Elizabeth Gibb
{{Short description|Scottish courtier (d. 1595)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
Elizabeth or Elspeth Gibb (died 1595) was a Scottish courtier involved in the Queen's wardrobe.
Career
She was a daughter of Robert Gibb of Carriber and Elizabeth Schaw.George Duncan Gibb, The life and times of Robert Gib, Lord of Carriber, vol. 1 (London, 1874), p. 201.
On 4 February 1577 she married Peter Young of Seaton, a tutor to James VI at Stirling Castle.George Duncan Gibb, The life and times of Robert Gib, Lord of Carriber, vol. 1 (London, 1874), p. 201. In early modern Scotland married women did not usually adopt their husband's surnames.Jenny Wormald, Court, Kirk, and Community (London, 1981), p. 30.[https://www.historyworkshop.org.uk/womens-history/whats-in-a-surname/ History Workshop, What's in a Surname? Rebecca Mason] A datestone from their long demolished house at Seaton, Forfarshire, was carved with their initials, "1583 PY EG."Hugh Young, Sir Peter Young, Knight Of Seaton (1896), p. 11.
James VI gave her a psalter, which he had received from Thomas Hay, Commendator of Glenluce.George F. Warner, 'The Library of James VI, 1573-1583', Miscellany of the Scottish History Society (Edinburgh, 1893), p. liv, from British Library Add. MS 34275.
She was invited to wait on Anne of Denmark at her coronation in May 1590.Maureen Meikle, 'Anna of Denmark's Coronation and Entry', Julian Goodare & Alasdair A. MacDonald, Sixteenth-Century Scotland (Brill, 2008), p. 284. She joined the queen's household. Her brother John Gibb was a servant of James VI and keeper of Dunfermline Palace.
Like the courtier Katherine Bellenden, who served James V and made his shirts, Elizabeth Gibb sewed and worked fabrics for the king and the queen, especially linen items. Several are mentioned in the royal treasurer's accounts, including "sarks" (shirts) with "necks" (collars) and bands, ruffs, and "hands" (cuffs). She also sewed taffeta and ribbons to dress Anna of Denmark's hair, and made linen caps called "mutches." She embroidered some of these items with gold and silver thread.George Duncan Gibb, [https://archive.org/details/lifetimesofrobv100gibb/page/202/mode/2up The life and times of Robert Gib, Lord of Carriber, vol. 1 (London, 1874), pp. 202-3]
More head coverings and veils for the queen made by Gibb, known as "taffetas", with hats and black satin veils for riding wear were recorded in an account made by the textile merchant and financier Robert Jousie.Jemma Field, [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14629712.2019.1626120 'Dressing a Queen: The Wardrobe of Anna of Denmark at the Scottish Court of King James VI, 1590–1603', The Court Historian, 24:2 (2019), pp. 160-3]. In July 1590 she made three matching crimson velvet hats, for Anna of Denmark, and her two Danish maidens of honour Sofie Koss and Katrine Skinkel.Jemma Field, Anna of Denmark: The Material and Visual Culture of the Stuart Courts (Manchester, 2020), p. 139. Elizabeth Gibb made snoods and took delivery of a gold "kell" and two silver "kells" for the queen, which were a kind of hair net, and costly at £16 Scots. She made the queen "mussellis and tournets and rydding geir" from black satin, these were masks and face veils to protect her complexion.Jemma Field, 'Dressing a Queen: The Wardrobe of Anna of Denmark at the Scottish Court of King James VI, 1590–1603', The Court Historian, 24:2 (2019), pp. 157, 161.
Grissel Hamilton was the queen's "Mistress Sewstar", the Mistress of Sewing in the household. From time to time Anna herself was provided with thread to weave, the accounts record, "fine black silk for your Majestie to vewe with."Michael Pearce, [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14629712.2019.1626110 'Anna of Denmark: Fashioning a Danish Court in Scotland', The Court Historian, 24:2 (2019), p. 146. {{doi|10.1080/14629712.2019.1626110}}
Elizabeth Gibb died on 10 May 1595 in Leith.George Duncan Gibb, The life and times of Robert Gib, Lord of Carriber , vol. 1 (London, 1874), pp. 204, 348: NRS CC8/8/35, p. 106 Will of Elizabeth Gib. Some sources say she died in 1593.Hugh Young, Sir Peter Young, Knight Of Seaton (1896), p. 11.
Family
Elizabeth Gibb had twelve children, seven sons and three daughters, including;John Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage (London, 1845), pp. 1075-6.
- James Young and Henry Young, twins. James was the heir, and became a gentleman of the bedchamber to the king. James Young married firstly Isobel Arbuthnot, and secondly, Jean Stewart.George Duncan Gibb, Life and times of Robert Gib, Lord of Carriber, vol. 2 (London, 1874), p. 70.
- Patrick Young
- Peter Young and Robert Young, twins born 10 June 1580 at Stirling Castle. Peter Young junior was part of a diplomatic mission with Lord Spencer to Gustavus Adolphus in 1628.{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/ahistorycollege00noblgoog |title=A History of the College of Arms |first=Mark |last=Noble |authorlink=Mark Noble (biographer) |page=[https://archive.org/details/ahistorycollege00noblgoog/page/n258 234] |year=1804 |via=archive.org |location=London}} Robert Young was a member of the household of Prince Henry.George Duncan Gibb, Life and times of Robert Gib, Lord of Carriber, vol. 2 (London, 1874), p. 71.
- Patrick Young, who was the king's librarian, Rector of Hayes and Lannerage, and a Prebendary of St Paul's.
- John Young (1585–1654), received his MA at the University of St Andrews in 1606, and was elected fellow at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. He held various livings, a canonry in Wells Cathedral from 1611, and the deanery of Winchester from 1616 until 1645.Kenneth Fincham, "John Young" in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Online (2004).
- Michael Young, born 1589.
- Marie or Maria Young, was born in the palace of Stirling Castle on 1 June 1579.Hugh Young, Sir Peter Young, Knight Of Seaton (1896), p. 59. She became a lady in waiting to Anne of Denmark, who attended her wedding to John Douglas of Tilliequillie at Holyroodhouse in February 1595. James VI gave her two black velvet gowns as a marriage gift.Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1936), p. 531 no. 466: Michael Pearce, [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14629712.2019.1626110 'Anna of Denmark: Fashioning a Danish Court in Scotland', The Court Historian, 24:2 (2019), p. 148].
- Margaret Young, born at Seaton on 14 November 1581,Hugh Young, Sir Peter Young, Knight Of Seaton (1896), p. 60. who married David Lindsay of Kinnettles, Forfarshire.
- Frederick Young and Sophia Johanna Young, twins born January 1587.Hugh Young, Sir Peter Young, Knight Of Seaton (1896), p. 63.
- Anna Young, noted in Peter Young's diary as his twelfth child, born February 1591.Hugh Young, Sir Peter Young, Knight Of Seaton (1896), p. 11.
References
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Category:Household of Anne of Denmark
Category:Scottish ladies-in-waiting