John Clavie or Clavee (died 1607) was a Scottish apothecary who worked for James VI and I and the royal family.
Background Clavie was based in Edinburgh and moved with the court to London on the Union of the Crowns.Elizabeth Lane Furdell, The Royal Doctors, 1485-1714: Medical Personnel at the Tudor and Stuart Courts (New York, 2001), pp. 115, 121. He was probably related to "Jhone Clavie" or "Clavye" (died 1586), a candlemaker who supported Mary, Queen of Scots in the Marian Civil War.Michael Lynch, Edinburgh and the Reformation (Edinburgh: John Donald, p. 320: John Graham Dalyell, Journal of the Transactions in Scotland, by Richard Bannatyne (Edinburgh, 1806), p. 314: Gordon Donaldson, Register of the Privy Seal, 8, p. 350 no. 1846. The candlemaker John Clavie and his business partners were censured for exporting tallow in March 1569.Charles Thorpe McInnes, Accounts of the Treasurer, vol. 12 (Edinburgh, 1970), pp. 152-3.
Career In April 1598, Edinburgh burgh hosted a banquet for Anne of Denmark's brother, Ulrik, Duke of Holstein, at the house of Ninian MacMorran at Riddle's court. Two apothecaries, John Lawtie and John Clavie sweetened and added spices to wine to make Hippocras. A third apothecary, Alexander Barclay made two pints of "vergeis" and a mutchkin of perfumed rose water.Marguerite Wood, Extracts from the Records of the Burgh of Edinburgh, 1589-1603 (Edinburgh, 1927), pp. 218, 362-4.
Clavie was appointed an apothecary in ordinary to King James in March 1603, and appointed to serve Anne of Denmark, Prince Henry and the other royal children on 19 July.Leslie Gerald Matthews, The Royal Apothecaries (London, 1967), p. 88: Thomas Rymer, Foedera, vol. 16, pp. 522, 532-3.
Clavie wrote a will on 22 September 1607, which mentions his suppliers including Mr Wealthie, a comfit maker, Mr Hawkins, a grocer, and the apothecary Mr Lemire. The will was witnessed by the royal physician John Craig, Robert Johnson, and the surgeon Gilbert Primrose. He appointed Martin Schöner to be a supervisor of the will.Will of John Clavie, TNA PROB 11/110/362.
Death John Clavie died in 1607. He was replaced in the royal household by Lewis Lemire, an apothecary from Flanders.L. G. Matthews, London's Immigrant Apothecaries, Medical History, 18 (1974), p. 263.
Family He married Marie Aldinstoun. After Clavie's death, she married Patrick Livingstone, feuar of Saltcoats.David Masson, Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, 1613-1616, vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1891), p. 160.
References