STEWART, ALEXANDER [SSNE 4081]
Text source
Captain Alexander Stuart was apparently a Stuart agent active in Denmark, the Baltic and Russia. Lind has listed this officer, Alexander Stuart, and [SSNE 115] as the same individual. The chances of this being the case seem remote since a captain is unlikey to re-enlist some 15 years later as a private, only to rise to the rank of lieutenant. In Danish service, Stuart was to levy a company of 500 men in Britain. He transmitted Lord Spynie's [SSNE 177] plan for the cheap recruiting of soldiers to King Charles I between 1627-8. He was recommended by Spynie to lead the Scottish troops to Denmark, because he had made the journey before. On 9 November 1630, Johan Skytte wrote to an Alexander Stuart, described as a British agent, mentioning the proposition that Dorpat (or Narva) become the staple port for British trade with Russia. In 1631 he went to Moscow with a recommendation from King Charles I, but was not accepted by the Tsar. Johan Skytte then believed the English Muscovy Company were about to shift their business from Archangel to Narva. However, Stewart failed as an agent of the Muscovy Company and retaliated by seizing some of its ships under a letter of marque issued by the King of Poland.
Sources: The National Archives, SP/22/60, SP/91/2, SP16/307, f. 132; Danish Rigsarkiv, TKUA Skotland A II 4, nd 1627-28?, Spynie to Christian IV; G. Lind, Danish Data Archive, 1573; T. Riis, Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot (Odense, 1988), II, p.116; R. Liljedahl, Svensk Förvaltning i Livland 1617-1634 (Uppsala, 1933), pp.468, 476-477; D. Fedosov, The Caledonian Connection (Aberdeen, 1996); G. P. Herd, 'General Patrick Gordon of Auchluchries - A Scot in Seventeenth Century Russian Service', Ph.D. thesis, Aberdeen, 1994.
This entry updated by Mr Jack Abernethy.
Service record
- DENMARK-NORWAY, CHARLES MORGAN, LORD SPYNIE
- Arrived 1627-12-27
- Departed 1628-02-28, as CAPTAIN
- Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY
- SCOTLAND, STUART KINGDOMS, SWEDEN [RIGA, DORPAT], RUSSIA
- Arrived 1630-01-01, as CAPTAIN
- Departed 1631-12-31, as CAPTAIN
- Capacity COMMERCIAL AGENT, purpose COMMERCIAL, DIPLOMACY
- POLAND-LITHUANIA, COLA, LAPLAND
- Arrived 1635-01-01, as CAPTAIN
- Departed 1635-12-31, as CAPTAIN
- Capacity PRIVATEER, CAPTAIN, purpose NAVAL, MARITIME