page_title: Esther Inglis
section_title: Marriage and career
hierarchical_section_title: Esther Inglis / Marriage and career
caption_attribution_description: English: The embroidered binding for Esther Inglis' Argumenta psalmorum Davidis
context_page_description: Esther Inglis was a skilled member of the artisan class, as well as a miniaturist, who possessed several skills in areas such as calligraphy, writing, and embroidering. She was born in 1571 in either London or in Dieppe and was later relocated to Scotland, where she was later raised and married. Sharing similarities with Jane Segar, Inglis always signed her work and frequently included self-portraits of herself in the act of writing. However, unlike Jane Segar, Inglis successfully established a career based on manuscript books created for royal patrons. Over the course of her life, Inglis composed around sixty miniature books that display her calligraphic skill with paintings, portraits, and embroidered covers. She mostly dedicated her books to the monarchs, Elizabeth I and James VI and I, and people in power during their reign. She died around 1624, at the age of 53.
context_section_description: Inglis's career was first managed by her father, who wrote dedicatory verses for her early books. After Inglis married Bartholomew Kello in 1596, a relation of Lord Holyroodhouse, he began to assist her instead. Kello sometimes wrote dedicatory letters and poems praising the recipients of Inglis's works, as well as Inglis herself, being so proud of her skills that he'd often sign himself as “husband of the book’s adorner” in the book. The marriage occurred after her “graduation” from her homeschooled lifestyle, which was a common theme among women intellectuals during this time period. Kello worked as a clerk for James VI's court, upon which Inglis seems to have worked as Kello's scribe, though other research seems to claim that King James VI employed both as scriveners. In a warrant to Kello from James VI, he states that “the said Barthilmo Kello is to write or cause all the said letters by his discretion be written BY THE MOST EXQUISITE WRITER WITHIN THIS REALM.” This seems to indicate that Inglis would be able to produce the items as long as Kello oversaw her work.
  Since Kello was a clerk, it was his job to provide various types of documents, such as passports, testimonials, and letters of recommendation. While Inglis produced these items for Kello, she also used her skills to produce a number of gift books. Kello was also in charge of delivering these documents, and upon delivering them, he would include a copy of the gift book from his wife, most likely hoping for a reward in return. Kello often used Inglis's books as a reason to travel abroad, similar to the way he used his trips as a messenger or information gatherer to present his wife's books and impose on his hosts for a reward. It was in these books that Inglis displayed her talents and skills, introducing impressive drawings on the title pages and establishing creative borders on each page of text. The manuscripts were said to be so magnificently made that they looked as if they were printed works, rather than being completely hand drawn. It was also around this time period that because print became more widely available as a growing technology, hand-made manuscripts were becoming more and more valuable. Among all of the manuscripts during this era, Inglis's books are important because they were very tiny in size, with the smallest manuscript measuring one and a half inches by two inches or two inches by three inches, such as the Argumenta Psalmorum Davidis of Plate 8, dedicated to Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales in 1608.
  Kello and Inglis were not only lovers, but they were also business colleagues. They lost an investment of £4,000 Scots in 1598 to the bankrupt royal financiers Thomas Foulis and Robert Jousie. Inglis acted as Kello's scribe for his work and in time he became her publicist and business manager. When James became the King of England, Kello and Inglis moved to Essex near London, and lived there from roughly 1606 to 1615 before returning to Edinburgh, where the two remained until Inglis's death in 1624. Upon moving to England, Kello and Inglis most likely had hoped to resume their work as a clerk and a scribe, but James had inherited a court from Queen Elizabeth, making this difficult. Kello also became Rector of Willingale in Essex in 1607 and later became Rector of Spexhall in Suffolk in 1620.
caption: The cover of Argumenta psalmorum Davidis, embroidered by Inglis in 1608 (Folger Shakespeare Library, V.a.94)
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