[1] Provand dealt in wool, cloth, and imported textiles, and had gained his rights to trade overseas from his first wife, Katherine Henryson, who remained involved in the family business.
[3] Perhaps during a trip to London to seek restitution for the loss of this cargo, Provand bought books for the young James VI, who was at this time living at Stirling Castle.
[8] Luxury textiles and other lines in their shop included plain and figured velvets, chamlets and taffeta, Scottish linen and Flemish linen, "Flanders Arras work" (patterned fabric rather than tapestry), embroidery silks, French pins, chamois leather, Flemish pewter, silk ribbons, velvet bonnets, and belts embroidered with counterfeit pearls for gentlewomen.
The will also lists money owing to Provand and his wife, and legacies to countless Henryson relations and their spouses, including the apothecary Alexander Barclay.
[9] On 25 April 1584 the courtier John Gibb delivered a jewel, a tablet or locket with a diamond and an emerald, in a case, to the Provost of Edinburgh, Alexander Clark of Balbirnie, as a pledge for a loan of 6,000 merks or £4,000 Scots.
[11] The jewel was delivered by Clark's son-in-law John Provand to William Fairlie, who commissioned the goldsmith David Gilbert to upgrade and refashion it for presentation to Anne of Denmark during her Entry to Edinburgh in May 1590.