DAVID GEORGE The Walmesley of Dunkenhalgh accounts Dunkenhalgh Manor House, now a hotel called simply `The Dunkenhalgh', is about half- a-mile west of the small town of Clayton-le-Moors, Lancashire . The Walmesley family gained possession of Dunkenhalgh manor on 27 June 1571, when Thomas Walmesley of Lincoln's Inn, London, bought it from Ralph Rishton . Walmesley added to the 110 acres of this purchase another 29 acres which Rishton had sold off separately (Trappes- Lomax 61). Walmesley thus became a member of Elizabethan Lancashire's gentry . His estate, but not the town of Clayton, appears on Saxton's 1577 map of Lancashire . Saxton spells it 'Dunkinhalghe,' but the word is now pronounced locally 'Duncanhalsh' . Walmesley was a Lancashire man, the son of Thomas Walmesley of Showley, Lancs ; he was born in 1537, followed a legal career, and was called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1567 . Other appointments and honours followed : Serjeant-at-Law in 1580, judge of the Common Pleas in 1589, and a knighthood in 1603 . Later purchases of land extended his holdings throughout north-east Lancashire and in Yorkshire (Trappes-Lomax 61-2) . He kept accounts and a commonplace book ; both are now at the Lancashire Record Office as, respectively, `The Accounts of Thomas Walmesley, 1585-161 0'(DDPt/1), and `The Walmesley Commonplace Book,' covering c 1598-9 (DDPt/46/1) . Neither one seems to have anything in it concerning entertainment . Judge Walmesley died in November 1612, leaving the entire inheritance to his son, another Thomas Walmesley . It may be said of judge Walmesley that he missed an unequalled opportunity to record the visits of those actors and entertainers who doubtless performed at Dunkenhalgh Manor House. The years when he was master cover the most interesting period of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama . Thomas Walmesley, the son of judge Walmesley, made handsome amends for the omissions of his father. Born in 1574, he married twice and took for his second wife (1604) the heiress Mary Hoghton of Hoghton Tower . He inherited his father's estates in 1612 and commenced a series of accounts that contain no fewer than 191 entries relating to players and other entertainers over a period extending from 1612-42 . Since he lived mostly at Cowthorpe, Yorkshire, the credit for the account-keeping must go to his estate stewards. He died in 1642 (Trappes-Lomax 63) . He appears to have been a royalist in his later years, and he continued to welcome players when some of his neighbours no longer did. The Dunkenhalgh Manor accounts are very informative, and while I will not print here all 191 entries, I will set down those which I consider a significant addition to G .E. Bentley's Jacobean and Caroline Stage (7 vols, 1941-68) . In my forthcoming Records of Early English Drama : Lancashire volume, however, all these entries will be published . The accounts were deposited at the Lancashire Record Office by Capt R . C. Petre of Tunworth Down House, Basingstoke, Hants, in 1965 . They are now found under Petre of Dunkenhalgh (DDPt 1) in 21 paper- and parchment-covered books in the following order : 1 Booke of accounts . 1612 [1612-17] (Thomas Winkley, Steward) 2 Lane . 1616 . Accomptes [1617-1622] 3 Lanc' Accomptes 1621 [1622-3] (30 May 1623 : John Hayhurst, Steward) 4 Booke 1624 of Accomptes for the howse of Dunkenhalgh [1624-5] 5 An account for this yeare begininge att Mychaelmes 1625/ and endinge att Mychaelmes 1626./ [1625-6] 6 6 John Hayhurst 1627 ( ) account ( ) [1626-7] 7 Lane' Accomptes Betwene Mychaelmes 1628/ and Mychaelmas 1629/ 8 (No Cover Remaining) [1629-1630] 9 (Cover Much Decayed) 16301 [Oct 1630-Jan 1631] (1 Oct 1630 : Adam Boulton, Steward) 10 (. .)m Boulton an( )of Accomptes [1631-2] 11 Booke of accompts of Adam Bolton) 1633 [1632-4] 12 Adam Boltone ( )nis 1634 . and 163(5)/ [1634-5] 13 1635 an(. .) 1636 Adam Boltens Accomptes [1635-6] 14 My booke of Accounts Betweene mychalmas 1636 and Mychalmas 1637. Adam Boulten [1636-7] 15 Adam Boltons accompts 1637 An accompt Betweene Mychalmas 1637. and Mychalmas 1638./ [1637-8] 16 Adam Boltons booke of Accompts 1638 1639 1638. and 1639. [1638-9] 17 (No Cover Remaining) [1640-2] 18 (No Cover Remaining) [Farm Accounts, 24 May 1623-4 May 1630] 19 (No Cover Remaining) [Farm Accounts, 25 May 1612-24 May 1622] 20 1632 till 1649 Adam Boultons Accomptes [1632-1654] 21 An Accounte of the disbursmentes att and after the death of Thomas Walmsley Esqr : who departed Satarday, March. 12°. 