Martin Schöner

Dr Martin Schöner or Schönerus (died 1611), physician to James VI and I and Anne of Denmark.

Martin Schöner attended Anne of Denmark at Dunfermline Palace.

Schöner was born in Głogów in Lower Silesia, then a part of the Habsburg Empire, but was considered to be from Thuringia. He is said to have been a nephew of the German polymath Johannes Schöner. Some English sources render Martin's name as "Schoverus", in Scottish records the name appears as "Schoneir" and "Schonerz".[1] He used the title "Dr", but the university where he studied has not been identified.

Court physician in Scotland

He became a physician to King James in 1581. On 22 July 1597 he was appointed "Master Medicinar" to Anne of Denmark, with a salary of £400 Scots, for a role he had performed for the previous three years, having been "ready day and night to attend upon that his office and service".[2]

On 10 February 1594 he was appointed to attend Anne of Denmark at Stirling Castle, who gave birth to Prince Henry, with the physician Gilbert Moncreiff, the surgeon Gilbert Primrose, and the apothecary Alexander Barclay.[3]

In September 1595 he attended John Maitland of Thirlestane, who had a "tertian fever".[4] Maitland could not be made to sleep and his mind and body suffered.[5] At first his opinion was that Maitland would not recover, and Jean Fleming, Lady Thirlestane summoned the minister Robert Bruce to Thirlestane Castle. Then Maitland's condition improved and Schöner wrote to court that he was past his danger. Maitland had a relapse and died on 3 October.[6]

Schöner and John Naysmyth attended the infant Princess Margaret at Dalkeith Palace in 1598, and the births of Prince Charles and Prince Robert at Dunfermline Palace with the midwife Jonet Kinloch, and the apothecary Alexander Barclay.[7]

Union of the Crowns

On 7 May 1603 Anne of Denmark came to Stirling Castle to try to get her son Prince Henry from the keeping of the Earl of Mar. The Earl told her he could not release the Prince to her on 9 May, and later that day she fell ill and fainted at dinner. Lady Argyll, Lady Mar, Jean Drummond and Marion Boyd, Mistress of Paisley carried her to bed where she had a miscarriage. According to the lawyer, Thomas Hamilton, who was at the castle, the queen told Dr Martin, Marion Boyd, and others that she had taken "some balm water that hastened her abort."[8] Anne of Denmark arrived in London on 3 June 1603.

Schöner came to England and on 26 July 1603 James appointed him "ordinary" and "first doctor" to the queen with a salary of £100 Sterling.[9] Another Scottish physician, John Craig had already been appointed "first doctor" on 20 June. Schöner may have delayed coming to London because his wife Christian Gibsoun was pregnant.[10] He requested passes for four German gentleman to visit England.[11]

On 24 April 1604 with Lancelot Browne he recommended the waters at Spa in Belgium to Henry Jerningham senior of Costessey for "all such griefs as he does complain of, namely the rheum, vertigo, convulsions, palsye, melancholia, hypochondriaca, obstructions, and the stone". This prescription was used by Jerningham to obtain a licence to travel abroad for his health. Schöner signed the document as, "Martinus Schonerus, Hir Maiesties Physicion".[12]

Anne of Denmark's apothecaries in England were John Clavie, John Woolf, (or John Wolfgang Rumler), appointed on 26 November 1604 to provide sweet powders, waters, perfumes and other products, and later Gideon Delaune and Louis Lamere.[13]

In August 1605 one of the queen's former ladies in waiting, Jean Stewart, Lady Bargany travelled to consult him in London but he could offer no hope, she died at Stilton on her way back to Scotland.[14]

Schöner gave the king a New Year's gift of a box of confections in January 1606. The other physicians at court, John Craig, John Hammond, Henry Atkins, and Elvin, gave similar gifts.[15] Schöner certified a bill for perfumes and rosewater supplied to Prince Henry over the past three years invoiced by Rumler in 1606.[16]

At the baptism of one of his children on 30 January 1610, he was given a gift of £4 by David Murray of Gorthy, the keeper of the Privy Purse of Prince Henry.[17]

Schöner was naturalized as an English citizen in July 1610 at the same time as other members of the queen's household; Dorothea Silking and her sister "Engella Seelken" from Gustrow, Katherine Benneken from Garlstorf, the apothecary John Wolfgang Rumler from Augsburg and his wife Anna de l'Obel from Middelburg, a daughter of Matthias de l'Obel.[18]

He died in 1611, and in September 1611 his second wife and widow Christiana, or "Christian Schonero", was granted £150.[19]

Théodore de Mayerne was his successor as the queen's physician.[20]

Family

His first wife was Lucretia or Lucres Betoun, sad to be a daughter of the laird of "Cassgoure" or "Carsgonny" now called "Carsegownie" in the Parish of Aberlemno and Catherine Ogilvy.[21] Their children included;

Lucres Betoun died on 5 October 1600. Her will mentions her relation, possibly her father, Alexander Beaton, Archdeacon of Lothian, a son of Cardinal David Beaton and Marion Ogilvy, and owner of Carsegownie.[23] The coat of arms of the Carsgonny Beaton family include a physician's cap as a crest.[24] Alexander's cousin, David Beaton, a son of David Beaton of Melgund and another Lucretia Beaton, the daughter of Robert Beaton of Creich, was also a physician.

