Margaret Stewart, Mistress of Ochiltree
Margaret Stewart, Mistress of Ochiltree (died 1627) was a courtier in the household of Anne of Denmark in Scotland and looked after her children Prince Henry, Princess Elizabeth, and Charles I of England Career. Margaret was the daughter of Henry Stewart, 1st Lord Methven and Janet Stewart, daughter of John Stewart, 2nd Earl of Atholl and Lady Janet Campbell. Her three siblings were; Henry Stewart, 2nd Lord Methven (died 3 March 1572), Dorothea Stewart, Countess of Gowrie, and Joan Stewart, Countess of Argyll. Margaret Stewart was called the "Mistress of Ochiltree" after she married Andrew  Stewart, Master of Ochiltree in 1567, eldest son of Andrew Stewart, 2nd Lord Ochiltree and Agnes Cunningham. After his death in 1578 she married Uchtred Macdowall of Garthland, but was still called, and signed her name, "Margaret, Mistress of Ochiltree". Margaret Stewart the second wife of the minister John Knox, was her sister in law. She had a long running dispute with Lord Robert Stewart, commendator of Whithorn over Cruggleton Castle and its lands. In August 1579 she was awarded the goods of John Douglas, chamberlain of Whithorn, who refused to surrender the castle to her. She was paid £ 100 Scots in September 1579 presumably for a royal pension. She was friendly with Patrick Vaus of Barnbarroch, who paid her 500 merks towards a royal pension she had from the incomes of Whithorn Priory in December 1582. She wrote to him on 20 August 1583 from Perth calling him "brother", and asking him to pay her debt to an Edinburgh tailor, Nicoll Spens. She called him "brother" as a member of the extended family of Janet Stewart, daughter of the Earl of Atholl, who had married four times, so making Margaret Stewart a relative of the Ruthvens, the Kennedys  of Girvanmains, and the Gordons of Sutherland. On 1 February 1591 she was listed as a member of the household of Anne of Denmark with her daughters Mary, Martha, and Jean. Margaret had a male and a female servant and a page. James VI came to Holyrood Palace on 25 July 1595 from Stirling Castle, after receiving a letter from Sir Robert Melville assuring him the queen was ill, on the testimony of the Mistress of Ochiltree and other gentlewomen. There was some doubt over the queen's illness because a plot was suspected. On 11 October 1603 Margaret Stewart  was given a royal pension of 300 and later 700 merks annually for her service to Anne of Denmark and her children from 1590 to 1603, and especially for looking after Lady Margaret, Duke Robert, and Prince Charles at Dunfermline Palace before he was put in the keeping of Alexander Seton, 1st Earl of Dunfermline. On 4 May 1621 she wrote from Dalkeith Palace to Sir Robert Kerr, a gentleman of the king's chamber, asking him to ask the King for payment of her pension by the depute treasurer Gideon Murrsy. She reminded him that she had served Anne  of Denmark since the month of her arrival in Scotland to the day she left in June 1603. Family. Her children formed links at court, especially as ladies in waiting in the household of Anne of Denmark, where she was the senior lady in waiting. Her second son Josias Stewart sided with the rebels Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell and Hercules Stewart, but was pardoned for his treason. Her children were;