1641 . [1642] It seems possible that account books are missing for 1623-4, 1627-8, and 1639-40, though Boulton's summary accounts for 1632-1649 may cover some of these losses . The first account book (1612-17) makes good a gap in the Shuttleworth accounts from nearby Gawthorpe Hall . The Shuttleworth accounts are missing for the period 7 November 1613 to 4 November 1616. We can now surmise that about 14 acting companies would have been recorded in that volume, together with numerous sets of musicians and other entertainers . The Walmesley accounts report a wide variety of entertainers : fiddlers, a hobby-horse man, jugglers, a merry man, minstrels, musicians, pipers, players, singers, trumpeters, and waits. The breakdown by category is as follows : Entries Fiddlers (of Pateley Bridge, Knaresborough, Wigglesworth), 'tomlinge fidlers', and many unnamed fiddlers : 15 Hobby-Horse Man : 1 Jugglers ('a Jugler') : 1 Merry Man ('a merye man that belonged to my lorde Strange') : 1 Minstrels ('viij . minstrelles') : 1 Musicians (of Bradford, `the Musick of preston') ; unnamed 'musicke' at Whitchurch, Selby, and Knowsley House ; 'musickes' at Chester: 6 Pipers (John Browne, Key, Thomas Lathom, Talier, `my lorde of huntingtons pyper') and many unnamed pipers : 46 Players (1) Town Companies (8) 10 7 (ii) Players' Companies (15) 20 (iii) Knights' Companies 7 (iv) Lords' Companies (27) 29 (v) Royal Companies (15)17 (vi) `the dutch men' 1 (vii) Unnamed Companies 6 Singers (William Bradshay for makinge songhes') : 1 Trumpeters : 1 Waits (of Durham, Halifax, Lancaster, Leeds, Nottingham, Preston, Ripon, and Wakefield) and many unnamed waits : 28 Total entries : 191 In the case of players, two figures are given on four occasions ; this is because a company stayed overnight and ate at the house, and so appears twice in the records . The acting companies, which are the focus of this article, came from near and far . The town companies were naturally local, but in the first decade or so of the accounts we note the presence of London companies with royal warrants . The breakdown of the companies, with dates, is as follows : Number of Visits Sir Edward Warren's Men 5 (between 31 December 1612 and 2 February 1613) (14 November 1614) (between 16 November 1615 and 7 February 1616) (between 22 October and 6 November 1616) (between 1 and 10 January 1618) Lord Monteagle's Men 3 (between 7 and 24 February 1614) (13 October 1614) (16 November 1615) Earl of Derby's Men 7 (between 31 December 1613 and 13 January 1614) (21 July 1615) (22 March 1617) (2 August 1617) (12 February 1620) (between 25 November and 1 December 1620) (kitchen entry) (between 4 and 11 February 1625) (kitchen entry) Lord Stafford's Men 4 (11 November 1614) (28 October 1615) (between 23 January and 7 February 1617) (24 January 1618) 8 Queen's Men 2 (23 October 1615 - two plays) (20 April 1616) Lady Elizabeth's Men 4 (between 16 November 1615 and 7 February 1616) (between 6 November and 24 December 1616) (19 January 1618) (2 January 1621) Sir Cuthbert Halshay's Men 1 (between 17 August and 22 October 1616) Earl of Shrewsbury's Men 1 (6 November 1616) Lord Evers' Men 1 (13 March 1617) Lord Dudley's Men (Distley's Company) 8 (between 7 and 11 November 1619) (after 1 September 1620) (2 March 1625) (27 July 1625) (21 March 1626) (23 February 1627) (10 December 1629) (between 2 and 4 April 1630) King's Men 5 (25 July 1620) (18 December 1620) (kitchen entry : between 16 and 22 December 1620) (16 December 1624) (between 15 and 21 October 1624 - two nights) (kitchen entry) (11 December 1628) The Dutch Men 1 (between 25 July and 1 September 1620) Prince's Men 3 (7 November 1619) (2 December 1620) (kitchen entry : between 2 and 8 December 1620) (between 26 January and 1 February 1622 - two nights) (kitchen entry) Players of Downham 2 (12 February 1621) (between 6 and 12 January 1622) 9 Players of Ribchester 1 (2 or 3 January 1625) Bradshaw's Company 7 (11 February 1625) (2 January 1626) (kitchen entry : between 29 December 1625 and 4 January 1626) (26 August 1626) (4 April 1627) (22 October 1629) (9 December 1630) (kitchen entry : between 3 and 9 December 1630) (between 16 and 30 November 1635) Perry's Company 5 (11 June 1625) (kitchen entry for unnamed 'Plaiers' : between 4 and 10 June 1625) (12 November 1625) (kitchen entry : between 11 and 17 November 1625 - three nights) (5 December 1626) (kitchen entry : between 1 and 7 December 1626) (between 20 and 25 February 1630 - two nights) (kitchen entry) (between 21 and 27 January 1631 - two nights) (kitchen entry) Players of Clitheroe 1 (between 27 December 1628 and 4 January 1629) Mr Shireburn's Players 1 (3 January 1629) Guest's Company 3 (19 July 1630) ('a sorte of Players which tearmet them selfes the lady Elizabethes players') (between 2 and 8 October 1630) (kitchen entry) (16 February 1632) ('nott playinge') Players of Whalley 4 (between 24 December 1633 and 5 January 1634) (between 24 December 1634 and 20 January 1635) (kitchen entry : between 26 December 1634 and 1 January 1635 - three nights) (between 1 December 1635 and 10 January 1636) (between 25 December 1638 and 4 January 1639) Players of Burnley 1 (between 8 and 29 February 1634) (with fiddlers) (kitchen entry: between 14 and 20 February 1634) Lord Strange's Men 3 (between 14 and 25 October 1634) (kitchen entry : between 10 and 16 October 1634) (between 24 December 1634 and 20 January 1635 - three plays : accounts entry for unnamed `players') (kitchen entry : between 10 2 and 8 January 1635 - two nights) (between 11 November and 25 December 1636) Unnamed Players 6 (between 21 and 27 April 1626) (kitchen entry) (16 October 1630) ('2.