Janet Fockart

Janet Fockart (died 1596) was a Scottish merchant and moneylender. Life Little is known of her background. In the 15th century there was a Scottish landowning family, Folkert of Folkertoun, and she may have been a relation. Janet Fockart was married three times, to John Todd, in 1560 to the luxury merchant and magistrate William Fowler (d. 1572), with whom she had seven children, and to James Hathoway (d. 1579). In early modern Scotland, married women did not usually adopt their husband's surnames. Already during Fowler's lifetime, she was engaged in business as a moneylender, and after 1580, she rose to become one of the most successful in this line of business in Edinburgh. Among her clients were Robert Stewart, 1st Earl of Orkney, regent James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton, as well as king James VI of Scotland, who was a regular client. She left a substantial fortune at her death. She was the mother of the poet William Fowler and grandmother of the poet William Drummond of Hawthornden. A daughter Sarah married an Edinburgh merchant John Inglish or Inglis, and their son Robert Inglish settled in London by 1630.