Picture reproduced from publicty of 12th May 2018 when Stirling Castle advertised – “In the Palace today, Lady Janet Fleming will be discussing how Mary Queen of Scots will be raised with mistress Janet Sinclair.”
Reproduced from Wikipedia: –
Jean or Janet Sinclair (died around 1557), was the Scottish “Darling nurse” of Mary, Queen of Scots.
In a letter to Mary of Guise written in 1553, Sinclair mentions her long service starting as nurse to Mary’s short-lived son Prince James, born in 1540.
Mary, Queen of Scots was born at Linlithgow Palace in December 1542. At Linlithgow on 22 March 1543, Mary of Guise asked Jean Sinclair to unwrap the queen from her swaddling clothes to show the English ambassador Ralph Sadler that she was a healthy infant. The scene was depicted by a 19th-century artist Benjamin Haydon.
Cardinal David Beaton gave the nurse at Linlithgow £11 on 29 December 1542.
In July 1543, the infant queen was moved to Stirling Castle. As the war with England now known as Rough Wooing continued, Mary and her household including her governess Janet Stewart, Lady Fleming went to Dumbarton Castle on the Clyde and sailed to France.
In 1552 or 1553, Mary of Guise paid her 2,633 livre tournois. When Jean Sinclair wrote to Mary of Guise from the Château de Blois in 1553 she signed her letter “Jaine Syncler, nureis to our soveraine lady”. In French records, her name was recorded as “Jehanne de St Clere”.
She was anxious that she had been omitted from the household allowances and hoped that Mary of Guise would be able to help. Sinclair wrote that she was “come of honest folks” and would not be persuaded to abandon the service of Queen Mary.
From the website of the Sinclair family (https://sinclairgenealogy.info/janet-sinclair-darling-nurse-of-mary-queen-of-scots/) the following account of the gratitude of Mary of Guise, the mother of Mary Queen of Scots, is recorded: –
“… She had been in royal service, employed as a nurse since just before the birth of Prince James (May 1540 to April 1541) when the treasury accounts mentioned that King James V had authorised a payment to her of £40 “for her service and reward.”
Janet was called back into royal service in 1542 by Queen Mary of Guise once again as nurse to the new Royal baby who would shortly become Mary Queen of Scots. On the 12th of March 1542-3 Janet and her husband were gifted a life rent of the lands of Newton Lees in the lordship of Dunbar, Berwickshire by the Queen, for Janet’s good service. On the 20th of November 1544, Janet and her husband were rewarded once again by the Queen Dowager with a life rent of the mails, profits and duties of the town and lands of Corntoun, with its meadows and fishings in Logie Parish, Stirlingshire for “the service of said Janet as our nurse.”
Janet died around 1557 when she is first referred to as “quondam Janet Sinclair nutrice domine notre regine” in the treasury accounts for Corntoun. John Kemp, her husband, was a witness for James Stirling of Keir at Stirling in 1556, so they had returned to Scotland before then. John survived Janet for at least another decade.”
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Nina Cawthorn, the Sinclair family’s genealogist kindly authorised the transcription above and added the following information: –
I’ve not found any death record for Janet at all. However, I did find something in the Commissariot Records for Edinburgh whilst looking for John Kemp, and there are some interesting entries as below:
“John Kemp, indweller in Leith, 18th March 1588-9”
“John Kemp in Corneton. See Marion Christie and Agnes Weland”
“Marion Christie, sometime spouse to John Kemp in Corneton, parish of Logie, under the Ochils, 21st March 1597-8.”
“Agnes Weland, relict of John Kemp of Corneton, indweller in Leith, 20 Jan 1591-2”
I’m thinking John Kemp must have been born around 1520 or so, and dying in 1588-9 though unusual for those days, is not impossible. John was definitely back here by 1556, he was granted Janet’s pension of Cornton although he lived in Leith and married twice more! If Janet started work in the royal household by 1540, she could have been 15, 16 years old, so maybe born about 1525 which would make her about 30, 31ish when she died. She died young for sure, but where she died is a mystery.
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