Mary Gargrave
Mary Gargrave Courtier to Anne of Denmark
Mary Gargrave was a daughter of Sir Cotton Gargrave and his second wife Anne Waterton. They had houses at Kinsley, Hemsworth, and Nostell Priory, near Wakefield. King James knighted her brother Richard Gargrave at York on 17 April 1603. Although King James and later Anne of Denmark passed close to her home on their way to London from Scotland, there is no record of Gargrave meeting them at that time.
Gargrave was appointed a Maid of Honour to the queen in 1604 in time for her coronation, her companions were Anne Carey, Elizabeth Roper, Mary Middlemore, Elizabeth Harcourt, and Mary Woodhouse.
In 1605 her cousin Philip Gawdy heard she might marry Robert Bertie, Lord Willoughby, but he married Elizabeth Montagu.
Gargrave was of sufficient status to give the queen New Year's gifts, and in 1608/9 gave her a rich and expensive petticoat embroidered with Venice gold, silver, and coloured silks. Anna of Denmark asked Mary Gargrave to buy fans to send to Elizabeth at Heidelberg.
Richard Gargrave, a graduate of Peterhouse, sold Nostell Priory in 1613 and was in financial difficulties. Gargrave never married and was dependent on a pension from her service with the queen, which was not always paid.
Her sister Anne Gargrave married Thomas Venables, and secondly, a recusant and royal equerry Sir Edward Bushell. His brother Corbett Bushell was a member of the household of Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia and was seriously injured in a fight with Andrew Keith in 1613.
