THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES LC 5/133, Pp. 44-51 1 ______
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THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES LC 5/133, pp. 44-51 1 ________________________________________________________________________ SUMMARY The documents below are copies in the Lord Chamberlain’s Book of the petitions, answers and orders in a suit brought in 1635 before Philip Herbert (1584-1650), 1st Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery, whose first wife was Oxford’s daughter, Susan de Vere (1587-1629). At the time of the complaint, Herbert was Lord Chamberlain of the Household. See the Shakespeare Documented website at: https://shakespearedocumented.folger.edu/exhibition/document/answer-cuthbert-burbage- et-al-petition-robert-benefield-et-al-concerning The complaint is described from the perspective of one of the defendants, John Shank (d.1636). From the ODNB: Shank invested in the King's Men, holding shares that had originally belonged to John Heminges. On his death in 1630 the heir, Heminges's son William sold them to Shank. It was these shares and those of the surviving members of the Burbage family that were the subject of the dispute recorded in the Sharers' Papers of 1635. Robert Benfield, Eyllaerdt Swanston, and Thomas Pollard, fellow King's Men, petitioned the lord chamberlain to allow them to purchase shares in the Blackfriars and the Globe theatres. Richard Burbage's widow, Winifred, by then remarried, and her brother-in-law Cuthbert objected, as did John Shank. An order was made to allow the petitioners to buy some of Shank's shares, but no agreement was reached about the price. So on 1 August 1635 the case was passed to Sir Henry Herbert for arbitration. The matter had still not been finally resolved by Shank's death in January 1636. He was buried at St Giles Cripplegate on the 27th of that month. The William Heminges mentioned in the documents was William Heminges (bap. 1602, d. 1649x53), poet and playwright, the ninth child and third son of John Heminges (bap. 1566, d. 1630), and his wife Rebecca (nee Edwards) Knell Heminges (bap. 1571, d. 1619). From the ODNB: John Heminges died in October 1630, and, as the eldest surviving son, William inherited his father's shares in the Blackfriars and Globe theatres. He apparently had nothing to do with running either theatre, merely collecting the income from the shares and following a profligate lifestyle which soon landed him in Ludgate prison for debt. These circumstances led Heminges to sell part of his theatre shares to John Shank of the King's Men in 1633 for £156, and the remaining shares in 1634 for £350. OTHER PERSONS MENTIONED IN THE LAWSUIT -Winifred (nee Turner) Burbage Robinson (d.1642), the daughter of Edmund Turner of St Leonard, Shoreditch, and widow of Richard Burbage (1568–1619). From the ODN entry for Richard Burbage: Modern spelling transcript copyright ©2011 Nina Green All Rights Reserved http//wwwoxford-shakespearecom/ THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES LC 5/133, pp. 44-51 2 ________________________________________________________________________ Burbage [Burbadge], Richard (1568–1619), actor, was baptized at St Stephen, Coleman Street, close to Guildhall, London, on 7 July 1568, the younger of the two surviving sons of James Burbage (c. 1531–1597) and his wife, Ellen, née Brayne (c.1542–1613). Around this time [=1599], although the place and date are unknown, Richard Burbage married Winifred Turner (d. 1642): it must have been before 7 October 1601, when Simon Forman noted that 'Winfret Burbidg', aged twenty-five, had consulted him, complaining of 'moch pain head back belly shoulders' (Bodl. Oxf., MS Ashmole 411, fol. 150). Between 1603 and 1619 the couple had eight children (the last born posthumously to Richard) baptized at St Leonard, Shoreditch, all but one dying young. The survivor was William (bap. 6 Nov 1616), presumably named in memory of his father's oldest friend and colleague, who had died at Stratford upon Avon the previous April. After Burbage’s death, Winifred married Richard Robinson: In the next local tax list after Richard's death Winifred is entered as the householder in Holywell Street. Her father, Edmund Turner of St Leonard, Shoreditch, who had presumably been living with her, died intestate in 1622, and letters of administration were granted to her on 6 August; on 31 October she was married by licence to Richard Robinson at St Mary Magdalen, Old Fish Street, and in the tax list of 1623–4 his name replaces hers as householder. Winifred Robinson was buried at Shoreditch on 2 May 1642, and Robinson, 'a Player', at St Anne Blackfriars on 23 March 1648. From the ODNB entry for Richard Robinson: Robinson, Richard (c. 1595–1648), actor, is of uncertain origin, and his year of birth is estimated from his known acting roles and the timing of his transition from playing women to playing