John Wemyss younger of Logie, (1569-1597), was a Scottish courtier, spy, and subject of the ballad "The Laird o Logie", beheaded for plotting to blow up a fortification at Veere in the Netherlands.
Life
John Wemyss was a son of Andrew Wemyss of Myrecairnie and Logie (later Lord Myrecairnie, a law lord).
He was a cousin of David Wemyss, Laird of West Wemyss, in Fife, Scotland. He was usually known as "Logie" after the family estate at Logie in Fife. He was a valet or varlet in the bed chamber of James VI of Scotland and his sister Euphemia was a lady-in-waiting to Anne of Denmark. He is remembered for his relationship and marriage to Margaret Winster or Vinstarr, a Danish woman who helped him escape from prison.William Fraser, Memorials of the family of Wemyss of Wemyss, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1888), 62-4.: Robert Chambers, Domestic Annals of Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1848), pp. 239-240.
Quarrel with the Duke of Lennox In 1590, James VI gave Logie £333 Scots from the subsidy money that Queen Elizabeth had given him. In 1591, "young Logy" received £300. These gifts are evidence of royal favour.Miles Kerr-Peterson & Michael Pearce, "James VI's English Subsidy and Danish Dowry Accounts, 1588–1596", Miscellany of the Scottish History Society, XVI (Woodbridge, 2020), p. 56, 59: British Library Add. MS 33531, and a 19th-century copy National Records of Scotland RH2/2/16.
On 7 January 1591, Logie came to the attention of Robert Bowes, the English diplomat in Edinburgh who described a fight on Edinburgh's Royal Mile.David M. Bergeron, The Duke of Lennox, 1574-1624: A Jacobean Courtier's Life (Edinburgh, 2022), p. 32. Logie had upset or made Ludovic Stewart, 2nd Duke of Lennox jealous in an incident in the king's bed chamber. Bowes said the offence was "his disobedience" shown to the Duke. Lennox confronted Logie on the street and hit him on the head with his sword. King James, who was walking behind Logie, was dragged into a shop for safety.Robert Chambers, Domestic Annals of Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1848), p. 222. Lennox was commanded to leave the court for a while, for fighting near the king's person.Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1936), p. 450. Some further details were recorded by David Calderwood. In his version Logie's offence was to refuse to leave the bedchamber at Lennox's command, (Lennox was Chamberlain), Alexander Lord Home helped Lennox attack Logie, and the king's refuge was a skinner's shop where he "".Thomas Thomson, History of the Kirk of Scotland by David Calderwood, vol. 5 (Edinburgh, 1844), pp. 116-7. The kirk minister Robert Bruce of Kinnaird spoke in his next sermon of the lack of reverence of the "men who troubled our causeway".Jamie Reid Baxter, "Elizabeth Melville, Lady Culross: new light from Fife", The Innes Review 68.1 (2017), p. 51, Scots: "the men quho trublit oure calsay the last day, gif they had bene indewit with the feare of god, or reverence of anie man, that they wold have reverenced the King as they did". Soon after, Lennox was returned to court by the queen's intervention.Leeds Barroll, Anna of Denmark (Pennsylvania, 2001), p. 17: Leeds Barroll, 'The court of the first Stuart queen', Linda Levy Peck, The Mental World of the Jacobean Court (Cambridge, 1991), p. 195.
Logie remained in favour, and was probably the valet who attended the king at the wedding of Lilias Murray, the Laird of Tullibardine's daughter, and John Grant of Freuchie on 21 June 1591.Jemma Field, Anna of Denmark: The Material and Visual Culture of the Stuart Courts (Manchester, 2020), p. 135. The king and his valet changed into costumes with helmets and masks and performed a masque for the guests at Tullibardine.Michael Pearce, 'Anna of Denmark: Fashioning a Danish Court in Scotland', The Court Historian, 24:2 (2019) p. 149. An account for royal costume gives details of "ane stand of maskerye claythis to hym that wes his majesties vallett att thatt tyme".Michael Pearce, 'Maskerye Claythis for James VI and Anna of Denmark', Medieval English Theatre 43, 2021 (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2022), p. 117.
Escape from Dalkeith Later in 1592 Logie helped Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell who was a rebel against the king.Alan Stewart, The Cradle King (London, 2004), p. 133. Colonel William Stewart gave information to Sir James Sandilands that led to his arrest. A "Lady Patfaran" also revealed information. She was Isobel Hepburn, Lady Pitfarran, William Stewart's wife.Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1936), p. 750 no. 734, 753 no. 735.
On 8 August 1592 the Duke of Lennox arrested Logie with Michael Balfour of Burleigh. Logie confessed to planning four different attempts to capture the king. One involved Margaret Vinstarr, Danish maid of honour to the queen, and Logie's mistress and fiancé. She would steal the keys to the back gate of Dalkeith Palace and let in Bothwell's men. When James interrogated him, Logie was immediately cooperative and withheld nothing, saying that many other servants were allies of Bothwell, in part because they had not been paid. Logie said that Bothwell had received money from Spain, but the Laird of Burleigh said this was only a rumour intended to show that Bothwell had Spanish backing and so encourage his faction. Bowes thought that James would want to have Logie executed, but the queen and Margaret Winstar, who was from a well-connected family and thought to be related to the queen, would work to save his life.Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1936), pp. 750-1: Thomas Thomson ed., History of the Kirk of Scotland by David Calderwood, vol. 5 (Edinburgh, 1844), 207.
