Chamberer

At court, the position was similar to a male groom of the privy chamber. The names of ten women who served Elizabeth I as chamberers are known. They were daughters of landowning gentry families.[1] Duties could include some domestic labour, embroidery,[2] and administration, as well as attendance on the queen. The details of the distinctions between women of the chamber and hierarchy can be obscure.[3]

Other servants present in the royal lodging who carried out laundry work were of lower status than chamberers, and were called "lavenders".[4] Chamberers would embroider and launder some linen items, especially ruffs.[5] In Scotland, Elizabeth Gibb, took on this role for Anne of Denmark, the queen consort of James VI and I, in 1590, making and looking after ruffs and other garments.[6]

Usually the queen was served by four chamberers at any one time. An Elizabethan chamberer like Elizabeth Stafford would receive an annual fee of £20 or more,[7] and livery clothing. The chamberers of Elizabeth I received their allowances on Saint Andrew's Day.[8] Elizabeth intervened in the marriage plans of some chamberers, and was angry at the marriage of Mary Scudamore, an indication of their status in her household.[9]

Some chamberers, like Joan Russell and Elizabeth Marbery, continued their service as gentlewomen of the privy chamber or bed chamber, enjoying a higher status and salary.[10] Other women present in the queen's privy chamber included the Maids of Honour, who frequently received lavish gifts of clothing,[11] and gentlewomen in attendance who did not receive a fee or livery clothes. These gentlewomen do not appear in financial records but their names are noted in lists of those at state occasions, especially funerals.[12]

Chamberers took part in Royal Entries and coronations, including the coronation of Mary I of England where they rode in procession and were given different clothes for the service in the Abbey.[13]

In the context of household service in 15th-century England, a "damsel" was of higher or almost equivalent status to a chamberer.[14] In Scotland, the word "chamberer" was only rarely used in the records of the court. An English commentator reported that Mary, Queen of Scots, was served by ladies, gentlewomen, and two chamberers when she was a prisoner at Lochleven Castle in 1567.[15]

A document from 1592 concerning the household of Anne of Denmark mentions "damycelles" or damsels in her chamber. Their clothing allowance suggests they were of lower status than other attendants. Two of her servants in Scotland, Margaret Hartsyde and the aristocratic Anne Livingstone, came to her court in England after the Union of Crowns as chamberers. Hartsyde's status as a domestic servant was emphasised by her defence lawyers when she was accused of stealing the queen's jewels.[16]

Chamberers could enjoy substantial rewards, one Danish servant, Dorothea Silking, was granted rights to run a coal mine in Somerset.[17] Empl;oyment of chamberers from the country of origin provided continuity of service and a cultural bridge for queens consort in the early modern period.[18]

Frances Newton was a chamberer to Elizabeth I

• Francisca Baptiste (1503).[19][20]
• Catherine Crow.[21]
• Margaret Dennet
• Joanna and Margery Rutherford.[22]

• Maria de Gavara
• Isabel de Vanegas,[23] or Inés Vanegas, first a governess, and her daughters Inés and Teresa.[24]
• Elizabeth Collins
• Margaret and Margery Kempe, at the Field of the Cloth of Gold
• Elizabeth Kempe
• Elizabeth Lisle.[25]
• Anne Luke
• Blanche Marbury.[26]
• Margaret Mulsho.[27]
• Margaret Pennington.[28]
• Dame Margaret Pole
• Mistress Redynge

• Elizabeth Bradshaw
• Jane Barners.[29]
• Alice Dennis (1514)
• Anne Jerningham (1514).[30]

• Former chamberers of Catherine of Aragon

• Katherine Tylney

• Mary Odell

• Anne Josselyn the elder (1539)
• Elizabeth Rastall (1539)

• Cecily Barnes
• Edith Brediman
• Lucretia the Tumbler.[31]
• Mary Brown.[32]
• Jane Dormer
• Barbara Eyre
• Jane or Joan Russell.[33][34]

• Alice Huntercombe
• Jane Bradbelt
• Elizabeth Marbery.[35]
• Frances Newton (1559-1560)
• Nazareth Newton
• Mary Shelton (1567-1603).[36]
• Elizabeth Stafford Drury.[37]
• Margaret Vaughan

• Margaret Hartsyde
• Anne Livingstone.[38]
• Anna Rumler
• Dorothea Silking
• Dorothy Speckard