James Duncan (tailor)

James Duncan of Ratho (died 1639) was a Scottish tailor and landowner who worked for Anne of Denmark in England.

[1] Duncan had family connections at Colpy near Culsalmond in Aberdeenshire, in the lands of Henrietta Stewart, a favourite of Anne of Denmark, and her husband George Gordon, 1st Marquess of Huntly, and at the Mote of Errol and Gourdiehill in Perthshire.

After the Union of the Crowns in 1603, Duncan came to England and was appointed a yeoman of the robes and master tailor to Anne of Denmark, the wife of James VI and I.

[2] As well as working on the queen's clothes, her robes and "bodies", Duncan supplied costume for her masques, including The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses in January 1604.

[3] His work for the masque may have involved selecting garments from the wardrobe of Elizabeth I with the Countess of Suffolk and Audrey Walsingham to be cut up and recycled.