Elizabeth Melville, Lady Culross (c.1578–c.1640) was a Scottish poet. In 1603 she became the earliest known Scottish woman writer to see her work in print, when the Edinburgh publisher Robert Charteris issued the first edition of Ane Godlie Dreame, a Calvinist dream-vision poem. An inscribed flagstone commemorating Melville as one of Scotland's great writers was unveiled by Germaine Greer on 21 June 2014 in Makars' Court, Edinburgh. The inscription is a quotation from her Dreame – "Though tyrants threat, though Lyons rage and rore/ Defy them all, and feare not to win out" (edition of 1606).
Overview A large body of Elizabeth Melville's manuscript verse was discovered in 2002, and her extant poetry runs to some 4,500 lines, written in many different verse-forms. There are also twelve letters, eleven of them holographs.All twelve letters are held by Edinburgh University Library, shelfmark Laing III.347: Jamie Reid Baxter, ‘Elizabeth Melville's Letters in Edinburgh University Library, Laing III.347’, Notes and Queries, (Oxford University Press), December 2006, pp. 525–528: Jamie Reid Baxter, 'Elizabeth Melville, Lady Culross: Two Letters to her Son James’, in Elizabeth Ewan & Janay Nugent, Children and Youth in Medieval and Early Modern Scotland (Martlesham: Boydell and Brewer, 2015), pp. 205–219. Melville was an active member of the Presbyterian resistance to the ecclesiastical policies of both James VI and Charles I. She was a personal friend of leading figures in the presbyterian opposition, whose frustration eventually erupted in 1637 in the Edinburgh Prayerbook Riots, leading to the National Covenant of February 1638, the Glasgow General Assembly which abolished the episcopate, and the outbreak of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms.Rev. James Anderson, Ladies of the Covenant (Glasgow, 1862), 31–38: W.K. Tweedie, ed. Select Biographies, 2 vols (Edinburgh: Wodrow Society, 1845–47), I, pp. 300, 316, 339, 346–47: Alexander Whyte, Samuel Rutherford and some of his Correspondents (Edinburgh, 1894), pp. 43–49.
Family background
Melvilles Melville's father was the courtier and diplomat Sir James Melville of Halhill (1535–1617), one of the many children of the Fife landowner Sir John Melville of Raith, an early convert to Protestantism who was executed for treasonable communication with the English invaders in 1548. Despite inheriting his father's Protestant convictions, Sir James began his career as a page to Mary, Queen of Scots in France in 1549. Like his brothers Robert Melville of Murdocairnie and Andrew Melville of Garvock, James later served Mary in Scotland, and remained loyal to her after her fall and forced abdication.
The Melville brothers would nonetheless eventually go on to become loyal and valued servants of Mary's son, King James VI of Scotland. Sir Robert Melville became treasurer-depute in 1582, Sir Andrew became master of the household to King James (having served the imprisoned Mary in that capacity during her English captivity), and Sir James Melville would resume his wide-ranging diplomatic activities. His Memoirs of His Own Life, written in old age for the political education of his heir, are a well-known historical source. James Melville's long association with a French court notable for highly educated women, who both wrote and published their works, may well have inspired his decision to have his daughters well educated, presumably at the family home, the long-vanished Halhill Tower near Collessie. Sir James had inherited Halhill from his adoptive father, the lawyer Henry Balnaves, a close friend of the Reformer John Knox. Like Knox, after the siege of St Andrews Castle, Balnaves had been banished to serve a penal sentence in France. The theme of the persecuted Christian elect is prominent in Eizabeth Melville's poetry; between her father's absolute commitment to the Reformed faith, her paternal grandfather's "martyr" status, and the suffering for the faith of her adoptive grandfather Balnaves, her Protestant antecedents were impeccable.
In the summer of 1569, Sir James Melville married Christian Boswell (d.1609), one of the many daughters of David Boswell, laird of Balmuto in Fife.David Laing, The Works of John Knox, 3 (Edinburgh: Wodrow Society, 1846), p. 416: Henry Balnaves died in February 1570, and as historians have noted, his testament, whereof his adopted son Sir James was executor, makes no mention of the latter's wife. But the marriage contract (National Records of Scotland, Register of Deeds, RD1/ 9, f.444v et seq.) is dated 11 and 12 June 1569, and stipulates that the marriage must be celebrated by Lammas (1 August) that year. David Boswell was a Catholic who had welcomed a visit of Mary, Queen of Scots to his home in February 1565 as an opportunity to celebrate Mass.Joseph Bain, Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1563–1569, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), p. 138.Edward Furgol, 'Scottish Itinerary of Mary Queen of Scots, 1542-8 and 1561-8', PSAS, 117 (1987), microfiche, scanned
The Boswell family was well-connected to King James VI; George Boswell was a royal surgeon, and David's heir, his grandson John Boswell, laird of Balmuto had lent the king money to help pay for the royal wedding voyage to Scandinavia. He was knighted with his son and heir at the baptism of Prince Henry Frederick in 1594."Boswell," The Scottish Nation. Christian Boswell is listed, along with nineteen siblings and their spouses, in Sir Robert Douglas, The Baronage of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1798), p. 310. For the story of her nephew's loan to the king, see the anonymous article "Pecuniary Distress of James VI" in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, no. 2 (October 1817 – March 1818), pp. *312–313 (accessible via Google Books). Sir James Melville and Christian Boswell had five children (dates of birth unknown): James, Robert, Margaret, Elizabeth and Christian. James, who inherited Halhill, shared a father-in-law with Elizabeth, namely Alexander Colville (d.1597), Commendator of the Abbey at Culross, judge and privy councillor.James Balfour Paul, Scots Peerage, vol. 6 (Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1909), pp. 91–92 Robert Melville trained for the ministry and for many years assisted the minister of Culross, Mr. Robert Colville, another son of Commendator Alexander.Tweedie, Select Biographies, vol. 1, pp. 332-33. Margaret Melville married Sir Andrew Balfour of Montquhanie in Fife.Contract of 27 December 1589; National Records of Scotland (NRS), Register of Deeds RD1/34, f.240 et seq. He was another laird knighted at the baptism of Prince Henry Frederick in 1594. Christian married John Bonar of Lumquhat in Fife.St Andrews University Library, MS dep. 94/2, a charter of January 1631.
