November 2006 Elizabeth and ffrancis Trentham of Rocester Abbey De Vere Society Newsletter Elizabeth and ffrancis Trentham of Rocester Abbey by Jeremy Crick Part I of a short account of the family history of Edward de Vere Earl of Oxford’s second wife and the strategic importance of the Trentham archive in the search for Oxford’s literary fragments. Accompanied by the Trentham family tree incorporating the de Veres and the Sneyds. Introduction Whether it was Oxford’s son-in-law, Philip When I began my study of the Trentham family, Herbert, Earl of Montgomery, and his brother about two years ago, I had one principal thought in William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke - the mind: if any of Edward de Vere’s literary papers - ‘incomparable brethren’ - who were given access to whether notebooks, original drafts or even literary Oxford’s papers (and which may later have been correspondence - have survived undiscovered till consumed by fire in the library at Wilton), or the present, it must be possible to find them. whether it was another son-in-law, William Stanley, Being a passionate Oxfordian these past Earl of Derby, who began the process of preserving twenty-odd years, I’m as fascinated as all Oxford’s life’s work for posterity, we may never Oxfordians are by the remarkable scholarship that know. has illuminated the ‘Shakespearean’ canon with It is very unlikely, however, that Elizabeth concordances from Oxford’s life, alongside the Trentham divested herself of all of Oxford’s literary broader question of whether the Stratford or the papers for the preparation of the First Folio - to the Oxford biography delivers the better candidate. last scrap of paper. Assuming that the best drafts Viewed dispassionately, the sheer weight of this were identified, collected and eventually handed to scholarship tilts the scales ineluctably away from the printers, what did Elizabeth Trentham, and her the Stratfordian pretension. But are Stratfordians executors, do with all the remainder? convinced? Worried even? The simple truth is: not One thing that is clear from the archive at all. record is that Elizabeth Trentham’s brother, ffrancis Until documentary proof of Oxford’s Trentham of Rocester Abbey, took over the authorship is found, Stratfordians will never management of the de Vere estate (alongside his relinquish their tight grip on academia, publishers own considerable estate) upon the marriage of his will overwhelmingly support the Stratfordian sister to Oxford in 1591, that he continued in this position, and the general public will always remain capacity after Edward’s death, through the years of indifferent to Oxfordian scholarship. Henry de Vere’s minority and even himself Of course, ever since J Thomas Looney inherited and passed down the manor and castle of first identified Oxford as a prime candidate, the Hedingham and other lands and properties once search for manuscript evidence of Oxford’s literary owned by Edward de Vere. That ffrancis spent work has been undertaken by many researchers and hours poring over the de Vere estate papers at one might assume that all the obvious places have King’s Place on his frequent visits to London as a been examined in detail. And yet one of the most Knight of the Shire and also at Hedingham, that he obvious lines of enquiry has been largely ignored - was as familiar with the inside of Oxford’s study as searching for the family papers of the Trentham anyone, is, I believe, born out by the evidence. family. ffrancis died in 1626, twenty-two years Oxford’s widow, Elizabeth Trentham, was after Edward de Vere, thirteen years after his sister in possession of all the material in Oxford’s study Elizabeth and one year after Henry de Vere - the last on his death and she outlived him by nine years. in the Oxford direct line. Also three years after the Oxford’s study at King’s Place in Hackney must publication of the First Folio. have been the original source for all the material My current researches proceed on the that was gathered for the First Folio that hadn’t possibility that the discovery of archive material by already been published in various Quarto editions - following the Trentham line is, perhaps, one of the at least nineteen plays. The study would have richest unploughed furrows in the quest to solve the contained notebooks, masses of loose leaves, Authorship Question. As will be shown in the working drafts, polished drafts, copies in the hands second part of this article, it was largely thanks to of Oxford’s secretaries, prompt copies with notes ffrancis Trentham that during the last thirteen years on stage direction, literary correspondence as well of his life, Oxford had all his money worries lifted as extensive marginalia in Oxford’s source books. from his shoulders. Among the treasures in the 1 November 2006 Elizabeth and ffrancis Trentham of Rocester Abbey De Vere Society Newsletter Trentham archive, I discovered a remarkable friend of theirs, and the many complaints made reference to ffrancis Trentham settling an extremely against him for riotous behaviour and for keeping generous £10,000 upon Edward when they became seventeen of his unruly companions in food, brothers-in-law. Thanks to this, Oxford had more lodging and money are recorded in the archive of ready cash than at any time in his life and it the Star Chamber. certainly puts his £1000 annual disbursement from All this must have given his father cause the Queen’s coffers into perspective. for embarrassment, given the family’s standing in Perhaps more crucially, with ffrancis the town, but he needn’t have worried for too long Trentham as his trusted brother-in-law - a wealthy because the young Thomas soon pulled his socks landowner, not only skilled in estate management up. One of the undoubted influences on his but also a minor courtier with considerable political character reformation was his good fortune in weight in running the affairs of Staffordshire - contracting an excellent marriage to Elizabeth, Oxford was also freed from the irksome burdon of daughter of Sir Richard Corbet of Moreton Corbet - managing his estate. By the time of his second a man of some influence and with connections to marriage, the de Vere estate was a complete the royal court. Doubtless it was Corbet influence shambles and the worst part for Oxford was that, as that enabled Thomas to enter Henry VIII’s second a result, the estate barely yielded the sort of income parliament for Shrewsbury in 1512 and to be re- that Oxford had grown accustomed to. On a elected in 1515 having had some foreign adventure dynastic level too, the restructuring that ffrancis in between serving under the Earl of Shrewsbury in Trentham performed on the de Vere estate gave the French campaign of 1513. Thomas Trentham II Oxford great confidence that his son Henry’s predeceased his father by a decade, and was living inheritance would indeed be fit for a future Earl and with his family in London at the time of his death in Lord Great Chamberlain of England. And Oxford 1519. was ever mindful of dynastic considerations, as we Perhaps the most influential development all know. for the Trentham family that resulted from the I believe that when Edward de Vere is Corbet marriage was that the two sons of Thomas finally recognised as the true bard, Elizabeth and Trentham II, Richard and Robert, were able to make ffrancis Trentham will also become acknowledged their early careers as esquires in the royal as the greatest patrons of the arts in history. household itself. Richard (c.1500-1547) inherited the family estate on the death of his grandfather and The Shropshire years evidently divided his time between Shrewsbury and The earliest member of the Trentham family to the royal court for, shortly before he became Cup emerge from the mists of time was, according to the Bearer to the young Prince of Wales, later Edward ‘Visitation of Staffordshire, 1583’, William VI, in 1536, he became the MP for Shrewsbury. Trentham of Shrewsbury who died around the year One year later, a very curious coincidence occurs. 1420. As their drapery business prospered over the I’m often asked by friends whether the coming years the family would establish Trentham family of my researches has any themselves as leading burgesses of the town. relationship to the vast former estate of the Dukes William’s son John (d. 1484) is the earliest of Sutherland (Leveson-Gower family) at Trentham Trentham to have left his mark in the archive in Staffordshire - a few miles down the road. record, that of the Shrewsbury Drapers’ Company, Having always replied in the negative, imagine how whose papers contain his signature on many surprising it was to discover recently that, in fact, property conveyances in Shrewsbury as a witness. Richard Trentham was granted the lease to the lands His son Thomas Trentham I (d. c. 1529), we know of Trentham Priory in November 1537. I doubt little about beyond the fact that he too became a whether he ever actually took up residence there pillar of town society, becoming bailiff of and yet a permanent move across the border into Shrewsbury four times. Staffordshire followed shortly after - and this was But it was his only son and heir, Thomas certainly Richard’s greatest bequest to the Trentham Trentham II (c.1468-c.1519), whose life first fortunes. provides the Trentham line with some anecdotal colour for, during his teens, he seems to have lived Rocester Abbey a somewhat dissolute lifestyle. His burgess-ship With the advent of the Reformation and the was even taken away from him, briefly, after he and attendant religious conflict raging throughout his companions had raided the town gaol to free a Europe, in September 1538, Henry VIII sealed his 2 November 2006 Elizabeth and ffrancis Trentham of Rocester Abbey De Vere Society Newsletter Abbey Field, Rocester today irrevocable rejection of Rome by an outrageous but “The king grants a lease to Edward Draycott hugely popular act of plunder on a scale hitherto Gent for 21 years of the House or Site of the unimaginable in English history - the dissolution of late Monastery and lands in Rocester at the the monasteries.