adult men. Robinson became a shareholder in the King's Men about 1619, and his marriage on 31 October 1622 to Winifred Burbage, née Turner (c.1576–1642), widow of Richard Burbage, consolidated his position in the company. In August 1641 Robinson was one of the 228 parishioners of St Leonard, Shoreditch, who attested to the religious orthodoxy of their minister, John Squier, against claims that he was popishly inclined. -John Lowin (bap. 1576, d.1653), actor, the son of Richard Lowin of London. From the ODNB: Lowin, John (bap. 1576, d. 1653), actor, the son of Richard Lowin of London, was baptized on 9 December 1576 at St Giles Cripplegate. His father was a currier, or tanner of leather (not a carpenter, as early authorities state), and must have been a fairly well- to-do craftsman, for he apprenticed his son to a goldsmith. Modern spelling transcript copyright ©2011 Nina Green All Rights Reserved http//wwwoxford-shakespearecom/ THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES LC 5/133, pp. 44-51 3 ________________________________________________________________________ -Eyllaerdt (or Heliard) Swanston (d. 1651), actor, a member of the King's Men from about 1624 until the closure of the theatres in 1642. From the ODNB: Swanston, Eyllaerdt (d. 1651), actor, was a member of the prestigious King's Men from about 1624 until the closure of the theatres in 1642. We do not know his parentage or when or where he was born. -Sir John Finet (1570/71–1641), courtier and writer. From the ODNB: Finet [Finett], Sir John (1570/71–1641), courtier and writer, was born at Soulton in Kent, the eldest son of Robert Finet (d. 1582), and Agnes Wenlock, daughter of a captain of Calais. His early life is obscure. Whatever his standing, he mixed with the leading Kentish gentry of his day. -Sir Henry Herbert (bap. 1594, d. 1673), Master of the Revels. From the ODNB: Herbert, Sir Henry (bap. 1594, d. 1673), master of the revels, was baptized on 7 July 1594 at St Nicholas's Church, Montgomery, the sixth of seven sons (and three daughters) of Richard Herbert (d. 1596) and Magdalen or Magdalene, née Newport (d. 1627), of Montgomery. The case in the Court of Requests by the Globe shareholders against Sir Matthew Brend (1600-1659) mentioned in the documents below is TNA REQ 2/706. The documents were transcribed by J.O. Halliwell-Phillipps in Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare, 7th ed., Vol. I, (London: Longmans Green, 1887), pp. 312-19, available online. There is also a partial transcript in Smith Irwin, Shakespeare’s Blackfriars Playhouse, (New York University Press, 1964), pp. 553-9. The transcript below follows the order in which the documents were copied into the Lord Chamberlain’s Book. The Book is in two sections, beginning from the front and back, each of which is numbered separately (1-24 from the front, and 1-71 from the back). The documents below are in the back section. LM: The King’s Players To the right honourable Philip, Earl of Pembroke & Montgomery, Lord Chamberlain of his Majesty’s Household Robert Benfield, Heliard [=Eyllaerdt] Swanston & Thomas Pollard humbly represent these their grievances, imploring his Lordship’s noble favour towards them for their relief That the petitioners have a long time with much patience expected to be admitted sharers in the playhouses of the Globe and the Blackfriars whereby they might reap some better Modern spelling transcript copyright ©2011 Nina Green All Rights Reserved http//wwwoxford-shakespearecom/ THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES LC 5/133, pp. 44-51 4 ________________________________________________________________________ fruit of their labours than hitherto they have done, & be encouraged to proceed therein with cheerfulness; That those few interested in the houses have, without any defalcation or abatement at all, a full moiety of the whole gains arising thereby excepting the outer doors, and such of the said housekeepers as be actors do likewise equally share with all the rest of the actors both in the other moiety & in the said outer doors also; That out of the actors’ moiety there is notwithstanding defrayed all wages to hired men, apparel, poets, lights & other charges of the houses whatsoever, so that between the gains of the actors & of those few interested as housekeepers there is an unreasonable inequality; That the house of the Globe was formerly divided into 16 parts, whereof Mr Cuthbert Burbage and his sisters [sic] had 8, Mrs Condell 4, and Mr Heminges 4; That Mr Taylor and Mr Lowin were long since admitted to purchase 4 parts betwixt them from the rest, viz., 1 part from Mr Heminges, 2 parts from Mrs Condell, & half a part apiece from Mr Burbage and his sister; RM: shares That the 3 parts remaining to Mr Heminges were afterwards by Mr Shank surreptitiously purchased from him contrary to the petitioners’ expectation, who hoped that when any parts had been to be sold they should