George Home, 1st Earl of Dunbar (ca. 155620 January 1611) was, in the last decade of his life, the most prominent and most influential Scotsman in England. His work lay in the King's Household and in the control of the State Affairs of Scotland and he was the King's chief Scottish advisor. With the full backing and trust of King James he travelled regularly from London to Edinburgh via Berwick-upon-Tweed.
In Scotland Home was the third son of Sir Alexander Home of Manderston, Berwickshire, by his spouse Janet, daughter of George Home of Spott. He was introduced, at the age of 26, to the Court of sixteen-year-old James VI by a relative, Alexander Home, 6th Lord Home. Establishing himself as a favourite, he was in the retinue which accompanied King James VI to Norway and Denmark to collect his future Queen. James Melville of Halhill mentions that Home did not sail with the king, but in one of three other ships, along with Lewis Bellenden, John Carmichael, the Provost of Lincluden, William Keith of Delny, James Sandilands, and Peter Young.Thomas Thomson, James Melville Memoirs of his own life (Edinburgh, 1827), p. 372
During the trip, James VI made him Keeper of the Royal Wardrobe and sacked William Keith of Delny, who had appeared in richer clothing than himself.Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1936), p. 478. In 1606, when making him Earl of Dunbar, James VI praised him for his tact and diplomacy in Denmark at this time, his "high prudence and rare discretion."HMC 5th Report: M. E. Stirling of Renton (London, 1876), p. 648 "summa prudentia et rara taciturnitas".
He was knighted on 4 November 1590, when Alexander Lindsay was made Lord Spynie,James Dennistoun, Moysie's Memoirs of the Affairs of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1830), p. 85. and known as "Sir George Home of Primrose Knowe",HMC 5th Report: Stirling (London, 1876), p. 648, charter of Horsley. and after 1593, as "Sir George Home of Spot". Spott is a village in East Lothian. Home had a feud with the previous owner James Douglas, who was drawn into the plots of the Earl of Bothwell and declared a rebel and traitor. James VI gave Home the rest of the lands of Spott and made them barony for Sir George Hume on 10 June 1592, requesting that Spott castle be the chief residence of the baron, and a feudal duty of a primrose to be delivered at Primroseknowe every 25 March.John Maitland Thomson, Register of the Great Seal: 1580-1593 (Edinburgh, 1888), pp. 715-6.
In the 1590s Home presided over an arrangement where clothes and textiles for the royal households were provided by the goldsmith Thomas Foulis and merchant Robert Jousie, partly financed by money sent as a gift or subsidy to James VI by Queen Elizabeth.Jemma Field, 'Dressing a Queen: The Wardrobe of Anna of Denmark at the Scottish Court of King James VI, 1590–1603', The Court Historian, 24:2 (2019), p. 154 Home had a role in financing the household of Anne of Denmark giving her £3833 Scots in 1591, and in 1592 a dividend of £4000 from her dowry which had been invested in various Scottish towns. He was in charge of paying her Danish servants who were owed fees by the Scottish exchequer, totalling £1,200 in 1592.George Powell McNeill, Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, vol. 22 (Edinburgh, 1903), pp. 153, 199, 232.
In November 1592 Home was identified with friends of the Duke of Lennox, Colonel William Stewart, the Laird of Dunipace, Thomas Erskine, and James Sandilands, as a supporter of the king's former favourite James Stewart, Earl of Arran, working for his rehabilitation to the disadvantage of the Chancellor, John Maitland and the Hamilton family. The English diplomat Robert Bowes called this group the "four young and counselling courtiers."Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1936), pp. 819, 821.
In December 1592 he rode with Sir John Carmichael with news of the crisis caused by the discovery of the Spanish blanks to Alloa Tower, where James VI and Anna of Denmark were celebrating the wedding of the Earl of Mar and Marie Stewart.Thomas Thomson, The historie and life of King James the Sext (Edinburgh, 1825), p. 260.
In November 1593 Anna of Denmark complained that people around the king were speaking disrespectfully of her. James asked Home to be watchful of the queen's honour. Robert Bowes wrote that Home himself was suspected of speaking against the queen, and Burghley endorsed this, adding "The wolf to be a watchman."Annie I. Cameron, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1936), pp. 230-1.
Home was involved in the preparations for the baptism of Prince Henry at Stirling Castle in 1594. He was given £4,000 Scots from the queen's dowry which had been invested with Perth town council. The money was for mending the royal tapestries, making tablecloths for the banquets and the desks in the chapel, and upholstering stools and chairs. Some new textiles were provided by an English merchant Baptist Hicks. The tapestries were repaired by George Strachan or Strathauchin and William Beaton, the court embroiderer, made the other items.Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, vol. 5 (Edinburgh, 1882), p. 145: Michael Lynch, 'Court Ceremony and Ritual', Julian Goodare & Michael Lynch, Reign of James VI (Tuckwell, 2000), 90–91: HMC Salisbury Hatfield, 18, 408–9: National Records of Scotland E35/13. During the ceremony, Home, as Master of the Wardrobe, stood with the Captain of the Guard near the King's seat on a stage in the upper part of the Chapel Royal.James Maidment, Ancient Heraldic and Antiquarian Tracts (Edinburgh, 1837), p. 56.
Home was active in the campaigns against Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell. In February 1595 his brother William Home was in arms against Bothwell's supporters, killing John Noutt in Dunfermline and capturing men in Kelso.Annie I. Cameron, Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1593-1595, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1936), p. 541.
