Gilbert Curle or Curll (died 1609) was a Scottish secretary who served Mary, Queen of Scots during her captivity in England. He married Barbara Mowbray, one of three sisters serving Mary.
England
Little is known of Curle's family background, but he seems to have been from an Edinburgh family. According to the confession of Nicholas Hubert alias French Paris, Mary wanted Curle in her service to replace Alexander Durham in 1567 shortly before the murder of Lord Darnley. Mary distrusted Durham. Curle was listed as a valet of the chamber in Mary's household in 1567.
Gilbert Curle was with Mary, Queen of Scots in England in September 1568, acting as her secretary for the Scots language and six months later was made a valet of her chamber. Some letters for Mary were given to a James Curle in Edinburgh. By the 1580s Mary's correspondents often added postscripts to their letters addressed to Curle.
In December 1581 Mary asked for six horses for riders to attend her. She was allowed four horses for her men to accompany her coach, and they were not allowed to carry pistols, called "daggs". The appointed riders were Andrew Melville, Claude Nau, Gilbert Curle, and Bastian Pagez.
One of his sisters, Elizabeth Curle, joined him in the queen's household.
Curle corresponded with Thomas Baldwin. In order to disguise the meaning of his letters, Curle wrote about a "merchant of London" to mean Elizabeth I, Mary was a "merchant of Newcastle", and Francis Walsingham was the "merchant's wife".
Marriage at Tutbury Castle
Curle married Barbara Mowbray, one of Mary's gentlewomen. She was a daughter of John Mowbray, Laird of Barnbougle in West Lothian, near Cramond Island, and Elizabeth Kirkcaldy, a sister of William Kirkcaldy of Grange. Grange had been a commander in the Marian Civil War and was executed in July 1573.
John Mowbray was in touch with Francis Walsingham in December 1580, after one his sons, Francis, met him in London. The French ambassador, Michel de Castelnau, was informed that Francis Mowbray wished to serve Elizabeth I.
A coded letter to the French ambassador Castelnau mentioning the arrival of Barbara Mowbray or one of her sisters in Mary's household was discovered in the Bibliothèque nationale de France and deciphered in 2023. Curle, Nau, and Jérôme Pasquier ciphered letters for Mary.
Betrothal
The marriage was discussed in October 1584 at Wingfield, and Ralph Sadler notified Francis Walsingham that the couple had written to the Laird of Barnbougle for permission to marry, and Mary had asked him to speed the letter.
Meanwhile, Curle was taken from Wingfield to view Tutbury Castle and examine the accommodation in advance of Mary moving there. He reported the lodgings were in a poor state. Sadler wrote to Walsingham that Curle's report was misleading, and he had lied "like a false Scot". Sadler and John Somer admitted that Curle had justly noted that the glazing was in disrepair in the great tower, but they suspected Mary's household were reluctant to move for "secret causes".
A great deal of furnishings were needed for Tutbury. John Somer was "every day assaulted" by Nau and Curle with daily requests for horses for Mary. He said the weather was too cold for riding and she could always borrow horses. Somer thought that Mary intended to send Curle as a messenger to Scotland, and he provided a sketch of the secretary's character for William Cecil. Curle was not so quick-witted or prompt as Nau, French-like, but with a shrewd melancholy wit, and not so pleasant in speech and utterance, and suspect enough. Mary liked him for his fidelity and secrecy. If Curll went to Scotland, he would "go lightlier in post" and not make such an expensive show of his status as Nau would.
October wedding
Curle and Mowbray's wedding was held at Tutbury Castle on 23 October 1585. Mary had previously promised the couple a gift of 2000 French crowns, and they transferred the sum to Mary's French secretary and treasurer, Claude Nau. This transaction was witnessed by Andrew Melville, the Master of the Household, and Sebastian Megalli, the queen's almoner. Mary later made a will at Sheffield Manor in 1577, mentioning the sum of 4,000 Francs promised to the couple.
Amias Paulet, Mary's keeper at Tutbury, knew the couple were betrothed, but wrote to Walsingham after the wedding, saying that Mary had not told him of the ceremony in advance.