CELM: National Archives, Kew

C2/12/P11/49

Bill of complaint to Sir Nicolas Bacon by George Puttenham, with answers to it by the defendants Allen Egloubie, John Deninge and Francis Morris, and Puttenham's replication to Morris's answer; Egloubie's testimony claiming that they had lawfully broken into certain of Puttenham's ‘coffers’ or ‘chestes’ where they had found ‘secretly hidden and laied vpp to no good purpos certen coapes Vestemente[s] masse booke[s] Stolles Supaltarries…and soche lyke trumperie fitt for the s[er]vice of the masse and other Papisticall Service nowe abolisshed’, on five membranes of vellum, November 1570. 1570.

PtG 55: George Puttenham, Document(s)

Chancery Depositions 500 (9, 103)

Heywood's deposition in a law-suit between Baskerville and Worth, signed by him three times, 3 October 1623. 1623.

*HyT 14: Thomas Heywood, Document(s)

Facsimiles of two signatures in Greg, English Literary Autographs, Plate XCVIII (f-h).

CO1/2, Part II/27

Letter by Sandys, in a secretary's hand and signed by Sandys, to John Ferrar, 8 April 1623. 1623.

*SaG 44: George Sandys, Letter(s)

Edited in Kingsbury, IV, 106-10. Reprinted in Davis, pp. 150-7.

CO1/2, Part II/35.II

A copy by Mandeville of Sandys's letter to John Ferrar, 8 April 1623, sent to Secretary Conway. 1623.

SaG 44.5: George Sandys, Letter(s)

CO1/6/36

A petition by Sandys, to the King, entirely in the hand of a scribe, [1631]. 1631.

SaG 46: George Sandys, Letter(s)

Summarised in VMHB, 8 (1900-1), 43.Ã

CO1/4/49

A letter by the Council of the Virginia Company, to Sir Edward Conway, signed by King and other members of the council, 30 March 1628. 1628.

*KiH 821: Henry King, Document(s)

C 3/22/94 36 (in box 54-99)

Bill of complaint to Sir Nicholas Bacon by Thomas Brooke accusing Thomas Councell and George Puttenham of ‘corruptly and disceitfullye’ cheating him out of his legacy ‘betwen them…by indirecte, and sinister meanes’, whereby they also caused him to be confined for twelve months in prison where he lived in misery and ‘in greate daunger of ffamyne’, 28 April 1564; separate answers by Thomas Councell and George Puttenham, dismissing his allegations as ‘vntrue’; and the replication to both answers by Thomas Brooke, on four membranes of vellum, [1564]. 1564.

PtG 20: George Puttenham, Document(s)

C 3/90/84

Bill of complaint to Sir Nicholas Bacon by Richard Hartilpoole of Clerkenwell, accusing George Puttenham of defaulting in the payment of various debts and financial promises incurred during the course of some years of service, including his attending Puttenham on a six-week trip to Flanders, and a transaction with one Endlowe of London, a merchant lying in prison, in which Hartilpoole was ‘ignorantly’ duped, Puttenham being described as ‘a man of suche lewde lascivious, and wicked disposit[i]on in his lyvinge (to shamefull and to abomynable herein to be resyted)’ which he maintained ‘w^th cullorable and indirecte practises’ and whose ‘detestable lief’ and ‘oppressions of poorer men’, such men as Thomas Brooke, Thomas Moore, Thomas Lipscombe, Thomas Puller, Thomas Ordeney, Giles Moore, John Bardolph and others have ‘friendly and secretly’ tried to persuade him to forsake, 29 April 1567; with Puttenham's answer, dismissing these allegations as ‘most of them…ymagyned and subtilly devysed’ slanders, on two large membranes of vellum, [1567]. 1567.

PtG 43: George Puttenham, Document(s)

C 3/120/73

Bill of complaint to Sir Nicholas Bacon by Giles Moore accusing George Puttenham of cheating him ‘with pollecye and subtill invention’, out of the benefice and parsonage of Shaldon, Hertfordshire, which he let Puttenham take possession of and subsequently grant to John Bardolphe under the promise that Puttenham would secure the necessary dispensation from the Bishop of Winchester, which he failed to do, ultimately resulting in Moore's arrest; with Puttenham's answer, dismissing the allegations as ‘vntrue and insufficient in the lawe’, on two large membranes of vellum, [undated, but before 1566]. c.1560s.

PtG 29: George Puttenham, Document(s)

C 3/138/86

Bill of complaint to Sir Nicholas Bacon by John Paulet, Mary Paulet, Philip Windsor and Elizabeth Windsor, children of Elizabeth, Lady Windsor, referring to Lady Windsor's inheritance from the late Lord Windsor of goods and chattels to the value of over £3,000, from which, on 9 September 1559, she made a deed of gift to her children, but which her new husband George Puttenham wanted ‘for his pryvate gayne’ resulting in their being ‘defrauded’ of their rights; the lengthy answer to this by George Puttenham and Lady Windsor, denying that any such deed of gift was made; a brief summary of this answer; and the replication to this answer by the four complainants, insisting that a ‘Suffycyent wrytynge’ was made by their mother ‘w^th her whole minde and full consent’ and ‘Seyled w^th her Seyle and by her lawfully as her deyd of Grant dylyu^ryd’, on four membranes of vellum, [undated. c.1560s?]. c.1560s.

