xli
by the Council to accompany the Ambassador Peter Young to Denmark—perhaps to discover the true religion of the Princess Anne, or to watch the expenditure of the ten thousand pounds borrowed from the city for the journey. The term parson is used in contemporary documents to indicate a layman appointed to a religious benefice; and since Fowler's name does not occur elsewhere in church records, it is to be supposed that he held the living merely for its revenue.
A William Fowler, who may have been either the poet or a son of Thomas Fowler,[1] acted as an agent of Walsingham's in 1582 and 1583, and in this capacity accompanied the Duke of Lennox (d'Aubigny) on his departure from Scotland. In a letter of Fowler's, d'Aubigny is quoted as saying that "your mother's house was the first I entered, on coming to Scotland, and the last I quitted on leaving the country."[2] This statement is explained, perhaps, by the fact that a Fowler is mentioned as a servant of the Lennox family as early as 1565, and by evidence that their house in Edinburgh was sometimes used for banquets[3] or for the entertainment of noble guests. William later became secretary to Queen Anne, and as assistant to Sir Patrick Lesley was chief contriver of the celebration at Prince Henry's baptism[4] (July 16, 1594), an account of which he afterward published. He went to England in the Queen's service, and held his secretaryship until 1612, when he was succeeded by Sir Robert Aytoun.[5] The mother of William Drummond of Hawthornden was Fowler's sister, and his father was also of the court as one of the King's gentlemen ushers.[6] In Scotland, and later in England, the young poet must have
- ↑ Cf. p. xxxi, note.
- ↑ Tytler, History of Scotland, ed. 1866, Vol. VIII, p. 127.
- ↑ Cal. S. P. Sco., May 22, 1589.
- ↑ Letters of Colville, Bann. Club, p. 112. For reference to the description of the ceremonies, cf. LIV, 48, note.
- ↑ Cf. p. Ixxiv. According to Masson (William Drummond of Hawthornden, London, 1873, p. 31), Fowler died in 1614. For the attempts of Donne to secure the reversion of his office, cf. p. lxv.
- ↑ Nichols, Progresses of James, Vol. II, p. 263, inserts an order on the town of Southampton for royal guards, presented by Sir John Drummond, Gentleman Usher, August 4, 1609.
