Anne or Anna Livingstone, Countess of Eglinton (died 1632) was a Scottish courtier and aristocrat, and lady-in-waiting to Princess Elizabeth and Anne of Denmark. She was a daughter of Alexander Livingstone, 1st Earl of Linlithgow and Helenor Hay, who were the keepers of Princess Elizabeth at Linlithgow Palace.
At court Livingstone went to England in the household of Princess Elizabeth in 1603. She, or perhaps Princess Elizabeth herself, kept an account of expenses for clothing, jewels, gifts, and writing equipment written in Scots language while travelling from Scotland in italic handwriting.Nadine Akkerman, Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Hearts (Oxford, 2021), pp. 28-30, 37-38, attributes the account book to Princess Elizabeth: HMC 10th Report: Eglinton (London, 1885), p. 32, attributes the book to Anne Livingstone. It mentions Newcastle, York, Leicester, Windsor, Nonsuch, Oatlands, Winchester, Salisbury, and Coombe Abbey. The purchases include "a pair of whalebone bodies, the one side of taffeta, the other of canvas" for 20 shillings and a farthingale covered with taffeta also costing 20 shillings. The account records New Year's Day gifts for the writing master and dancing master at New Year.HMC Reports on the manuscripts of the Earl of Eglinton etc (London, 1885), pp. 30-32: William Fraser, Memorials of the Montgomeries, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1859), pp. 244-251: The account is now National Records of Scotland GD3//6/2 no. 4.Stuart Maxwell & Robert Hutchison, Scottish costume, 1550–1850 (London: Black, 1958), p. 32.
When the court was at Winchester in September 1603, the queen ordered fabrics for new clothes for Livingstone and other women who had made the journey from Scotland, including Margaret Stewart, Jean Drummond, Margaret Hartsyde, and perhaps Anna Hay.Jemma Field, Anna of Denmark: Material and Visual Culture of the Stuart Courts (Manchester, 2020), pp. 123, 146 fn. 21. Her cousin Anna Hay was only 11 years old and Livingstone was probably of a similar age. Arbella Stuart commented on children's games played in the queen's household at Winchester and Anne of Denmark's household produced a masque for Prince Henry.Sara Jayne Steen, Letters of Lady Arbella Stuart (Oxford, 1994), p. 193.John Nichols, Progresses of James the First, vol. 1 (London, 1828), pp. 1060-1061. The Eglinton account mentions Anne of Denmark's tailor James Duncan, noting that "James Duncan's man" carried gowns from Winchester to Nonsuch and Oatlands for Princess Elizabeth and her companions.William Fraser, Memorials of the Montgomeries, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1859)], p. 247.
Anne Livingstone joined the household of Anne of Denmark, wife of James VI of Scotland and I of England as a chamberer.Jemma Field, Anna of Denmark: Material and Visual Culture of the Stuart Courts (Manchester, 2020), p. 133. On 11 December 1605 (after the Gunpowder Plot) King James wrote to her father that her behaviour was satisfactory, but she would not be allowed home or given "room" - employment at that time.William Fraser, Memorials of the Montgomeries, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1859), pp. 76, 170. However Rowland Whyte described "Lady Levingston" dancing with others at Hampton Court in October 1606, when the queen entertained the French ambassador the Count de Vaudemont.Edmund Lodge, Illustrations of British History, 2 (London, 1791), p. 316.
Marriage and life at Eglinton
In 1612, she married Sir Alexander Seton of Foulstruther, son of Robert Seton, Earl of Winton and Margaret Montgomerie, who adopted the surname Montgomerie and became Earl of Eglinton. There were some legal obstacles on the way to him becoming the earl.William Fraser, Memorials of the Montgomeries, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1859), pp. 255-258. Montgomerie came to be known as "old Graysteel", a nickname referring to a character in an old poem enthralled to a powerful woman.William Drummond, The genealogy of the most noble and ancient House of Drummond (Glasgow, 1879), p. 150.
Some of Anne Livingstone's correspondence survives. She wrote to husband in November 1612, hoping that Anne of Denmark and the king's favourite, Lord Rochester, would help him (in his struggle to secure his earldom). She expressing her thanks to Lady Jane, meaning Jean Drummond, an influential courtier close to Anne of Denmark.William Fraser, Memorials of the Montgomeries, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1859), pp. 182-183.
In 1613, William Seton of Kylesmure (1562-1635), an uncle of her husband, discussed a letter from Jean Drummond, and asked Anne Livingstone to write both to Jean Drummond and Anne of Denmark. William Seton noted that Anne Livingstone had served Princess Elizabeth from her infancy, and later Anne of Denmark. The issue was her husband's right to the Eglinton earldom. He asked Anne Livingstone to ensure that Jean Drummond and the queen inform King James that the queen had known and approved of plans for her marriage, only on the basis that Alexander Seton of Foulstruther would become Earl of Eglinton. In this letter William Seton makes it clear that Anne of Denmark had promoted the marriage of her lady in waiting and the elevation of her husband to the peerage.William Fraser, Memorials of the Montgomeries, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1859), pp. 188-190.
Later letters from Jean or Jane Drummond, who became the Countess of Roxburghe, show how Anne Livingstone maintained contact with the court and queen. She offered Drummond gifts of aqua-vitae and linen.Rosalind K. Marshall, Virgins and Viragos: A History of Women in Scotland (Collins, 1983), p. 143. Drummond helped her by explaining to the queen why Eglinton had not chosen her as her child's godparent in 1613, and by interceding in "ane matter that tuiches Hir Majesties honour and His Majesties bothe", the gift of the Eglinton earldom to her husband, which was legally complicated. Drummond wrote in March 1613 that King James had not yet made any pronouncement on the question of the Eglinton earldom before going to Newmarket after the wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Frederick V of the Palatinate. Drummond carefully managed Livingstone's reputation with the queen, and wrote a letter during the progress to Bath, describing how she had intercepted a letter Livingstone had sent to the queen via Margaret Murray that might not show her to the best advantage.William Fraser, Memorials of the Montgomeries, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1859), pp. 189-191: Cynthia Fry, 'Perceptions of Influences', in Nadine Akkerman, The Politics of Female Households (Brill: Leiden, 2014), p. 283.
