MONEPENNY, JAMES [SSNE 245]
- Surname
- MONEPENNY, MONEYPENNY, MONNEPENNE, MONIPENNI
- First name
- JAMES, JAKOB, JACOB
- Title/rank
- LIEUTENANT, TRANSLATOR
- Nationality
- SCOT
- Social status
- OFFICER
Text source
James Monneypenny entered the Scottish forces recruited for Sweden in 1612. He was captured by Norwegians at Kringen when Scottish troops were making their way from Norway to Sweden to enter King Gustav II Adolf's service, and released after being handed over to James VI. He is probably the same as James Moneypenny was in Danish-Norwegian service in the first decade of the seventeenth century who was one of the few Scots to be spared at Kringen in 1612. He was noted as being a translator. Apparently he, along with Alexander Ramsay [SSNE 230], Henry Bruce [SSNE 241] and James Scott [SSNE 7274], who were taken in by Robert Anstruther [SSNE 1472] and returned home after a summary interrogation. However, a James Moneypenny is recorded as a witness to a marriage contract between James Ramsay and Isobel Spens at Stockhollom in 1619. It was possibly the same man.
Sources: T. Michell, History of the Scottish Expedition to Norway in 1612 (Christiania, 1886), pp. 142-3, 146, 157-9, 180-3; T. Riis, Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot (Odense, 1988), p.110; T. Mathison, Fra Bondeoppbud til Legdshaer, (Oslo, 1952), p. 120. We thank Dr Dauvit Horsbroch for the information from Harry Watson's article on Sir James Spens of Wormiston in The Scottish Genealogist, xxvii: 4, December 1981 and Rear Admiral Vernon Donaldson's response in The Scottish Genealogist, xxix: 2, June 1982, pp.56-59.
Service record
- DENMARK-NORWAY, NORWAY
- Arrived 1612-07-31, as LIEUTENANT
- Departed 1612-10-19, as LIEUTENANT
- Capacity PRISONER, purpose MISC
- SWEDEN, SWEDISH ARMY
- Arrived 1612-08-01, as LIEUTENANT
- Departed 1620-01-01, as LIEUTENANT
- Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY