Thomas Foulis

Thomas Foulis (fl. 1580-1628) Scottish goldsmith and financier.

Thomas Foulis was an Edinburgh goldsmith and financier, he was also involved in the mint and coinage, gold and lead mining, and from May 1591 the receipt of money given to James VI of England by Elizabeth I of England, known as the English annuity or subsidy. He was a son of Henry Foulis of Colinton and Margaret Haldane.[1] As a financier to the mint and crown his business partner was Robert Joussie (or Jowsie), an Edinburgh cloth merchant.[2]

Foulis was made a master of the Edinburgh Incorporation of Goldsmiths and burgess on 18 June 1581 after submitting an essay of silverwork. His master had been Michael Gilbert. A son David followed him into the craft.[3] In February 1581/2 he made new dies for minting coins, following the designs of Lord Seton's painter.[4]

James VI sent Foulis and Joussie to London in July 1589 to buy clothes and ornaments for his marriage to Anne of Denmark.[5] Foulis supplied jewels to James VI and Anne, while Joussie supplied clothes and fabrics (Foulis also had a stock of fabric at his death).[6]

In April 1594 he received a grant to prospect and mine for gold, silver, lead, tin and other metals, in Lanarkshire.[7] He became known as Thomas Foulis of Leadhills.

Foulis became involved in the administration of the Scottish exchequer by the group knowns as the Octavians. They gave him a role on 29 December 1597 overseeing royal expenditure. However, Foulis was bankrupted by the scheme on 17 January 1598.[8] Roger Aston wrote that Foulis was treasurer in all but name and after twenty days "fell by his wits" and lay "in great extremity". David Calderwood called his distress a frenzy, "phrenesie".[9] He recovered and on 2 August 1598 Foulis and Joussie obtained a contract (a tack) to operate the mint for six years in recompense of their losses.[10]

James Hudson wrote in May 1598 that Foulis was involved in pawning a gold lion set with a ruby worth £400 in London, which he suggested belonged to James VI.[11]

In 1613 Foulis had the contract for a silvermine at Hilderston near Linlithgow. He died in Edinburgh in 1628.

Family

Foulis married firstly Jean Francis, who died in 1623, then Rachel Porteous. Jean had sons, Thomas and David Foulis of Glendorch, and three daughters, Margaret, Jean, and another who married James McMath. After his death a cousin, Anne Foulis, who was married to James Hope of Hopetoun, eventually inherited the mining wealth.[12]

References

  1. ↑ Julian Goodare, (2004, September 23). 'Foulis, Thomas (c. 1560–1628), goldsmith, financier, and mining entrepreneur', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 29 Sep. 2018, , subscription or library log-in required.
  2. ↑ Calendar State Papers Scotland vol. 13 part 1 (Edinburgh, 1969), p. 228.
  3. ↑ Jean Munro & Henry Steuart Fotheringham, Edinburgh Goldsmith's Minutes (Edinburgh, 2006), p. 32, 142.
  4. ↑ Robert William Cochran-Patrick, Records of the Coinage of Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1876), pp. 248.
  5. ↑ Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1936), no. 154.
  6. ↑ Julian Goodare, ODNB (2004): See , (1629 Foullis, Thomas (Wills and testaments Reference CC14/5/3, Lanark Commissary Court)).
  7. ↑ The Records of the Parliaments of Scotland to 1707, K.M. Brown et al eds (St Andrews, 2007-2018), 1594/4/82. Date accessed: 28 September 2018.
  8. ↑ Julian Goodare, 'The Octavians', in Miles Kerr-Peterson and Steven J. Reid ed., James VI and Noble Power (Abingdon, 2017), p. 182, 184-6.
  9. ↑ Calendar State Papers Scotland vol. 13 part 1 (Edinburgh, 1969), p. 155.
  10. ↑ Robert William Cochran-Patrick, Records of the Coinage of Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1876), pp. 269-71.
  11. ↑ Calendar State Papers Scotland vol. 13 part 1 (Edinburgh, 1969), p. 221.
  12. ↑ Julian Goodare, ODNB (2004).
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