John Gibb (courtier)
[3] In October 1582 he met Walter Keyre at Leith, a messenger from the Duke of Lennox who was staying at Rothesay Castle, displaced from his favour at court by the Gowrie Regime.
The English ambassador Robert Bowes heard the king advise Gibb that the Duke and Keyre ought not to endanger themselves by sending messages.
[6] Gibb travelled with James VI to Norway and Denmark, and with his fellow valet William Stewart was recorded making payments and gifts of Danish dalers from the queen's dowry, and settling the king's losses at card games.
[11] On 25 April 1584 John Gibb delivered a royal jewel, a tablet or locket with a diamond and an emerald, in a case, to Alexander Clark of Balbirnie, Provost of Edinburgh, as a pledge for a loan of 6,000 merks or £4,000 Scots.
[13] It was delivered by Clerk's (future) son-in-law John Provand to William Fairlie, who commissioned the goldsmith David Gilbert to upgrade and refashion it, and it was presented to Anne of Denmark during her Entry to Edinburgh in May 1590.
[16] In 1591 linen was delivered to Gibb for the cuffs "handis" and "neckis" of the king's shirts, and in August he provided livery clothes for Danish servants of Anne of Denmark who were returning home.
[17] The treasurer's accounts for May 1599 list textiles in the keeping of Gibb and George Murray, including linen for shirts, cuffs, bands, bedsheets, tablecloths, night-caps to be embroidered with gold and red and blue silks, napkins, and a taffeta pocket or bag of powder to scent the linen chest.
[24] According to Dudley Carleton, Gibb had some difficulty making his way to the Sheriff at the place of execution and had to shout to save Markham's life.
In 1607 Maurice Peeters complained to Robert Cecil that his plan for reforming the manufacture of fabrics in England made from Persian bombazine cotton without wool, and his patent for silk dyeing had been forwarded by Gibb, but then Gibb took it up with other partners and promoted it to the king, to the loss, Peeters claimed, of Cecil and Anne of Denmark.
[33][34] Young Gibb was part of an incident in 1615 connected with the fall of the Scottish favourite, Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset, who had married Frances Howard.
He passed a letter and message from a Scottish man called Lumsden to Anne of Denmark's servant, his kinswoman Elizabeth Schaw, Mrs Murray.
[35] The letter caused the queen offence and difficulties for Scottish courtiers including Schaw's husband John Murray of the Bedchamber.
The Countess of Eglinton heard about the affair and she wrote to the Murrays about Somerset, who she described as the "errant liar", who "wret to you and message sent with that ungret fullich cousing of yours, Herie Gib."
Lumsden's letter described the actions of Richard Weston, the keeper of the Tower of London, and was critical of the lawyer Edward Coke.
[38] According to an old story, at Theobalds in 1622 the king had misplaced some papers relating to a Spanish treaty, and became angry and frustrated, and insisted that John Gibb had them.
[39] Thomas Middleton made this affair into a stage play as The Nice Valour, in which the Duke whips a courtier, Shamont, in the face, but later apologises and devotes himself to justice.
