Mowbray, Agnes
d. 1595
Agnes Mowbray was a member of the Mowbray family of Barnbougall, situated to the west of Edinburgh. The family was prominent in public life and well connected.
Her father, John, was the grandson of the 'Skipper of Leith' who was also a merchant and financier, one Robert Barton. Agnes was one of five children from John's first marriage; there were at least another five from his second marriage to Elizabeth Kirkcaldy, sister of Sir William Kirkcaldy of Grange. The latter was involved in the murder of Cardinal Beaton, captured and sent to France, where he had a distinguished career as a soldier. He later returned to Scotland. He was hanged in 1573, having held Edinburgh Castle for Mary Queen of Scots from 1571.
Agnes' aunt, Elizabeth Mowbray, became the second wife of Sir Archibald Napier of Merchiston, and hence the stepmother of John Napier, the mathematician, who invented logarithms and the calculating device known as "Napier's Bones".
The Mowbray family had close associations with Mary Queen of Scots. John was in France with her in 1557. Agnes' elder brother, Robert, fought on the side of the Queens's Men in 1572, and two of her sisters, Barbara and Gelis, were the queen's ladies-in-waiting during her imprisonment and walked in her funeral procession in 1587.
Agnes became the second wife of Robert Crichton of Eliok, Lord Advocate, on 6 August 1572. In the three brief years of her marriage she was the stepmother of James Crichton, 'The Admirable Crichton'. James set out on his continental travels in about 1580 at the age of twenty, having already acquired mastery of a dozen languages and great proficiency in swordsmanship, horsemanship and music. For a time he was tutor to the son of the Duke of Mantua. He was killed in 1585, possibly in a duel.
The Mowbrays of Barnbougall, most of whom seem to have remained staunchly Roman Catholic after the Reformation, continued to be involved (sometimes controversially) in political events in Scotland until the end of the 16th century, after which time they and their lands more or less disappeared from the records.
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