Cuthbert Rayne

Cuthbert Rayne's family lived at Marwood near Barnard Castle in Teesdale.'Marwood', William Fordyce, History and Antiquities of the County Palatine of Durham, vol. 2 (Newcastle, 1857), p. 46. A younger namesake cousin, Cuthbert Reyne, was a Catholic, and joined the English College in Rome in 1613. He wrote of his cousin, a son of Nicholas Reyne who lived at "Rogermy" (Roger Moor, at Marwood), that he was "in high favour with the King, for when Elizabeth was yet reigning, he used every year to visit Scotland and go to the King for the sake of hunting".Henry Foley, Records of the English Province of the Society of Jesus, vol. 3 (London, 1878), p. 114.

According to the Venetian ambassador, Foscarini, the king's love of hunting stemmed from his education at Stirling Castle, where George Buchanan ensured that hunting hares in the park was his only leisure from his books.Allen Hinds, Calendar State Papers, Venice: 1613–1615, vol. 13 (London, 1907), 388 no. 658: N. Barozzi & G. Berchet, [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_QeOnulrzGNAC/page/168/mode/2up Le relazioni degli Stati europei lette al Senato dagli ambasciatori Veneti, 4 (Venice, 1863), 169] In March 1586, thirty bucks (male deer) were sent to James VI from the parks of the Earl of Northumberland, for the park at Falkland. James VI went to see the deer unloaded from the carts that brought them from Leith. He asked the English diplomat Thomas Randolph if Elizabeth I would send huntsmen and horses, "yeoman prickers" and "grooms of the leash".Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 8 (Edinburgh, 1914), pp. 255 no. 302, 350 no. 376, 364–65 no. 388. Some huntsmen and bucks were sent to James VI in August 1586 by Thomas Randolph, who was at Newcastle, and the Scottish ambassador in London, Archibald Douglas.[https://archive.org/details/letterspapersrel00bann/page/110/mode/2up Letters and Papers Relating to Patrick Master of Grey (Edinburgh, 1835), p. 111] Randolph wrote:

I have sent the Kynge two hunting men, verie good and skillful, with one footman, that can hoop, hollow and crye, that all the trees in Fawkland will quake for fear. Pray the Kynge's Majestie to be mercifull to the poor bucks; but let him spare and look well to himself.William Murdin, Collection of State Papers left by William Cecill Lord Burghley (London, 1759), pp. 558, 569.

One "Cuthbert the hunter", either Cuthbert Armourer or Cuthbert Rayne, was given a reward of 20 French crowns in 1588. George Young made this payment, while Richard Cockburn gave 200 crowns to English hunters. Archibald Arnot in Falkland was paid £80 Scots towards feeding English huntsmen. In 1589, another 20 crowns was paid to an English hunter.Miles Kerr-Peterson & Michael Pearce, 'James VI's English Subsidy and Danish Dowry Accounts', Scottish History Society Miscellany XVI (Woodbridge, 2020), pp. 23-4, 59, 61.

Cuthbert, or "Cuddie" Armourer of Belford, was an exile with Jane Howard, Countess of Westmorland after the Rising of the North in 1569, and came to Ferniehirst Castle.HMC Salisbury Hatfield, vol. 13 (London, 1915), p. 120: Thomas Wright, Queen Elizabeth and her Times, vol. 1 (London, 1838), p. 351. He was active in Scotland as one of the king's huntsman before April 1583 when the English ambassador Robert Bowes reported that his hunting had "well pleased" James VI, while he supplied useful intelligence to the diplomat.Bowes Correspondence (London, 1842), pp. 401-2.

In August 1584, Armourer, a servant or tenant of Lord Hunsdon,William Boyd, Calendar of State Papers Scotland, 1584-1585, vol. 7 (Edinburgh, 1913), p. 249 no. 234. attended a border meeting at Foulden with the Scottish huntsman John Hume of Manderston.David Calderwood, History of the Kirk, vol. 4 (Edinburgh, 1843), p. 171: Maureen Meikle, A British Frontier? Lairds and Gentlemen in the Eastern Anglo-Scottish Borders (Tuckwell, 2004), p. 181./ Armourer became so close to the king, according to the Master of Gray, that James wept with "Cuddy Armerer" over the rumours that David Rizzio was his father.Letters and Papers relating to Patrick, Master of Gray (Edinburgh, 1835), p. 16. He carried letters and was a mediator with the discourted James Stewart, Earl of Arran. In December 1592, Arran came to Holyroodhouse and met James VI at the kennels.Calendar of State Papers Scotland, vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1936), pp. 819, 821.