PtG 28: George Puttenham, Document(s)

C 3/144/6

A bill of complaint to Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper, by Richard Puttenham, against Sir William Warham, concerning a dispute over a bargain and sale; with Warham's answer [undated: probably early in the period 1558-79 when Bacon was Lord Keeper]. [1558-79].

PtG 23: George Puttenham, Document(s)

C 3/146/5 (in box 1-69)

A bill of complaint to Sir Nicholas Bacon by George Puttenham and Elizabeth, Lady Windsor, claiming redress from Edmund Windsor, brother of the late William, Lord Windsor, for revenues from lands in Sussex, Berkshire and Hampshire which properly descended from Sir Andrew, Lord Windsor, to her; Edmund Windsor's answer dismissing the claim; the replication to this by George Puttenham and Elizabeth, Lady Windsor, supporting their claim; and Edmund Windsor's rejoinder, on four generally large membranes of vellum. c.1570.

PtG 56: George Puttenham, Document(s)

Quoted in Willis, pp. 399-400.

C 3/185/74

Bill of complaint to Sir Nicholas Bacon by Andrew Vavasor of the Middle Temple, steward of the lands and tenements of Philip, youngest son of the late William, Lord Windsor, against George Puttenham, concerning Philip Windsor's rights and money owing to him; with George Puttenham's answer, referring to Vavasor's duty to ‘safely p^rserve’ Philip's ‘escriptes writtinges and munymentes’, as well as his title, and costs on Philip's behalf borne both by Puttenham and Philip's sister Elizabeth, on two membranes of vellum. c.1560s.

PtG 27: George Puttenham, Document(s)

C 3/199/137

A bill of complaint to Sir Nicholas Bacon by Thomas Wayland and his wife Mary, widow of Robert Downes, seeking repayment by Richard Puttenham of £160 lent him by Downes, 2 November 1561. 1561.

PtG 32: George Puttenham, Document(s)

C 3/206/4

Bill of complaint to Sir Nicholas Bacon by Thomas Colbie and Edward Gilbard against Richard Puttenham, Thomas Harrison, John Warton and others, seeking redress concerning a lease of property at Sherfield in Hampshire, referring to the involvement in this lease of George Puttenham, as well as Thomas Wayland and his wife Mary, on a single membrane of vellum, [undated, but probably early 1560s]. c.1560s.

PtG 30: George Puttenham, Document(s)

C 3/205/14

Bill of complaint to Sir Thomas Bromley, Lord Chancellor, by William Bethell of Winchester, accusing George Puttenham, Robert/Thomas Hannington, and John Warne of conspiring to undermine Bethell's rights in a manor in 1561/2; with the answers of Puttenham, Hannington and Warne denying the charge, on two large membranes of vellum, [undated, but between 1579 and 1587]. c.1579-87.

PtG 158: George Puttenham, Document(s)

C6/314/62

Wycherley's bill of complaint against the bookseller Samuel Briscoe, concerning the delay in the publication of his Miscellany Poems, entirely in the hand of a professional scribe, 23 January 1699/1700. 1700.

WyW 29: William Wycherley, Document(s)

For this case, see Howard P. Vincent, ‘William Wycherley's Miscellany Poems’, PQ, 16 (1937), 145-8.

C9/464/32

Formal bill of complaint by Vanbrugh and Swiney against Rich, Norris and Bullock, entirely in the hand of a legal scribe, 27 January [1707/8?]. 1708.

VaJ 422: Sir John Vanbrugh, Document(s)

Register, No. 1953.

C 24.II/425/20

A deposition relating to the scrivener Thomas Frith, the text in the hand of a scribe and signed by Shirley (a large four-inch-wide signature, ‘James Sherley’, in a mixed italic script), 6 March 1615/16. 1616.

*ShJ 210: James Shirley, Document(s)

This document discussed in J.P. Feil, ‘James Shirley's Years of Service’, RES, NS 8 (1957), 413-16.

C 24/207/63. unnumbered item

Interrogatories to be administered to George Puttenham on behalf of William Woodes against Humphrey Forster, concerning what Puttenham knew about Forster and his dealings; related interrogatories for Roger Hatton and Joane Jerom, and for Woodes's solicitor, John Cresset, the latter dated 28 January 1588[9]; together with answers signed by John Cresset (8 February 1588/9), by Roger Hatton (21 February 1588/9), and by George Puttenham (5 March 1588/9). 1589.