On 18 August 1601 he married Christian Gibsoun.[25] Their children included;

  • Alexander, baptised 15 August 1602
  • Elizabeth, baptised 28 August 1603, witnessed by William Fowler, merchant of Edinburgh, son of Janet Fockart and elder brother of the poet William Fowler, whose wife Catherine Gibsoun was a relation of Christian.[26] She married Adam Cunningham of Woodhall.
  • Sophie (1604-15 November 1626), who married James Pringle of Whytbank in 1622, she was said to have been a maiden of honour to Anne of Denmark, and was the mother of Alexander Pringle. A portrait miniature of Anne of Denmark with rubies and gold chain was kept in the family.[27] Sophie Schöner died on 15 November 1626 and was buried at Melrose Abbey.[28] James Pringle never remarried, his arms are painted on an interior wall of their lodging at Moubray House in Edinburgh.[29]
  • Margaret, (died 14 November 1640), she married Harry Kinneir of Forrett.
  • Mr James (or Jacob) Schonier of Caskeberrie, now Caskieberran in Glenrothes.

Christian Gibsoun subsequently married Sir Robert Dennistoun or Danielstoun of Mountjoy, Conservator of Scottish Privileges in the Low Countries at Veere, and paid for his monument in Greyfriars Kirkyard. The inscription refers to his diplomatic missions to exiles abroad for King James, English and Spanish, presumably Catholic exiles.[30]

References
  1. George Fraser Black, The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning, and History (New York, 1943), p. 724.
  2. Raymond Lamont Brown, Royal Poxes and Potions: The Lives of Court Physicians, Surgeons and Apothecaries (Sutton, 2001), p. 76, see National Records of Scotland PS1/65 f. 245r and PS1/69 f. 143r.
  3. HMC Mar & Kellie, vol. 1 (London, 1904), p. 42
  4. Annie I. Cameron, Calendar of State Papers: 1593-1595, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1936), pp. 687, 690, "fevar terse".
  5. Thomas Birch, Memoirs of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, vol. 1 (London, 1754), p. 295.
  6. Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 12 (Edinburgh, 1952), pp. 18, 23, 28, 33.
  7. Jemma Field, Anna of Denmark: The Material and Visual Culture of the Stuart Courts (Manchester, 2020), pp. 183-4: Letters to King James the Sixth from the Queen, Prince Henry, Prince Charles (Edinburgh, 1835), pp. lxxvi-lxxvii, lxxxi: Mary Anne Everett Green, Lives of the Princesses of England, from the Norman Conquest, vol. 6 (London, 1857), p. 89 as "Martene Schenes".
  8. William Fraser, Memorials of the Earls of Haddington, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1889), p. 211
  9. Thomas Rymer, Foedera, vol. 7 part 2 (Hague, 1739), p. 87 as "Martinus Schoverus"
  10. Thomas Rymer, Foedera, vol. 16 (London, 1715), pp. 514-5, 537-8.
  11. HMC Salisbury Hatfield, vol. 15 (London, 1930), p. 384.
  12. Robert Lemon & Mary Anne Everett Green, Calendar State Papers Domestic James I: 1603-1610 (London, 1857), pp. 99, 102, citing TNA SP14/7/145.
  13. HMC 2nd Report: Bromley-Davenport (London, 1874), p. 79: Elizabeth Lane Furdell, The Royal Doctors, 1485-1714: Medical Personnel at the Tudor and Stuart Courts (New York, 2001), pp. 115-6.
  14. Robert Pitcairn, Historical and Genealogical Account of the Principal Families of the Name of Kennedy (Edinburgh, 1830), pp. 67-86.
  15. John Nichols, The Progesses, Processions, and Magnificent Festivities, of King James the First, vol. 1 (London, 1828), pp. 596-7.
  16. Account by Rumler, 1603-1606 sold by Bonhams, 29 Mar 2011
  17. Privy purse account, TNA SP14/57 no.87 f.133.
  18. William Arthur Shaw, Letters of denization and acts of naturalization for aliens in England and Ireland (Lymington, 1911), pp. 15-6, 25.
  19. Mary Anne Everett Green, Calendar State Papers Domestic, James I: 1611-1618 (London, 1858), p. 73: John Nichols, The Progresses, Processions, and Magnificent Festivities of King James the First, vol. 2 (London, 1828), p. 440.
  20. Hugh Redwald Trevor Roper, Europe's Physician: The Various Life of Sir Theodore de Mayerne (Yale, 2006), p. 101.
  21. These names of Lucretia Betoun's parents derive from a biography of her son, Johannes Schöner.
  22. Festschrift zur 500-Jahrfeier der Universität Greifswald (1956), p. 276.
  23. Will of Lucres Betoun, NRS Wills and testaments Reference CC8/8/35, pp. 778-9.
  24. James Frederick Skinner Gordon, Scotichronicon: Comprising Bishop Keith's Catalogue, vol. 1 (Glasgow, 1867), p. 271.
  25. Henry Paton, Register of Marriages for the Parish of Edinburgh, 1595-1700 (SRS, Edinburgh, 1895), pp. 260, 605.
  26. Margaret H. B. Sanderson, Mary Stewart's People (Mercat Press: Edinburgh, 1987), p. 99.
  27. John Burke & Bernard Burke, A genealogical and heraldic dictionary of the landed gentry of Great Britain, vol. 3 (London, 1849), p. 264.
  28. John Bower, Description of the Abbeys of Melrose and Old Melrose (Edinburgh, 1827), p. 59
  29. RCAMS Inventory of Monuments of the City of Edinburgh (HMSO: Edinburgh, 1951), p. 96.
  30. John Maitland Thomson, Register of the Great Seal of Scotland: 1620-1633 (Edinburgh, 1894), p. 392 no. 1117: An Inventory of Monuments in Edinburgh (Edinburgh, 1951), pp. 49-50, as "Catherine Gibson".
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