was one of the town dignitaries appointed to hold up the canopy or paill over the queen. During the

North Berwick Witch Trials The North Berwick witch trials were the trials in 1590 of a number of people from East Lothian, Scotland, accused of witchcraft in the St Andrew's Auld Kirk in North Berwick on Halloween night. They ran for two years, and implicated over seventy ...

, Provand was said have been a frequent host of Ritchie Graham.

Marriages

Provand married Katherine Henryson (died 1583). She seems to have been the widow of Thomas Henryson. Their daughter Isobel Henryson married the lawyer Oliver Colt. Provand married secondly wife was Bathia Clark, a daughter of the Provost of Edinburgh and political intriguer Alexander Clark of Balbirnie and Marion Primrose. They obtained the lands of Caldhame and sold them to the schoolmaster

Hercules Rollock Hercules Rollock ( fl. 1577–1599), Edinburgh schoolmaster and writer of Latin verse. He was born in Dundee, and an elder brother of Robert Rollock. He graduated at the University of St Andrews, was regent at King's College, Aberdeen, and then sp ...

in 1593.''Registrum Episcopatus Brechinensis'' (Aberdeen, 1856), p. 289. He had a son, also called John Provand.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Provand, John Businesspeople from Edinburgh 16th-century Scottish people 16th-century Scottish businesspeople 1610 deaths