James Ogilvie of Cardell (died 1574) was a Scottish courtier, a master of household to Mary, Queen of Scots, his inheritance of Findlater Castle was disputed by John Gordon.Jennifer Morag Henderson, Daughters of the North: Jean Gordon and Mary, Queen of Scots (Whittles, 2025), pp. 32–42: William Fraser, Sutherland Book, 1, pp. 103–104.George Anderson Clarke, Deskford Parish : loons, lairds, preachers & teachers (Aberdeen, 1993), p. 17.
Family and lands
He was a son of Alexander Ogilvie (died 1554) of Findlater Castle and Janet Abernethy. Alexander Ogilvie served in the household of Mary of Guise in the 1540s. He and his second wife Elizabeth Gordon, Lady Findlater (a daughter of Adam Gordon, Dean of Caithness),I. D. Grant, "Not Improven", Miscellany of the Stair Society, 1 (Edinburgh, 1971), p. 97: Register of the Great Seal, 3, pp. 578 no. 2519, 728 no. 3104. commissioned a carved stone sacrament house at Deskford and an unusual and lavish monument in Cullen Old Kirk.Lizzie Swarbrick, "Patronage of the Collegiate Church at Cullen", Jane Geddes, Medieval Art, Architecture and Archaeology in the Dioceses of Aberdeen and Moray (Routledge, 2016), pp. 132–135.
Cardell, according to William Fraser, also known as Pitcroy, included Cardell-moir, Cardell-beg, a mill, and fishing on the Spey located in Knockando parish. The property was held in feu by James Ogilvie from the Friars in Elgin from 1527 to 1539, when Friars gave it in feu to Alexander Grant instead. The lands are now known as Cardhu or Cardow, noted for a woolmill and a distillery.William Fraser, The Chiefs of Grant, 1 (Edinburgh, 1883), p. 206. However, a royal charter made to James Ogilvie in February 1535 indicates that the barony of "Cardale" included lands located in the southern area of Inverness such as Holm, Brodland (Borlum), Lochardil, and a castle mound.Register of the Great Seal, 1513–1546 (Edinburgh, 1883), p. 320 no. 1448. These lands had belonged to Alexander Ogilvie of Farr and Cullard and his wife Margaret Dennet.M. Livingstone, Register of the Privy Seal of Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1908), pp. 226 no. 1563.Michelle Beer, Queenship at the Renaissance Courts of Britain: Catherine of Aragon and Margaret Tudor (Woodbridge, 2018), p. 108.
Alexander Ogilvie disinherited James Ogilvie in 1545 in favour of John Gordon, a son of George Gordon, 4th Earl of Huntly.Anne L. Forbes, Trials and triumphs : the Gordons of Huntly in sixteenth-century Scotland (Edinburgh: John Donald, 2012), pp. 12–15: I. D. Grant, "Not Improven", Miscellany of the Stair Society, 1 (Edinburgh, 1971), p. 97.Scots Peerage, 4 (Edinburgh: David Douglas), p. 21. On 28 September 1545, John Gordon obtained a royal charter permitting him to use the name and arms of Ogilvie, and confirming him as heir of Alexander Ogilvie and Elizabeth Gordon.Register of the Great Seal, 3, pp. 741–742 no. 3157. According to the English diplomat Thomas Randolph, James Ogilvie had seduced or traduced his stepmother Elizabeth Gordon, Lady Findlater, and imprisoned his father in a dark house and deprived him of sleep. Later, John Gordon married Lady Findlater to secure his property (the Privy Council called her "his pretended spouse"),John Hill Burton, Register of the Privy Council, 1 (Edinburgh, 1877), p. 219. and then, according to Randolph, locked her in a "close room".Records of Aboyne (Aberdeen: New Spalding Club, 1894), pp. 460–461: Joseph Bain, Calendar State Papers Scotland, 1 (Edinburgh, 1898), pp. 655–656 no. 1141.