A letter from Jean Ruthven at Whitehall describes purchases for Anne Livingstone, who wanted a "resting chair" like Jane Drummond's, a lantern, a piccadill, and lace in the latest fashion.Jemma Field, 'Clothing the Royal Family: the Intersection of the Court and City in Early Stuart London', Peter Edwards, Monarchy, the Court, and the Provincial Elite in Early Modern Europe (Brill, 2024), 254: William Fraser, Memorials of the Montgomeries, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1859), p. 194, now NRS GD3/5/56.
Anne Livingstone shared news of the court from John Murray of the bedchamber and his wife Elizabeth Schaw. Alexander Seton, 1st Earl of Dunfermline sent the Murrays news of her illness during the birth of her son Alexander and recovery in November 1615.James Maidment, Letters and State Papers of James the Sixth (Edinburgh, 1838), p. 269. Anne Livingstone addressed her letters to the Murrays jointly to "Dear Brother", and three survive.Sarah Dunningan, C. Marie Harker, Evelyn S. Newlyn, Woman and the Feminine in Medieval and Early Modern Scottish Writing (Basingstoke, 2004), p. 220. David Murray of Gorthy brought her a letter from the Murrays in 1616, and told her news about the Scottish favourite the Earl of Somerset and Henry Gibb, who had made trouble for them and angered Anne of Denmark.Norman Egbert McClure, Letters of John Chamberlain, 1 (Philadelphia, 1939), p. 609. She replied to the Murrays about:this fullich falling out of Sumersyds with you, to his oune grit disgrace, which he made him so heated of thoss hear who are bound to you, and knows your trew worth and his fallshoud, that if ther were non but my housband, he wold, if it were exceptable to you and nessicer, undertak to pruv him ane erand lyare in that he wret to you, and message sent with that ungret fullich cousing of yours, Herie Gib.(modernised) this foolish falling out of Somerset's with you, to his own great disgrace, which he made him so hated of those here who are bound to you, and knows your true worth and his falsehood, that if there were none but my husband, he would, if it were acceptable to you and necessary, undertake to prove him ane errant liar in that he wrote to you, and message sent with that ingrate foolish cousin of yours, Harry Gibb.James Maidment, Letters and State Papers of James the Sixth (Edinburgh, 1838), pp. 289-291 now NLS Adv. MS 33.1.1 vol. 10 no. 120: Thomas Birch (Folkestone Williams), Court and Times of James the First vol. 1 (London, 1848), p. 367
Some family historians include an anecdote that Alexander Earl of Eglinton had previously engaged the support of the favourite Somerset to obtain the full benefits of the earldom, and his courage during this interview and mention of his sword was the origin of his nickname "Graysteel".George Robertson, Topographical description of Ayrshire (Irvine, 1820), p. 213.
Anne Livingstone hoped that John Murray would encourage the king to further her family's interests.William Fraser, Memorials of the Montgomeries, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1859), p. 199. On 19 August 1617 she presented their son James Murray at his christening in the Chapel Royal at Holyrood Palace.David Calderwood, History of the Kirk of Scotland, vol. 7 (Edinburgh, 1845), p. 277.
In Scotland, she lived at Seton Palace, Callendar House, Polnoon Castle and Eglinton Castle. A household account from 1618 reveals that she supervised the production of linen, buying lint in Edinburgh, and played the virginals.HMC Reports on the manuscripts of the Earl of Eglinton etc. (London, 1885), p. 33: William Fraser, Memorials of the Montgomeries, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1859), pp. 207-8. Anne gave linen to her sister-in-law, Isabella Seton, dowager Countess of Perth, and exchanged books with her.William Fraser, Memorials of the Montgomeries, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1859), p. 205.
Her husband had visited the exiled minister John Welsh in France at Jonzac in 1611 before their marriage; Anne is said to have helped and encouraged her husband to prevent the banishment of David Dickson the minister of Irvine, who then preached at Eglinton Castle for two months in 1622 before he was confined in Turriff despite Eglinton's continued efforts.David Calderwood, History of the Kirk of Scotland, vol. 7 (Edinburgh, 1845), pp. 541, 567-568: National Records of Scotland GD3/6/2 nos. 8, 11. Robert Wodrow recorded a story told by his father that Anne, her sister Margaret Countess of Wigtown, and the poet Lady Culross (Elizabeth Melville), and other women had welcomed Dickson with enthusiasm at Eglinton Castle.Robert Wodrow, Analecta vol. 1 (Maitland Club, 1842), p. 19. In 1627 Wigtown wrote that she should come to Cumbernauld Castle to hear Robert Bruce of Kinnaird preach, and in 1629 he wrote to her on the subject of Grace and election. John Welsh's son Josias wrote to her describing his parish at Templepatrick.HMC Reports on the manuscripts of the Earl of Eglinton etc. (London, 1885), pp. 46-47: William Fraser, Memorials of the Montgomeries, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1859), p. 218.
The kirk minister Robert Bruce of Kinnaird wrote to her in September 1629, writing, "Madam, I cannot tell at what school your ladyship has been at, but surely your ladyship's last letter melled of grace, had a fragrant perfume of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit."HMC Eglinton (London, 1885), p. 46, modernised here.
Anne Livingstone died in 1632.