Francis Stuart (sailor)

Sir Francis Stuart or Stewart sailor, aristocrat, Member of Parliament and courtier (1589-1635)

Born at Donibristle in Fife, Scotland, the son of James Stewart, 2nd Earl of Moray and Elizabeth Stuart, 2nd Countess of Moray. Frances Stuart was educated at Christ Church, Oxford and was involved in the trial of Ann Gunter for witchcraft.[1] In 1603 his sister Margaret married the Admiral Charles Howard, Earl of Nottingham. Frances was knighted in 1610 and joined the navy. In 1614 William Cavendish recommended his full naturalization in Parliament.

He was sent to Spain in May 1623 during the Spanish Match. In June 1625 he sailed to the Mediterranean with the Lion and Rainbow to combat Turkish pirates. An incident in July 1627 near the Azores where Francis avoided a Spanish fleet in conditions of poor visibility was widely reported.[2]

In April 1626 Charles I discharged Francis from court. The Earl of Pembroke was asked to give him the news but spoke in his favour to the king, saying that King James had loved him as well as any in the court of England.[3]

There is evidence of his interest in science. According to John Aubrey, Sir Robert Moray presented observations on comets to the Royal Society made by Thomas Harriot, which he had heard from Sir Francis.[4]

Ben Jonson dedicated the 1619 edition of the play Epicœne, or The silent woman to Francis Stuart.[5] Francis Stuart died unmarried in Chelsea in 1635.[6]

External links

References

  1. ↑ James Sharpe, 'To Craft a Witch', Times Higher Education, 5 November 1999.
  2. ↑ Calendar State Papers Domestic 1625, 1626 (1858), p.49: Thomas Birch, Court and Times of Charles the First, vol.1 (London 1849), 266.
  3. ↑ Thomas Birch, Court and Times of Charles the First, vol.1 (London 1849), 97-98
  4. ↑ John Aubrey on Thomas Harriot, Brief Lives, (ed. R. Barber, Boydell Press, 1982).
  5. ↑ Martin Butler, 'Sir Francis Stewart: Jonson's Overlooked Patron', Ben Jonson Journal, 2 (1995), pp.101-27: M. Butler, 'Stewart, Sir Francis (1588/1589-1634/1635), courtier and naval officer', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, DOI: subscription required
  6. ↑ James Sharpe, The Bewitching of Anne Gunter (Profile, 1999).
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