The thirty-nine known dedicatees are divided into Royalty, English Nobility and Aristocracy, European Aristocracy, Scottish Aristocracy and Clergy, and Others (such as her son, her landlord, and her cousin). After the sovereigns and royal offspring, people are listed by age when their birthdates are known, the oldest first. Brief information about lesser-known individuals is also supplied. It is possible to see interesting patterns emerge in gift-giving. Inglis presented manuscripts to six women and intended one for a seventh. She also presented five volumes to Prince Henry while he was heir apparent and supporter of Protestantism, including two in the year of his death 1612. In addition, she cultivated Henry’s boyhood companions, Thomas Puckering and Thomas Wotton, as well as the older Scotsman Sir David Murray, a friend of Inglis’s, who served as gentleman of the Prince’s bedchamber, advisor and confidant. After Henry’s death, she turned to his brother Charles. Charles continued Henry’s interest in collecting books and other objects. He was fifteen when Inglis first presented him with two manuscripts. She then gave him three manuscripts in 1624, the year before he would succeed his father on the throne. There is much more to be said about the dedicatees, but this list is a start in easily identifying them.
| Royalty |
| Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) |
| 1591 Discours de la Foy – Huntington mss HM 26068 |
| 1599 Le Livre des Pseaumes – Christ Church Oxford MS 180 |
| King James VI and I of Scotland and England (1566-1625) |
| 1605 Vincula Unionis by David Hume – (ded. by Hume) – Edinburgh UL MS. La.III.249 |
| 1615 Les Pseaumes de David – NLS MS 8874 |
| Henry Frederick, Prince of Great Britain (1594-1612) |
| 1607 Cinquante Octonaires – Royal Library, Windsor RCIN 1047001 |
| 1608 Argumenta Psalmorum – Folger MS V.a.94 |
| 1609 A Book of the Armes of England – Private Library, Norfolk |
| 1612 Psalms of David – Folger MS V.a.665 |
| 1612 Les Pseaumes de David – Royal Library, Stokholm, Cod. Holm. A.781 |
| Prince Charles (1600-1649) (becomes Prince of Great Britain after death of his brother Henry in 1612) |
| 1615 Octonaires – Edison Coll., Houghton Library, Harvard |
| 1615 Les Quatrains de Guy de Faur – BL, Add. MS 22606 |
| 1624 Emblemes Chrestiens (Georgette de Montenay) – BL, Royal MS 17.D.XVI |
| 1624 Booke of the Psalme[s] of David – Royal Library, Copenhagen, GKS 3380 oktav |
| 1624 Book of the Psalmes of Davide – Wormsley Library, BM1850 [see Barker for attribution] |
| Catherine de Bourbon, Duchesse de Bar (1559-1604) (Protestant sister of Henri IV of France) |
| 1601 Les Proverbes de Salomon – Wormsley Library, RH 158 [redirected to Sir Thomas and Lady Hays] |
| Prince Maurice of Nassau (1567-1625) (Protestant leader in the Netherlands; friend of Prince Henry) |
| 1599 Les CL Psames de David – Folger MS V.a.93 |
| English Nobility and Aristocracy |
| Thomas Egerton, Baron Ellesmere (1540?-1617) (Lord Chancellor of England) |
| 1606 Argumenta Psalmorum – Houghton Library, Harvard, MS Typ 212 |
| John Petre, First Baron Petre (1549-1613) (Catholic but loyal to the crown; various offices for James VI/I) |
| 1609 Octonaires – NYPL, Spencer Coll. MS. 14 |
| Gilbert Talbot, 7th Earl of Shrewsbury (1553-1616) (Patron of the arts) |
| 1607 Cinquant Octonaires – NLS MS 25240 |
| Sir Anthony Bacon (1558-1601) (Secretary of State to 2nd Earl of Essex) |
| 1599 Le Livre de l’Ecclesiaste/ Cantique de Salomon – BL, Add. MS 27927 |
| Robert Sidney, 1st Earl of Leicester (1563-1626) |
| 1606 A New Yeers Guift [Book of Proverbs] – HRC, Austin, TX, Pforz MS 0126 |
| Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury (1563-1612) |
| 1607 Les Quatrains du Sieur de Pybrac – Edinburgh UL, MS La.III.439 |
| Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex (1565-1601) |
| 1599 Les Proverbes de Salomon – Bodleian Library, MS. Bodl. 990 |
| Lucy Harington Russell, Countess of Bedford (1580-1627) |
| 1606 Une Estreine . . . [Proverbs] – NLS, MS Acc. 11624 |
| Susan de Vere Herbert, Countess of Montgomery (1587-1629) |
| 1605 [Penmanship Specimens from Psalms and Proverbs] – Houghton Library, Harvard, MS Typ 428.1 |
