Biography
William Schaw was the second son of John Schaw of Broich, and grandson of Sir James Schaw of Sauchie. Broich is now called Arngomery, a place at Kippen in Stirlingshire. The Schaw family had links to the Royal Court, principally through being keepers of the King's wine cellar. The Broich family was involved in a scandal in 1560, when John Schaw was accused of murdering the servant of another laird. William's father was denounced as a rebel and his property forfeited when he and his family failed to appear at court, but the family were soon re-instated. At this time William may have been a page at the court of Mary of Guise, as a page of that name received an outfit of black mourning cloth when Mary of Guise died. William the page would have been in Edinburgh Castle with the Regent's court during the siege of Leith, while the Master of Work, William MacDowall, was strengthening the castle's defences.
William first appears on his own account in the records in 1580 when he was listed by an English informant at the royal court as the "clock-keeper" amongst followers of the King's favourite Esmé Stewart, 1st Duke of Lennox. He signed the negative confession whereby courtiers pledged allegiance to the Reformation. On 11 April 1581, he was given a valuable gift of rights over the lands in Kippen belonging to the Grahams of Fintry. In May 1583, William Schaw was in Paris at the death of the exiled Esmé Stewart and it was said that he took Esmé's heart back to Scotland.
Read more about this topic: William Schaw
Famous quotes containing the word biography:
“Had Dr. Johnson written his own life, in conformity with the opinion which he has given, that every man’s life may be best written by himself; had he employed in the preservation of his own history, that clearness of narration and elegance of language in which he has embalmed so many eminent persons, the world would probably have had the most perfect example of biography that was ever exhibited.”
—James Boswell (1740–95)
“In how few words, for instance, the Greeks would have told the story of Abelard and Heloise, making but a sentence of our classical dictionary.... We moderns, on the other hand, collect only the raw materials of biography and history, “memoirs to serve for a history,” which is but materials to serve for a mythology.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)