Elias Le Tellier was a French goldsmith who worked for Anne of Denmark in Edinburgh and moved to London at the Union of the Crowns in 1603. His first name was sometimes recorded as "Elie", as the French form "Élie", and his last name written as "Laiteller" or "Taylor".
Career In 1597, Elias Le Tellier carried messages and money for the English ambassador in Scotland Robert Bowes in association with Bowes's servant Christopher Shepherdson. The money was a reward from Elizabeth I for Andrew Knox.John Duncan Mackie, Calendar State Papers Scotland, 13:1 (Edinburgh, 1969), p. 74 no. 54. In July 1597, George Heriot was appointed goldsmith to Anne of Denmark. According to Robert Birrel's Diary, Heriot displaced a French goldsmith called "Clei", pehaps a reference to "Élie".Memoirs of George Heriot (Edinburgh, 1822), p. 12 quoting 'Diarey of Robert Birrel' (Edinburgh, 1798), p. 48. Anne of Denmark had previously employed a German-born goldsmith Jacob Kroger.Maureen Meikle, 'Anna of Denmark and Scottish Court Finances', Women in Scotland, c.1100-c.1750 (Tuckwell, 1999), p. 107: Mary Anne Everett Green, Calendar State Papers Domestic, Addenda 1580-1625 (London, 1872), pp. 364-5, TNA SP15/33/30-32.
At the same time, James or Jacques Le Tellier worked as a goldsmith for James VI.G. E. P. How, "Canongate Goldsmiths and Jewellers", The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, 74:435 (June 1939), p. 287. The historian Winifred Coutts discovered court records mentioning the Le Tellier and Des Granges families, which possibly indicate that they faced difficulties as foreign workers in Edinburgh's Canongate. They were not members of the Edinburgh incorporation of Goldsmiths. Elias is described as "Elias Litillier, Frenchman goldsmyth to the Quenis Majestie". Elias and his son Harry Le Tellier, with a colleague Samson des Granges, quarrelled with an Edinburgh goldsmith, James Crawfurd. Anne of Denmark's chamberlain, the master of work, William Schaw was able to intervene in the legal action resulting from their feud.Winifred Coutts, The Business of the College of Justice in 1600 (Stair Society, 2003), p. 70: National Records of Scotland CS7/186 f.120v. and CS7/190 f.12r.
Elias Le Tellier lived in a tenement in the Canongate and the owner, a merchant Robert Johnston, sought to have him and his wife and children evicted.Winifred Coutts, The Business of the College of Justice in 1600 (Stair Society, 2003), pp. 64, 73: National Record of Scotland CS7/190 f.12r. James Le Tellier twice attended baptisms as a witness in the Canongate in 1600 and 1601. Elias Le Tellier and his wife Esther moved to London at the Union of the Crowns. He was made a denizen of England in December 1605, and gave his place of birth as Dieppe.William Arthur Shaw, Letters of Denization, 1603–1700 (Lymington, 1911), p. 8. He resided at Charing Cross and at St Giles in the Field, and continued to be associated with George Heriot.David Masson, Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, 10 (Edinburgh, 1891), pp. 130, 142. Mary Smith from Southwark was accused of stealing part of a silver salt and two spoons from him.Calendar of Assize Records, James I: Surrey indictments (London: HMSO, 1982), p. 154 no. 892.
Samson des Granges, whose father Nicolas was from Guernsey, also moved to London and was the father of the painter David des Granges.William Moens, Registers of the French Church, 1 (Lymington: Huguenot Society, 1896), p. 81.John Murdoch, "The Seventeenth-Century Enlightenment", The English Miniature (Yale, 1981), p. 135: Lionel Cust, "Foreign Artists of the Reformed Religion", Proceedings of the Huguenot Society, 7 (1905), pp. 80–81. In London, Anne of Denmark bought fabrics from "Elias Tillier" or "Filliar", a linen draper.Frederick Devon, Issues of the Exchequer (London, 1836), pp. 56–57.Memoirs of George Heriot, p. 225.
Esther Le Tellier Elias' wife Esther des Granges or Hester Le Tellier was a silkwoman to Anne of Denmark. She came to London in 1603, and accounts record that she delivered "diverse parcels of lawn, cambric, needlework, purls, bone lace" and other materials to the lady in waiting Jane Drummond.Sarah A. Bendall, The Women Who Clothed the Stuart Queens: Gender and Work in the Royal Wardrobe and the Fashion Marketplace (Bloomsbury, 2026), p. 74.
In 1606 she received an annual wage of £20. She was a member of the Granges family and has been identified as the aunt of the painter David des Granges. She attended his christening in 1611.Mary Edmond, 'Limners and Picturemakers', Walpole Society, 47 (1978-1980), p. 123.Jemma Field, "Clothing the Royal Family: The Intersection of the Court and City in Early Stuart London", Peter Edwards, Monarchy, the Court, and the Provincial Elite in Early Modern Europe (Brill, 2024), p. 251. The registers of the French Church in Threadneedle Street also show that she attended christenings with the goldsmith Abraham Harderet.William Moens, Registers of the French Church, 1 (Lymington: Huguenot Society, 1896), p. 62. In 1613, Elias and Esther tried to recover money they had lent to James Douglas of Spott by appealing to the Privy Council of Scotland.David Masson, Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, 10 (Edinburgh, 1891), pp. 130, 142: Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, 11 (Edinburgh, 1894), pp. 111–112. "Mrs Tillier", with the hairdesser Blanche Swansted and others, took part in the funeral procession of Anne of Denmark in 1619.John Nichols, Progresses of James the First, 3 (London, 1828), p. 541.
References
External links Before George Heriot: Elias le Tellier, goldsmith to Anna of Denmark