Logie was imprisoned in Dalkeith Palace. He escaped with the help of Margaret Winster or Vinstarr who slept in the queen's bedchamber. Vinstarr asked the guards to bring the prisoner to the queen, and then led him through the queen's bedchamber to a window where she had left a rope (or a pair sheets). An accomplice was waiting below with a horse.Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1936), pp. 752-5: Calendar of Border Papers, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1894), 405: Thomas Thomson ed., History of the Kirk of Scotland by David Calderwood, vol. 5 (Edinburgh, 1844), pp. 173-4. The story of the escape is the basis of the ballad, "The Laird of Logie". The queen was asked to send Vinstarr back to Denmark but she refused, instead she stayed at Wemyss Castle for a while. On 9 November 1592 Anne of Denmark wrote to the Laird of Wemyss to thank him for looking after her.William Fraser, Memorials of the family of Wemyss of Wemyss, vol. 3 (Edinburgh, 1888), p. 31 and plate.
David Moysie wrote an account of the escape in Scots, here given with a modernised version;the same nycht that he was examinat, he escapit out by the meanis of a gentlewoman quhom he loved, a Dence, quho convoyed him out of his keiperis handis throw the Queinis chalmer, quhaire his Majestie and the Queine wer lyand in thair beddis, till a wyndow in the backsyde of the plaice, quhair he gead doun upone a tow, and schot thrie pistoletis in takin of his onlouping, quhaire sum of his servants with the laird of Nithrie wer awaiting him.the same night that he was examined, he escaped out by the means of a gentlewoman he loved, a Dane, who conveyed him out of his keeper's hands through the Queen's chamber, where his majesty and the queen were lying in their beds, to a window at the back of the place, where he climbed down on a rope, and shot three pistols as a sign of his getaway, where some of his servants with the Laird of Niddry were waiting for him.James Dennistoun, Moysie's Memoirs of the Affairs of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1830), p. 95.
James VI sent a brief account of the incident to Anne of Denmark's brother Christian IV of Denmark in a Latin letter on 17 August 1592, saying that Logie had betrayed his and Anne's trust. Despite the circumstance he had decided to forgive the couple, but Logie was banished from court.William Dunn Macray, 'Report on Archives in Denmark', 47th Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records (London, 1886), pp. 28-9 Logie was pardoned by James VI on 29 November 1592.Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1936), pp. 818, 821. He was in Scotland in April 1594 and married in May, a charter of December 1594 names his wife as "Margaret Weiksterne". A chronicle states that Sir Peter Young, the king's almoner and ambassador to Denmark, paid her dowry.William Fraser, Memorials of the family of Wemyss of Wemyss, vol. 1, pp. 178-9; vol. 3, p. 31; Annie Cameron, Warrender Papers, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1932), p. 53. Their marriage contract was dated November 1593 and March 1594, for Logie to inherit Myrecairnie, Wester Cruivie, Brighouse, and Logie. James VI also planned to make the lands of Logie a barony.Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland, vol. 5 (Edinburgh, 1817), pp. 124-5; see the register of the privy seal, PS1/67 f.62-3.
The story of the escape is also told in the contemporary narrative The Historie and Life of King James the Sext. The author draws attention to Margaret's role in the rescue as an act of charity and a good example for posterity, concluding that by "hir gude cheritable help he happilie escapit be the subteltie of loove".Thomas Thomson ed., The Historie and Life of King James the Sext (Edinburgh, 1825), pp. 253-4. The author of the Historie may have been Mr John Colville, who was also an ally of Bothwell, and mentioned Logie in a letter to Henry Lock, a poet and agent of Sir Robert Cecil.Dierdre Serjeantson, 'English Bards and Scotch Poetics', in Crawford Gribben & David George Mullan,Literature and the Scottish Reformation (Farnham, 2009), pp. 164-5.
In June 1593 Robert Bowes described Logie's role in another much less romantic incident. James Gray, a servant of king James and brother of the Master of Gray, had abducted and married Catherine Carnegie daughter of John, Laird of Carnegie. She protested and was given a refuge in house of Robert Jousie in Edinburgh, a cloth merchant and business partner of Thomas Foulis. Gray sent his friend Logie to quietly break into the house. When he discovered that she was still inside, he signalled to James Sandilands and other accomplices to break down the doors and carry her back to Gray, while Lord Home and his followers prevented rescuers. Catherine eventually married Sir John Hamilton of Lettrick.Annie I. Cameron, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1936), p. 98 no. 69: Scots Peerage, vol. 8 (Edinburgh, 1911), p. 58.
Intrigue and execution Logie was in London in March 1594. William Keith of Delny wrote to the Scottish resident agent in London, James Hudson, that both James VI and Anna of Denmark had told him that Logie had no diplomatic mission from them.Thomas Birch, Memorials of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, vol. 1 (London, 1754), pp. 161-2 (page numbered 160 in error).
In April 1594 James VI came to Rossend Castle in Fife to arrest those suspected of intrigue with Bothwell, including Logie and Archibald Wauchope of Niddrie. Logie gave himself up to the king and was released into the custody of his kinsman the Laird of Wester Wemyss.Annie I. Cameron, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 11 (London, 1936), pp. 308-10. In August 1594 he was again implicated in Bothwell's rebellion and was arrested on his way to Stirling Castle for the banquet at the baptism of Prince Henry.Letters of John Colville (Edinburgh, 1858), pp. 120, 128. He was imprisoned at Blackness Castle then in Edinburgh Castle, and threatened with execution.David Laing, Original Letters of John Colville (Edinburgh, 1858), pp. 120, 123, 128: Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1936), p. 420 no. 336.