Nicolas Elphinstone
Nicoll Elphinstone, trained in law, was an important servant of James Stewart, Earl of Moray, a half-brother of Mary, Queen of Scots.
John Knox said that he went to England in July 1565 to raise £10,000 for Mary's political opponents, at the time of her marriage to Lord Darnley, finance for the rebellion known as the Chaseabout Raid.
[5] On 2 August 1565 Moray wrote to the Earl of Bedford, Governor of Berwick, that he had sent a boat armed with cannon to Lindisfarne to pick up Elphinstone.
[6] The ship, owned by Charles Wilson, was also intended to carry Moray's pregnant wife, Agnes Keith, to the English court in September.
There were six cordons sashes strung like paternosters, each with twenty five pearls, many large and beautiful, the most part as big as muscady nuts, nutmegs.
[18] Bochetel de Forrest described how Elpinstone had met the Scottish double-agent Ninian Cockburn, alias "Beaumont", on his journey at Berwick.
Nicholas Throckmorton arranged his audience with Elizabeth, and Elphinstone showed her the jewels and pearls in the presence of the Earls of Pembroke and Leicester.
[19] Bochetel wrote that the jewels were carried secretly to London and the pearls sold to Elizabeth for twelve thousand crowns: "ces bagues ... ont este icy envoyees fort secretement, et en fin, comme jay cy devant escript, acheptees par ceste royne pour le somme de douze mil escus.
[21] William Kirkcaldy of Grange noted the sale in his memorandum on the Edinburgh Castle jewel coffer: "Item Mr Nycoll Elphingston sauld the pearll in London for xiij m or xiiij m quhilk the Queen of England hes for hir self & causit by them.
[26] His instructions were to discuss offers to William Drury, the Marshal of Berwick, for him to lead an army in Scotland against Mary's supporters, issues following the Rising of the North, and Moray's actions against his rebels.
She believed that he was working to have her sent to Scotland as a captive, writing on 24 January 1570 from Tutbury Castle, "we remain still in great pain to understand what way of practise Elphinstone can make at court for our delivering in Murray's hands".
[34] Elphinstone was involved in a second plan for Mary's rendition to Scotland and trial, liaising between the English diplomat Henry Killigrew and Regent and the Earl of Morton.
Morton arranged a royal gift for him of a pension of £200 from the tithes or teinds known as "thirds of benefices" earmarked for the support of the king's household.
The letter of gift narrates Elphinstone's service for James VI "since his nativity" especially in matters of "credit and importance" outside the realm of Scotland.
[40] During the crisis following the border incident known as the Raid of the Redeswire in 1577, Morton considered sending Elphinstone as an envoy to Queen Elizabeth, until her ambassador Henry Killigrew arrived in Edinburgh.
[44] The lands and barony of Shank were inherited by his son John Elphinstone and held in fee by his widow Elizabeth Edmonstoun (who married James Hoppringle of Torsons).
[45] The plan shows a rectangular walled garden to the north of the house or manor (as it was called in some legal records) and an approach road running south towards Arniston Mains.
Survey work by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland to confirm the layout of the 1580s Elphinstone garden was inconclusive.
[46] In 1617, William Franshe or French of Fransheland complained to the Privy Council that two heiresses, daughters of a kinsman, had been kept prisoner at Schank for six years, "sequestrate from all society and company".