James VI became suspicious in January 1593 that Cuthbert Armourer and Thomas Musgrave and other Northumbrians harboured his rebel Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell, with the encouragement of Elizabeth I. The English ambassador assured him that he was misled by tale tellers.Calendar of State Papers Scotland, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1936), p. 28. For a time, James VI continued to insist on the punishment and rendition of "Cuddye Armour" and Thomas Musgrave. Armourer was forgiven by December 1593 and he was employed by the Governor of Berwick to carry messages to Edinburgh.Calendar of State Papers Scotland, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1936), pp. 125, 129, 237, 395. Eventually, after the Union of the Crowns, Cuthbert Armourer was granted the office of Chief Steward of Hexham.Mary Anne Everett Green, Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, James I, 1603-1610 (London, 1857), p. 438.

In April 1592, the English ambassador in Scotland Robert Bowes decided to ask Cuthbert Rayne to help him organise a gift of deer for James VI, to be sent to stock the park at Falkland Palace. Bowes obtained warrants for deer from the English keepers from Elizabeth I. It would be the queen's gift to James VI. Rayne, who was evidently a member of the gentry, went to London and met William Cecil then travelled north to meet Bowes. They planned to visit Barnard Castle, Raby Castle, and Brancepeth Castle to capture seventy deer. Bowes was urgently requested to return to Scotland, leaving Rayne in charge.Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1936), p. 671 no. 681.

At the end of May, Cuthbert Rayne had caught 21 male deer. However they had been hurt by the nets and the "buck stawles" used by Rayne's men. They were also injured by the dogs chasing them into the nets. Six were loaded into a Scottish boat hired by Bowes waiting at Sunderland, and shipped to Kirkcaldy for Falkland. Bowes anticipated and was told by the king's courtier Roger Aston that James VI would be very disappointed by their results.Henry Ellis, Original Letters Illustrative of English History, 2nd series vol. 3 (London, 1827), pp. 121-3: See also [http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=harley_ms_291_f199r British Library, Harley MS 291 ff.199-200] The difficulty was partly from the use of "buck staulls" to restrain the deer, borrowed from the Earl of Derby which were suitable only for red deer, not for fallow. Bowes wondered if another gentlemen might supervise any further attempts.Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1936), p. 677 no. 687.

File:Huntsman's tomb Warkworth.JPG, Warkworth, Northumberland]]

Henry Sackford, the English "Master of Toyles" was paid for collecting 40 deer for Scotland in March 1597.John Roche Dasent, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101026764967&seq=581 Acts of the Privy Council of England, 26 (London, 1892), p. 537] James Hudson brought 28 live deer to Scotland in April and James VI made a trip to Leith to see them.Thomas Birch, Memoirs of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, vol. 2 (London, 1754), p. 332. The deer were taken to Falkland in carts.Clara Steeholm & Hardy Steeholm, James I of England: The Wisest Fool in Christendom (London, 1938), p. 186.

In August 1594, James VI requested that the governor of Berwick-upon-Tweed allow Cuthbert Rayne and another English huntsman Edward Dodsworth to cross the border. He was surprised they had been hindered, as he thought the governor "lovit the game your selfe sum tymes". This incident accords with the description given by his cousin in 1613, that Rayne visited Scotland in the hunting season.Annie Cameron, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1936), p. 415 no. 327. His companion, Edward Dodsworth from Chevington or Romaldkirk in Teesdale, died in 1630 and was buried at Warkworth, where his gravestone blazoned with three bugles recorded him as "huntsman to King James". His brother and nephews also served as royal huntsmen.W. Longstaffe, Memoirs of the Life of Mr Ambrose Barnes (Durham, 1867), pp. 35-6: 'Warkworth and Alnwick', Archaeologia Aeliana, vol. 6 (Newcastle, 1865), pp. 218-9, the tomb inscription has been restored. See also, J. P. Hore, The History of the Royal Buckhounds (London, 1895).

In England, Robert Rayne was yeoman of the privy harriers and sergeant of the "old buck hounds" a pack transferred by James VI and I to the use of his son Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales.Thomas Burgeland Johnson, The Sportsman's Cyclopaedia (London, 1848), p. 124: The Narrative History of King James, for the First Fourteen Years (London, 1651), p. 59: Mandy de Belin, From the Deer to the Fox: The Hunting Transition and the Landscape, 1600–1850 (London, 2013), p. 12.Tracts during the reign of King James I (London, 1809), p. 392. His appointment as a yeoman pricker of the privy harriers for life was confirmed in 1626 by Charles I. Robert Rayne worked with Walter Rayne, Cuthbert Armourer, and members of the Dodsworth family.Foedera, vol. 18 (London, 1726), p. 869: HMC 12th report part I, Earl Cowper, Coke (London, 1888), p. 195. See also, J. P. Hore, The History of the Royal Buckhounds (London, 1895).

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• [https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5881225 Tomb of Edward Dodsworth, St Lawrence, Warkworth. Andrew Curtis, Geograph]

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Category:Court of James VI and I

Category:16th-century English people

Category:Sportspeople from County Durham

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Category:People of Falkland Palace