Archibald Douglas sent Sir James Melville's daughter, presumably Elizabeth, a pair of virginals from London as a present in 1589.HMC Salisbury Hatfield, vol. 3 (London, 1889), p. 398.
Marriage
Elizabeth's marriage contract has not survived, but it is clear from the signatures to a legal document of February 1597 that by that date, she was already married to John Colville.NRS, RD1/59, f.96v: 5 February 1597, Tack by Sir Andrew Balfour of Montquhanie "with expres assent & consent of Margaret Melville my spous". Signatories include Margaret and Sir James Melville of Halhill; the witnesses include James Melville and ‘Johne Colville of Comrie’. On 16 February 1599,In the print, the year is "1598", because the year changed on Lady Day (25 March) in Scotland – until 1600, when it was promulgated that it should start on 1 January. Alexander Hume would end the epistle dedicating his Hymnes and Sacred Songs (Edinburgh, 1599) with the injunction "Love your husband: have a modest care of your family", which suggests the existence of more than one child.Alexander Parker Lawson, The Poems of Alexander Hume (Edinburgh: Scottish Text Society, 1902), pp. 4–5. John Colville was styled "of West Comrie" (Cumrie Wester, Wester-Cumbrae), an estate a little to the north-east of Culross, and in keeping with the Scottish custom of calling landowners (including farmers) by the name of their property, his wife was initially known as "Lady Comrie". It is incorrect to call her "Elizabeth Colville": Scottish women retained their maiden names after marriage.Jenny Wormald, Court, Kirk, and Community (London, 1981), p. 30.History Workshop, What's in a Surname? Rebecca Mason In addition to West Comrie, John Colville owned the lands of Lurg and Kincardine, just to the west of Culross.
John Colville is frequently described as "John, Lord Colville of Culross", a peerage title that he never held.The entirely erroneous elevation of John Colville to the peerage originates with Sir Robert Douglas, The Peerage of Scotland, rev. Wood (1813), I, 354, where it is claimed that the 2nd Lord Colville of Culross died heirless in 1640, whereas he actually died (in Ireland) in 1654 leaving two sons who had no heirs and whose legitimacy has been doubted. See Sir James Balfour Paul, Scots Peerage, ii, p. 558-59; he says there is no proof of illegitimacy. Douglas's mistake led W.K. Tweedie to designate John Colville of West Comrie ‘Lord Colville’ in his influential and widely cited printing of some of Elizabeth Melville’s Letters to John Livingstone, Select Biographies, I, 349. The "Colville of Culross" peerage was created in 1604 and confirmed in 1609 for John Colville's cousin, Sir James Colville (1550–1629) of East Wemyss.Scots Peerage, vol. 2, pp. 560-61. Sir James, 1st Lord Colville of Culross, was the distinguished son of another James Colville, the older half-brother (died 1562) of John Colville's father, Alexander commendator of Culross. Sir James was much-appreciated by King James as a soldier and diplomat. He had fought on behalf of Henri de Navarre during the French Wars of Religion, and retained close links with the French court until the end of his eventful life. His own line failed c.1678, in Ireland, and then the title of Lord Colville came to the descendants of Elizabeth Melville and John Colville of West Comrie, although it was not claimed by them until 1722.See Sir James Balfour Paul, ed. Scots Peerage, vol. 2, pp. 546–548 & 553–557. Note that in 'The "real" Dr Alexander Colville of Galgorm' (see Bibliography), p. 62, James Reid Baxter has misidentified Commendator Alexander's half-brother Sir James (died 1562), stating that he was Alexander's father. The half-brothers James and Alexander were in fact the sons of the twice-married Sir James Colville of Ochiltree and East Wemyss (died 1540), who also fathered the illegitimate Robert Colville of Cleish. All three branches of the Fife Colvilles were therefore descendants of Sir James of Ochiltree and East Wemyss.
On the death of his father in 1597, John Colville became titular Commendator of Culross. As the title pages of the second and third editions (?1604, 1606) of Ane Godlie Dreame show, Elizabeth Melville soon became known as "Lady Culross younger", rather than "Lady Comrie" (the "elder Lady Culross" was her mother-in-law). She continued to be known as Lady Culross for the rest of her life, despite the fact that John Colville resigned the title of Commendator of Culross in 1609.