"Grandfather" (Sir Andrew Mosman) was knighted by Margaret Tudor in the name of James V after he survived the battle at Flodden field. Sir Andrew also fought at, and survived, the battle at Solway Moss. His son, Sir John Mosman (Glasgow), incarcerated in Tobooth prison, Edinburgh in the time of James V (1513-1532) on account of his loyalty to the crown. He effected an escape to Holland. In 1540 Sir John redesigned an older, lighter, damaged crown for James V, into its current form. These are the oldest set of Crown Jewels in the British Isles and the second oldest in Europe. The crown was first worn by James V to the coronation of his second wife, Mary of Guise, as queen consort at Holyrood Abbey, Edinburgh, in the year of its manufacture. It was subsequently used in the coronations of the child monarchs Mary, Queen of Scots in 1543 and her son James VI, King of Scots in 1567 and today can still be seen in Edinburgh Castle.
The Mosmans were a long-standing family of goldsmiths. Sir James Mosman was Sir John Mosman's son. The Mosmans were removed from their court offices as goldsmiths and royal assays in the Protestant revolution of 1559–60 but restored to favour when Mary returned from France in 1561.
Sir James Mosman had two sons, John (b 1565 - d1608) from his first wife, Marriotta (Arres) (wed 1556, d 12/23/1570), and James (b ~1571-?) from his second wife Janet (King) wed 2/23/1571. He also had two daughters, Janet & Marriotta.
In 1568, James Mosman and Marriotta Arres conveyed the house at 43 High Street, known now as the John Knox house, to John Mosman, goldsmith, their son and his heirs in fee, but reserved to themselves the liferent for the while lives. We learn from a sasine of February 23rd, 1571, that Marriotta Arres was dead (from pneumonia), and that James Mosman was about to marry for the second time. He bought back the fee from his son, and immediately insert himself and his future spouse Janet King in the family residence in the Netherbow. Because John Knox appeared to have lived for a short time there and then died, historians have rennovated the house through the ages and it still stands as the best example of a building from that time period.
For his service to the crown, James was knighted during Mary’s wedding to Henry Darnley and awarded a crest with the motto: more honorable, more dependable, more worthy of trust than the rest. Mosman was one of the Queen’s Men who occupied and defended Edinburgh Castle in her name. Not only did Mosman set up a ‘cunyie’ or mint in the Castle, but he seems to have pawned the royal jewels, against his own security, to finance its defense and effect the release of Queen Mary from Elizabeth’s prisons in England. He was captured and tortured to reveal the location of the queen's jewels which he had hidden within the castle walls. It is unclear whether he revealed their location, or whether they were easily found. While many of the Queen’s Men were pardoned in an attempt to end the civil war, Mosman was one of the few leaders picked out for punishment. Having lost all his worldly goods he was dragged behind a cart past his house backwards and hung, drawn and quartered at the Mercat Cross in 1573. The writ of execution said the head was to remain on a pike until the winds blew it down…however Janet, his widow, was able to pay to have it removed. He may have been buried in the cemetary at the back of St. Giles Church which is now a parking lot.
Nov 12, London, John Mosman to the Queen of Scots. Begs that she will give him a sum of money to set him up in trade for the support of himself and the other children of James Mosman, their father, who was hanged with the Laird of Greange, because he was her Grace’s Master Ciner and true subject.
In 1581 lands were assigned to John, “ the eldest son of the late James Mosman, goldsmith…” These lands were sold the following year with the consent of his uncle John Mosman.
John apprenticed as a goldsmith with his uncle, John Mosman, as did his brother
James, later in 1586.
Mary, Queen of Scotts was executed on February 8, 1587.
John Mosman Sr. (son of Sir James) had a son, John Jr. (b 1600 - d 1633) who married Isabel (Gardner) and had a son named James Mosman (b 1626-d 1722) who married Anna and immigrated to America and the Massachusetts Bay Colony and settled in Wrentham, MA around 1675 to be a blacksmith. Because of the indian wars with King Phillip, James and Anna left Wrentham in 1676 and settled in Roxbury, MA.
There is a street called Mossman off of the Old Sudbury Road near Waltham, MA, and tomestones of the Mosmans in the Old Revolutionary Cemetary. Many descendants of the Mosman family lived there in Sudbury, MA and in Maine. My great grandfather moved from there to Minnesota, where my mom was born.