With the king, at Linlithgow Palace, he interviewed a woman from Nokwalter in Perth, Christian Stewart, who was accused of causing the death of Patrick Ruthven by witchcraft. She confessed she had obtained a cloth from Isobel Stewart to bewitch Patrick Ruthven. She was found guilty of witchcraft and burnt on Edinburgh's Castlehill in November 1596.Robert Pitcairn, Ancient Criminal Trials (Edinburgh, 1833), pp. 399-400. In 1598 he was appointed a Privy Counsellor, and the following year appears as Sheriff of Berwick-upon-Tweed, (by then in England).
In October 1600 James VI visited his house at Spott and was banqueted.Tracy Borman, The Stolen Crown: Treachery, deceit and the death of the Tudor dynasty (Hodder & Stoughton, 2025), p. 209. The "merry" party included Sir Robert Ker, the Duke of Lennox, Sir Thomas Erskine, and Sir David Murray. The English courtier Roger Aston noted that all the gentlemen of the chamber there were "inward" with one another and with Home, who was the most "inward" with the king. Aston took the opportunity to ride to Berwick-upon-Tweed to see his friends.John Duncan Mackie, Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1597-1603, vol. 13 (Edinburgh, 1969), pp. 720, 722-3.
In 1601 he was made Master of the King's Wardrobe, and on 31 July the same year was appointed one of the Componitors to the Lord High Treasurer, and acceded to that position in September. In 1601 he was also made Provost of Dunbar.
In England Upon James's accession as James I of England in 1603, Home accompanied his sovereign to Westminster, where he became Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1603 to 1606.
In 1603, he was also appointed to the Privy Council of England, and on 1 June that year received a grant as Keeper of the Great Wardrobe for life. In July the king asked the Chancellor John Fortescue to move out of his house so Home could live there.HMC Salisbury Hatfield, vol. 15 (London, 1930), p. 171. The French ambassador the Marquis de Rosny identified Erskine as an influential courtier, and gave him a panache or feather jewel set with diamonds and featuring a fair ruby in the centre.Maximilien de Béthune Sully, Memoirs of the Duke of Sully, vol. 2 (London, 1890), p. 421: Mémoire des sages et royales oeconomies d'Estat, 2 (Amsterdam, 1639), p. 272.
On 7 July 1604, he was created Baron Hume of Berwick in the Peerage of England. In 1605 he was appointed a Knight of the Garter, and, on 3 July, was created Earl of Dunbar in the Peerage of Scotland. There is evidence that he took a part in the interrogation of Guy Fawkes in the immediate aftermath of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605.
King James granted him the patent for dying cloth with imported tropical dyewoods. The use of these dyes was restricted due to concerns over quality. Dunbar paid £500 a year for the patent, and was able to issue licences to dyers. In 1607 a new process was thought to improve the quality, the restrictions were lifted, and the Earl was paid compensation.Anthony F. Upton, Sir Arthur Ingram (Oxford, 1961), pp. 16–18.
The Venetian ambassador Nicolò Molin described Dunbar in unflattering terms in 1607. He wrote that Dunbar was a weak and ungrateful character who made few friends, and no one could understand why he received the king's favour. He thought that Dunbar contributed to the power held by the Earl of Salisbury.Horatio Brown, Calendar State Papers, Venice: 1603-1607, vol. 10 (London, 1900), p. 515.
In June 1608 Dunbar and the Earl of Montgomery went in procession from London to Windsor Castle for their investiture. The royal family watched the procession from Cecil House on the Strand. The Venetian ambassador Zorzi Giustinian noted that the English courtiers were jealous of the honours awarded to Scots.Horatio Brown, Calendar State Papers, Venice: 1607-1610, vol. 11 (London, 1904), p. 137 no. 261. Dunbar went hunting with the King at Havering in 1608.HMC 9 Salisbury Hatfield, vol. 20 (London, 1968), p. 295.
In October 1609 Dunbar, who was on his way to Scotland, gave King James a book of advice and counsel that his mother Mary, Queen of Scots had written for him. The manuscript was found in the Earl of Gowrie's house in Perth. Roger Aston reported that the king was "right glad of it".Mary Anne Everett Green, CSP Domestic, James I: 1603-1610 (London, 1857), p. 218 citing TNA SP/48 f.122.
Queen Elizabeth's jewels and clothes Home was made keeper of the royal great wardrobe on 1 June 1603,Mary Anne Everett Green, CSP. Dom. 1603-1610, p. 13. and he is particularly associated with dispersal of Queen Elizabeth's costume and jewellery. John Chamberlain wrote that Elizabeth left, "a well stored jewel house and a rich wardrobe of more than 2000 gowns with all things else answerable".Norman Egbert McClure, Letters of John Chamberlain, vol. 1 (Philadelphia, 1939), p. 189. In June 1603, Scaramelli, a Venetian diplomat, wrote that Anne of Denmark had given away jewels, costume, and hangings to her ladies remaining in Scotland, and would find six thousand gowns in Elizabeth's wardrobe which were being adjusted for her.Horatio Brown, Calendar State Papers, Venice: 1603-1607, vol. 10 (London, 1900), 23 no. 36, 64 no. 91. Anne would discard her Scottish identity for an English persona. As King James travelled south to London in April 1603 he ordered that some of Elizabeth's jewels, and a hairdresser Blanche Swansted, should be sent to Berwick-upon-Tweed so that Anne of Denmark would appear like an English queen as she crossed the border. James reiterated this request, explaining these jewels were to be selected by Elizabeth's household attendants for Anne's "ordinary apparelling and ornament". Anne may have been dressed in Elizabeth's clothes, the accounts reveal that her own gowns were altered and enlarged, perhaps to wear with larger farthingales.Henry Ellis, Original Letters, 1st Series vol. 3 (London, 1824), pp. 66, 70: Jemma Field, Anna of Denmark: The Material and Visual Culture of the Stuart Courts (Manchester, 2020), pp. 123-5: Petition of Blanche Swansted TNA SP14/107 f.121.