| Thomas Wotton, Baron Wotton of Marley (1587-1630) (Companion to Prince Henry) |
| 1606 Argumentum in Librum Geneseos – Private Library, Northamptonshire |
| Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex (1591-1646) (Companion to Prince Henry) |
| 1606 Quatrains du Sieur de Pybrac – Royal Library, Copenhagen, Thot 323 octave |
| Sir Thomas Puckering (1591/2-1637) (Companion to Prince Henry) |
| 1607 Argumenta singuloru[m] capitum Eccles[iasticus] – Morgan Library, MA 2149 |
| EUROPEAN ARISTOCRACY |
| Catherine de Parthenay-Larchevêque, Vicomtesse de Rohan (1554-1631) (French Protestant leader) |
| 1601 Le Livre de l’Ecclesiaste/ Le Cantique du Roy Salomon – NYPL, Spencer Coll. Fr MS 008 |
| Henri, Vicomte de Rohan (1579-1638) (French Protestant leader, son of above) |
| 1600 Quatrains – Private Library, US |
| 1601 Les Proverbes du Roy Salomon – BNF MS Français 14849 |
| Christian Friis (1556-1616) (Chancellor of Denmark) |
| 1606 Tetrasticha selecta historiae Geneseos – Staatsbibliothek, Berlin, MS Lat. C. 14 |
| SCOTTISH ARISTOCRACY AND CLERGY |
| John Erskine, Earl of Mar (c1562-1634) (Schoolfellow of James VI and Keeper of Prince Henry) |
| 1622 [Emblematic drawing of his second wife, Marie Stewart, Countess of Mar and sister of Ludovic Stuart] – Huntington 283000 vol.5: 111 |
| Sir David Murray of Gorthy (1567-1629) (Companion to Prince Henry, poet, friend of Esther Inglis) |
| 1608 Treatise of Preparation to the Holy Supper – Edinburgh UL MS La.III.75 |
| 1612 Psalmes of David – Wormsley Library BM1851 |
| 1614 Les Quatrains de Guy de Faur – BL Harley MS 4324 |
| Ludovic Stuart, 2nd Duke of Lennox (1574-1624) (Close kinsman of James VI/I and courtier) |
| 1607 Cinquante Octonaires – National Records of Scotland, GD 18/4508 |
| Archibald Campbell, 7th Duke of Argyll (1575-1638) (Lord Justice General of Scotland) |
| 1602 Le Livre de l’Eclesiaste/ Lamentations de Ieremie – NLS MS 20498 |
| William Douglas, 7th Earl of Morton (1582-1648) (Politician; courtier to James VI/I) |
| 1607 Argumenta singulorum . . . Evangelii Matthaei – NLS Acc. 11821 |
| Robert Kerr, Earl of Somerset (1585/6-1645) (Favorite of James VI/I; husband of Frances Howard) |
| 1615 Quatrains – Houghton Library, Harvard, Edison Miniature Books Collection |
| Elizabeth, Lady Erskine, Countess of Kellie (d.1621) (Second wife of Thomas Erskine, 1st Earl of Kellie) |
| 1606 A New Yeeres guift [Book of Proverbs, selections] – Newberry, Wing MS miniature ZW 645.K29 |
| John Spottiswood, Archbishop of St. Andrews (1565-1639) (Ecclesiastical statesman) |
| 1616 Les Cinquante Octonaires – University of St. Andrew’s, MS 38830 |
| Andrew Ramsay (1574-1659) (Latin poet; first Prof. of Divinity at U of Edinburgh) |
| 1615 Octonaires – Morgan Library, B1 350 A MS W.72 |
| Robert Boyd of Trochrig (1578-1627) (Theologian, President of Glasgow U, friend of Esther Inglis) |
| 1616 Les Six vingts et six Quatrains – National Trust for Scotland, Culzean Castle |
| Anna Maliverne de Lavignolle (Wife of Robert Boyd, Sieur de Trochrig) |
| 1616 Les Cinquante Octonaires – National Trust for Scotland, Culzean Castle |
| Walter Balcanquhall, DD (c.1586-1645) (Chaplain to James VI/I in 1617) |
| 1617 Les six vingts et six quatrains – BL, Add. MS 22606 |
| OTHERS |
| Samuel Kello (1597-1680) (Son of Esther Inglis; Protestant minister at Spexhall from 1620) |
| 1615 Verbum sempiternum – Harvard, Houghton Library MS Typ 49 [matriculation gift at Edinburgh Tounis College 1615] |
| Joseph Hall (1574-1656) (Dean of Worcester; later Bishop of Exeter and Norwich; visited Scotland 1617) |
| 1617 Les six et vingts et six quatrains – Bodleian MS. Bodl. 987 R |
| William Jefferai (or Jeffrey) (Inglis’s landlord in Mortlake, London) |
| 1607 Octonaries – Folger MS V.a.92 |
| Sir Thomas Hayes (d. 1617) (Merchant and alderman; Lord Mayor of London, 1614-15) |
| 1607 Les Quatrains du Sr. de Pybrac – Newberry, Wing MS miniature ZW 645.K292 |
| [1601? See under Catherine de Bourbon above, and Barker’s commentary on that MS] |
| Robert French (Clerk of Kircaldie; Inglis’s cousin) |
| 1616 Cinquante Octonaires – Untraced; formerly Advocates Library, Edinburgh, Adv. MS. 19.3.46 |
Esther Inglis (c1570-1624): Calligrapher, Artist, Embroiderer, Writer 