Matthew Hairstanes
{{Short description|Scottish courtier}}
Matthew Hairstanes (who died in 1625) was a Scottish courtier.
His family was from Dumfries.
Hairstanes was a page and groom of the bedchamber to Anne of Denmark, queen consort of James VI and I.Calendar State Papers Domestic, 1603–1610, 156. He may be the "Matheas" mentioned in records of the Scottish wardrobe. In England his annual salary was £40. He was also described as a "wardrober" to King James.R. C. Reid & Robert Edgar, [https://archive.org/details/cu31924028091233/page/n39/mode/2up An introduction to the history of Dumfries (Dumfries, 1915), pp. 32-33] He was rewarded in 1610 for his work as a bedchamber servant to the king and queen with lands at Middilbie in Annandale. Another Scottish servant, the usher James Maxwell, received a similar grant on the same day.John Maitland Thomson, [https://archive.org/details/registrummagnisi07scot/page/80/mode/2up Register of the Great Seal of Scotland, vol. 7 (Edinburgh, 1892), p. 80 no. 219]
Hairstanes married Elizabeth (Bessie) Gledstanes.R. C.Reid & Robert Edgar, [https://archive.org/details/cu31924028091233/page/n317/mode/2up An introduction to the history of Dumfries (Dumfries, 1915), Appendix 4] He obtained part of the lands of Kelwood and Craig or Craigs south of Dumfries when his wife's father John Gledstanes died in 1619. He was then known as "Hairstanes of Craigs" or of "Kelwood Craigs".Register of the Privy Council, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1894), p. 226. He had already purchased the lands and fortalice of Over Kelwood with the chapel of Saint Lawrence in 1612 from a kinsman of his wife, Alexander Gledstanes, a son of the Bishop of St Andrews, George Gledstanes.Robert Edgar, An introduction to the history of Dumfries (Dumfries, 1915), pp. 32, 127-129: Chris Paton, Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry through Church and State Records (Pen & Sword, 2019): John Maitland Thomson, [https://archive.org/details/registrummagnisi07scot/page/252/mode/2up Register of the Great Seal of Scotland, vol. 7 (Edinburgh, 1892), p. 252 no. 678][https://saintsplaces.gla.ac.uk/place.php?id=1368461042 St Lawrence's Chapel, Dumfries]
It has been suggested that Alexander Gledstanes sold the property to Hairstanes in the hope that the groom could gain the queen's influence to appoint him Archdeacon of St Andrews.Robert Edgar, An introduction to the history of Dumfries (Dumfries, 1915), p. 129 fn.17.
The historian Maureen Meikle suggests that Hairstanes may have been a Roman Catholic servant of Anne of Denmark, among other Catholic bedchamber servants including Jane Drummond, Anne Hay, Anna Livingstone, and Piero Hugon.Maureen M. Meikle & Helen M. Payne, [https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022046911000868 'From Lutheranism to Catholicism: The faith of Anna of Denmark, 1574-1619', Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 64 (2013), pp. 62, 66 fn.92] Other members of the family, two brothers John and Robert Hairstanes, attended the Scots College at Douai, a Catholic seminary, in this period.William Forbes Leith, [https://archive.org/details/recordsofscotsco00news/page/n25/mode/2up Records of the Scots colleges at Douai, Rome, Madrid, Valladolid and Ratisbon (Aberdeen, 1906), pp. 10, 11, 13, 103]
Hairstanes died in May 1625. His three daughters died in his lifetime, or shortly after, Craigs and his other properties passed to his older brother John Hairstanes.R. C.Reid & Robert Edgar, [https://archive.org/details/cu31924028091233/page/n329/mode/2up An introduction to the history of Dumfries (Dumfries, 1915), Appendix 5]