Christian Lindsay (fl. 1580–1620) was a Scottish poet and baker to King James VI.Andrea Thomas, Glory and Honour: The Renaissance in Scotland (Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2013), pp. 173–74.
Career In 1586 Christian Lindsay was married to William Murray, who served as Master of the carriage to James VI of Scotland.Pamela Giles, 'Lindsay, Christian', Elizabeth Ewan, Siân Reynolds, Rose Pipes, Jane Rendall, Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women (Edinburgh, 2018), p. 246. In early modern Scotland married women did not change their surnames.Jenny Wormald, Court, Kirk, and Community (London, 1981), p. 30.History Workshop, What's in a Surname? Rebecca Mason Murray's responsibility was the transport of the king and queen's luggage and furnishings by cart as they moved from palace to palace.
From 1588 Lindsay was given barley to make baked goods for the royal household.Pamela Giles, 'Lindsay, Christian' (2018), p. 246. She was supplied with oats to make "caikis" in 1597.George Powell McNeill, Exchequer Rolls of Scotland: 1595-1600, vol. 23 (Edinburgh, 1908), p. 173 On 28 March 1603 James VI confirmed Christian Lindsay's pension paid in "beir", and noted that as he was moving to London he would no longer require the "use of such bread".National Records of Scotland, Register of the Privy Seal PS1/74 f.441.
She had a lodging at Holyrood Palace. The courtier and Constable of Dundee, James Scrimgeour died in Lindsay's lodging in 1612.A. H. Millar, Wedderburne Compt Buik (Edinburgh, 1898), pp. xxi, 91.
Sonnet A sonnet titled "Christeane Lyndesay to Robert Hudsone" is included in Alexander Montgomerie's poems.David Parkinson, Alexander Montgomerie Poems, vol. 1 (STS: Edinburgh, 2000), p. 115.Helena Minnie Shire, Song, Dance and Poetry of the Court of Scotland Under King James VI (Cambridge, 1969), p. 97. It may be Lindsay's work or possibly Montgomerie wrote the sonnet in her voice. It is also uncertain if the Christian Lindsay mentioned in connection with this and in other poems was the same person as the wife of William Murray.Pamela Giles, 'Lindsay, Christian' (2018), p. 246.
Robert, or "Robene", Hudson, to whom the sonnet is addressed, was an English poet and musician at court, a brother of Thomas Hudson.HMC Mar & Kellie (London, 1904), pp. 18-19: Charles Thorpe McInnes, Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland: 1566-1574, vol. 12 (Edinburgh, 1970), p. 357.
Montgomerie wrote to Hudson:Quhen we are deid, that all our days bot daffisLet Christian Lyndesay wryte our epitaphisJane Stevenson & Peter Davidson, Early Modern Women Poets: An Anthology (Oxford, 2001), p. 83.
A "daff" is a game.
References
External links 'Christian Lindsay to Robert Hudson', text, STELLA, Glasgow University