John Gordon's brother, Alexander Gordon, had attempted to mediate in 1549. He wrote to Mary of Guise that John Gordon would agree the matter with James Ogilvie when he returned from France.Annie Cameron, Scottish Correspondence of Mary of Lorraine (Edinburgh: SHS, 1927), pp. 311–312. In 1551, apparently to eject John Gordon from his uncle's property, Alexander Irvine, Master of Drum, captured Findlater Castle and John Gordon, but was declared a traitor by Regent Arran's government.Donald M. Mackintosh, Irvines of Drum (Southern, 1998), p. 111: Register of the Privy Seal, 1548–1546, p. 251 no. 1550. James Ogilvie was in France in 1551.Pamela E. Ritchie, Mary of Guise (Tuckwell, 2002), p. 265 noting a payment to "James Ogilvie". John Gordon was confirmed as the landholder in December 1552.Register of the Privy Seal, 1548–1546, p. 294 no. 1817.
Mary of Guise, as Regent of Scotland, who had perceived the "evill" done to James by his father,Register of the Privy Seal, 1556–1565, part 1, p. 437 no. 1470. attempted to provide a settlement for this dispute on 21 May 1556.Scots Peerage, 4 (Edinburgh: David Douglas), p. 23 citing 'Acts and Decreets', i, 80. In May 1560, when she was at Edinburgh Castle, Guise sent the "laird of Findlater" and the advocate Master John Spence of Condie to negotiate with the Lords of the Congregation and the English commanders at the siege of Leith. They met at the Justice Clerk's mill.Rosalind K. Marshall, Mary of Guise (Collins, 1977), pp. 255–256.
Subsequently, in June 1562, James Ogilvie and John Gordon fought over their rights in court and on the High Street of Edinburgh.Agnes Strickland, Lives of the Queens of Scotland, p. 284. James, Lord Ogilvie was wounded in the arm.John Hill Burton, Register of the Privy Council, 1 (Edinburgh, 1877), p. 218.Retha Warnicke, Mary Queen of Scots (Routledge, 2006), p. 82. The fight was noted by Thomas Randolph and John Knox. Gordon was briefly imprisoned in the tolbooth of Edinburgh, and Ogilvie was detained in the "over council house" with a kinsman James Ogilvie of Balfour.John Parker Lawson, History of the Affairs of Church and State in Scotland by Robert Keith, 2 (Edinburgh, 1845), p. 156.Extracts from the burgh records of Edinburgh, 3 (Edinburgh, 1875), pp. 138–139. Mary, Queen of Scots, restored the inheritance to James Ogilvie in 1563, as the baronies of Deskford and Findlater.John Mackintosh, Historic Earls and Earldoms of Scotland (Aberdeen: Jolly, 1998), pp. 310–311.
Mary of Guise's household
James Ogilvie appears in the household rolls of Mary of Guise, in the years after the death of James V, as "the son of the laird of Findlater". Ogilvie witnessed a band of friendship made between the Earl of Huntly and William, Lord Saltoun, at Edinburgh on 27 March 1543."The Gordon Papers", Miscellany of the Spalding Club, 4 (Aberdeen, 1849), pp. 206–207. In 1543, he made a band of friendship with Walter Ogilvie of Dunlugus, a kinsman included in Guise's household roll as "Watur Ogliby". Dunlugus signed the "Secret Bond" in July 1543 in opposition to the policy of Regent Arran, which led to Mary being taken from Linlithgow Palace to Stirling Castle.Jenny Wormald, "The Sandlaw Dispute, 1546", Wendy Davies and Paul Fouracre, The Settlement of Disputes in Early Medieval Europe (Cambridge, 1986), p. 197: Letters and Papers Henry VIII, 18:1 (London, 1901), no. 945: Cavendish D. Abercromby, Family of Abercromby (William Smith, 1927), p. 21: Hamilton Papers, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1890), p. 630 no. 446: Scots Peerage, 2 (Edinburgh, 1095), p. 8.
James Ogilvie's second wife, Marion or Marjory Livingstone was also a member of Guise's household.Marguerite Wood, Balcarres Papers, 2 (Edinburgh: SHS, 1925), p. 314, "Margere Leviston", National Records of Scotland E34/23 (1) and (3), "Le filz du sr de Feneter". According to family tradition, she served as mistress of the robes to Mary, Queen of Scots, in France. A dress belonging to her was preserved at Cullen House until 1746.The Literary Correspondence of John Pinkerton, 2 (London, 1830), p. 89.
