Michael Gardiner was a Scottish artilleryman based at Stirling Castle. The surname also appears as Gardner and Gardenar.
Career
In 1538 he was transferred from the garrison of Dunbar Castle to Stirling, and he was put on the regular pay-roll at £3 per month. In June 1541 he was sent to Kelso Abbey to collect a broken bell and three brass pots to be melted down in the gun-foundry at Edinburgh Castle. By 1555 his wage increased to £6 monthly. Michael Gardinar was in charge of cannons at Stirling Castle as a Master Cannoner. He was also a burgess of Stirling. Gardinar worked with John Chisholm in Edinburgh Castle making fireworks for Mary, Queen of Scots for the baptism of Prince James at Stirling in December 1566. He requested advice on "weak powder" from the Laird of Roslin.
During the Marian Civil War Gardiner and his son Robert sided with Regent Lennox who was based at Leith, against the supporters of Mary, Queen of Scots and his former colleagues who garrisoned Edinburgh Castle. In May 1571 Gardiner provided ropes and other equipment to transport cannon from Stirling to Edinburgh. In October 1571 Gardiner was paid for refurbishing cannon at Stirling and transporting a "gross culverin" from Glasgow to Stirling. The guns were shipped to Leith. Robert Gardiner travelled to Perth, Dundee, and Broughty to buy iron, timber, and cannon balls, to be deployed in the Canongate. In November Gardiner's assistant David Haliburton took a boat load of "bullettis", cannon balls, from Leith to Blackness Castle. In August 1572 Michael dismantled some of the artillery and shipped it to Stirling in six boats guarded by Captain Mitchell's company, while Robert Gardiner was sent to Berwick with the Regent's letter for Lord Hunsdon. At the end of the 'lang siege' of Edinburgh Castle, in June 1573, Gardiner dismantled the culverins used as siege cannons against the castle and took them to Holyrood Palace and then to Leith. He was paid for cables and rope, soap, tallow, axles, wedges, and other equipment. The blacksmith and gunner at Stirling was David Smith. He died in 1578 and was replaced by John McBen.
Later life
He became depute-keeper of Stirling Castle in March 1581 during the illness of the Constable, Mr John Stewart. A note from 1581 states that "Michaell kens all thing in the place, what ammunition and other gear is your Majesty's and what pertains to my Lord of Mar." He died on 3 May 1584. He left a will made in 1579, and his inventory mentions the king owed him £140 Scots of unpaid wages. Gardener had borrowed money from his wife's relatives in Stirling, Jonet Ray and Isobel Ray a butcher's widow. Amongst his possessions was a "locked case with instruments contained therein for my craft", brass, iron and wooden rulers, and "certain writs pertaining to his craft."
Family and children
In 1584 his pension, which he had received since 1534 was transferred to his widow Margaret Ray. Some of their children were also gunners:
Robert Gardiner, gunner at Stirling Castle from 1570, in Flanders in 1579, died 1582.
Crystal Gardiner, gunner at Stirling Castle, who died in 1582.
Archibald Gardiner, gunner at Edinburgh Castle.
James Gardiner, gunner at Stirling Castle, appointed in 1582 in succession to his brother Robert, and Master Cannoner 1 October 1584 in succession to his father. James Gardiner took the cannon to Kirkwall in 1615, to besiege the Earl of Orkney.
