John Huntar facts for kids
John Huntar was a Scottish farmer who lived a long time ago. He was important because he took care of animals for Mary, Queen of Scots in a place called Holyrood Park.
Huntar was a well-known person in the Canongate area of Edinburgh. This area used to have its own government. John Huntar became the manager of Holyrood Park when Mary, Queen of Scots' mother, Mary of Guise, was in charge. He earned £20 Scots for his work.
Between 1559 and 1560, he built a house inside the park. He also helped build part of the park's wall, called a dyke. He hired workers like masons to fix the park's boundaries. Some parts of these boundaries had been broken by people from a nearby village called Duddingston.
In 1563, John Huntar provided lamb meat to the royal household. He also bought and brought 77 cattle to Holyrood Park for the Queen.
The next year, in 1564, he supplied more meat to the royal household. He also gave 24 stones of wool, which was worth £25, to the government's treasury. John Huntar officially became the person who leased Holyrood Park on March 20, 1565. His job was to fix the park's boundary walls and the water ditches around the grassy areas. The land he managed included the Abbot's meadow and a wet, marshy area that stretched towards Restalrig. In March 1567, Queen Mary gave him better terms for his lease. She wanted him to make improvements in Holyrood Park, like planting a type of shrub called broom. This broom would be used to feed the sheep.
His wife, Margaret Aikman, passed away in 1570.
There is a valley on Arthur's Seat called Hunter's Bog. It is not clear if it was named after John Huntar.
Royal Sheep and King James V
Mary, Queen of Scots' father, James V of Scotland, also kept sheep. He had many sheep in a place called Ettrick Forest. A writer named Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie said that a man named Andrew Bell looked after 10,000 royal sheep in that area, which used to be quite wild.
Later, an English ambassador named Ralph Sadler tried to convince King James V to close the monasteries. Sadler thought the King could use the money from the monasteries instead of having to raise sheep like an ordinary person. King James replied that he did not have sheep. He said he could rely on the King of France, who was his godfather. He also felt it was wrong to close abbeys that had been there for many years, where God's service was kept. James V said he could get anything he needed from them. However, Sadler knew that King James did indeed farm sheep on his own lands. After King James V died, 600 sheep were given to James Douglass of Drumlanrig.