Mary's return to Scotland Mary, Queen of Scots, appointed Ogilvie as her steward on 9 October 1560 at Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye.HMC 3rd Report: Seafield (London, 1872), p. 404 On 12 January 1561, Mary sent him to Edinburgh with Simon Preston of Craigmillar, John Lumsden of Blanerne, and Robert Leslie of Ardersier with a commission to hold a parliament.Diurnal of Occurrents (Edinburgh, 1833), p. 282.Alexandre Labanoff, Lettres de Marie Stuart, 1 (London: Dolman, 1844), pp. 80–89. She wanted the parliament to appoint a new comptroller and treasurer to collect her rents in advance of her return to Scotland.Joseph Bain, Calendar State Papers Scotland, 1 (Edinburgh, 1898), pp. 506–507 nos. 949, 950, 514 no. 959. The four commissioners arrived at Craigmillar Castle on 20 February and spoke with William Maitland of Lethington and went to Linlithgow on 23 February to speak to James Hamilton, Duke of Châtellerault and James Hamilton, 3rd Earl of Arran. Thomas Randolph heard reports of the discussions about Queen Mary's return but was sceptical of what he heard and the commissioners' sincerity.Joseph Bain, Calendar State Papers Scotland, 1 (Edinburgh, 1898), pp. 518–521 no. 964.Joseph Bain, Calendar State Papers Scotland, 1 (Edinburgh, 1898), p. 655 no. 1141.
Master of household Ogilvie served as a master of household to Queen Mary in 1562 and took receipt of 60 small English pewter plates.James Balfour Paul, Accounts of the Treasurer, 11 (Edinburgh, 1916), p. 109. The exchequer rolls mention a household book, recording daily expenses on food, countersigned by Ogilvie, Bartholomew de Villemore, and George Seton, 7th Lord Seton. Lord Seton was Mary's "first master household". The expenses for 12 months to November 1563 were £11,486 Scots. Ogilvie's annual fee as master of the household was £200.George Powell McNeill, Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, 19 (Edinburgh, 1898), pp. 233–234, 253, 337, 379–380.
In October 1565, Ogilvy was found to have neglected his duties. The masters of household were required to attend and serve in terms, and Ogilvy had ignored his summons. It was also noted that he had shirked attendance during the Chaseabout Raid. His post as master of household was given to Gilbert Balfour of Westray.Gordon Donaldson, Register of the Privy Seal of Scotland, 5:1 (Edinburgh: HMSO, 1957), p. 676 no. 2532. Ogilvy and Findlater officiated with Francisco de Busso as masters of the royal household in the Great Hall of Stirling Castle during the baptism of Prince James in December 1566.Charles Rogers, History of the Chapel Royal of Scotland (London, 1882), p. lxx: Diurnal of Occurrents (Edinburgh, 1835), pp. 103-4.
Mary's Scottish itinerary At this time the household accounts were written in French, and the surviving material in the National Records of Scotland is known as the Despences de la Maison Royale.National Records of Scotland, 'Despences de la Maison Royale' E33. The historian George Chalmers obtained a translation of the record including the dates and places visited, which he used to establish Mary's itinerary. He called his abstract "Ogilvie's diary" or "journal", which has led to some confusion.George Chalmers, The Life of Mary Queen of Scots, Drawn from the State Papers, 1 (London: John Murray, 1818), p. 81.Thomas Finlayson Henderson, Mary, Queen of Scots: Her Environment and Tragedy, 1 (London, 1905), p. 327. The account includes Mary's visit to Cullen and the Craig of Boyne (19 September 1562).Alistair Tayler, "Ogilvies of Boyne", Banffshire Field Club Transactions, 12 (1933), p. 22. A full itinerary was published by David Hay Fleming in 1897,David Hay Fleming, Mary Queen of Scots (London, 1897), pp. 515–543. using dates and placenames from the registers of the privy seal.W. Croft Dickinson, "Register of the Privy Seal", Scottish Historical Review, 33:145 Part 1 (1958), pp. 54–56. This was revised and updated in 1988 by Edward Furgol.Edward Furgol, 'The Scottish itinerary of Mary Queen of Scots, 1542–8 and 1561-8', PSAS, 117 (1988), microfiche supplement
Progress and campaign in 1562