PtG 205: George Puttenham, Document(s)

C 24/137, unnumbered item

Deposition by George Puttenham in the case of Sir Richard Reade versus Francis Morris, in answer to interrogatories [see below], concerning the dealings of his brother Richard with his servant, the Italian-born Francis Manzaga, including reference to Manzaga's having once forged a deed in Venice and to ‘an evill prank’ played by him when in Richard Puttenham's service; written in the hand of a clerk on two broadsheets (a third continuing with a deposition by Thomas Temple), each signed by Puttenham (‘Geo. putenham’), 28 November 1578. 1578.

*PtG 103: George Puttenham, Document(s)

Recorded in Eccles, p. 108.

C 24/137, unnumbered item

Interrogatories to be administered against Francis Morris on behalf of Sir Richard Reade in the case of Reade versus Morris, concerning Richard Puttenham's residence at Sherfield and Francis Manzaga, including whether Morris knows ‘the hand in Wrytinge’ of Puttenham or whether he knows if Manzaga ‘was eu^r detectyd of eney foergerey or other fallshood’, on a long strip of paper, [1578]. 1578.

PtG 116: George Puttenham, Document(s)

C 24/207/63, unnumbered item

Interrogatories to be administered to George Puttenham on behalf of William Woodes against Humphrey Forster, concerning what Puttenham knew about Forster and his dealings; related interrogatories for Roger Hatton and Joane Jerom, and for Woodes's solicitor, John Cresset, the later dated 28 January 1588[9]; together with answers signed by John Cresset (8 February 1588/9), and by Roger Hatton (21 February 1588/9), on five large membranes of vellum. 1589.

PtG 204: George Puttenham, Document(s)

C 24/207/63, unnumbered item

Deposition by George Puttenham in the case of William Woodes versus Humphrey Forster (or Foster), in answer to interrogatories, concerning his dealings with Forster, accused of unlawfully trespassing and taking away a thousand sheep at Aldermanston, alleging that Puttenham threatened to bring to Star Chamber the foreman of a jury at the Guildhall for acquitting Forster contrary to the evidence, giving details of jurors at Forster's trial at Reading who came to Puttenham at his lodgings at the Bear and of the foreman of the jurors, Mr Chocke, at Forster's trial at Westminster, who came with Forster to Puttenham's lodgings in the Strand, where a deal was struck which Forster later renaged on, and of other subsequent meetings with jurors at Puttenham's lodgings in the Old Palace at Westminster; written in the hand of a clerk on four large membranes of vellum, each of them signed by Puttenham (‘Geo. putenham’), one signed twice, 5 March 1588/9. 1589.

*PtG 206: George Puttenham, Document(s)

Recorded in Eccles, p. 109.

C24/357/83, No. 5

A deposition by Jonson in the case of Rowe versus Garland, in a professional secretary hand, signed ‘Ben Jonson’, on a single broadsheet, 8 May 1610.

*JnB 761: Ben Jonson, Document(s)

C 24/479/88

The testimony of ‘John Marston of Christchurch in the County of Southanpton Clarke aged 46. years’, signed by him twice, on behalf of his father-in-law Dr William Wilkes, in a suit against Richard Clerke of Coventry, 5 May 1621. 1621.

*MrJ 15: John Marston, Document(s)

Recorded in Eccles, p. 92.

C 24/629/Part2/32

A deposition by Sandys in the case of Dawber versus Clayborne, written in a secretarial hand and signed by Sandys at the foot of both broadsheets, 22 June 1638. 1638.

*SaG 47: George Sandys, Document(s)

C 24/1159, Part 1/5

Wycherley's deposition, the text in the hand of a scribe and signed by Wycherley, on behalf of George Rodney Bridges and his wife Anna Maria, Countess of Shrewsbury, in a Chancery suit between Bridges and Elizabeth Browne, 12 May 1693. 1693.

*WyW 30: William Wycherley, Document(s)

Recorded in Eleanore Boswell, ‘Footnotes to Seventeenth-Century Biographies’, MLR, 26 (1931), 341-5.

C 43/5/61

Pleadings, in Latin, in the Court of Chancery, Westminster, in a case concerning George and Richard Puttenham and the manor of Sherfield, on one large membrane of vellum, [c.12 February 1568/9]. 1589.

PtG 46: George Puttenham, Document(s)

C 43/5/76

Pleadings, in Latin, in the Court of Chancery, Westminster, in a case brought 27 August 1570 by George Puttenham, Richard Puttenham and Richard Charnock (their brother-in-law) against one Ansley, on one large membrane of vellum, [October-November 1570]. 1570.

PtG 54: George Puttenham, Document(s)

C 54/700/62

Record of a case between George Puttenham and Robert Dowe, in a Chancery Close Roll on vellum, Westminster, 3 April 1566. 1566.

PtG 39: George Puttenham, Document(s)

C 54/723/37

Record of a case between George Puttenham and Thomas White concerning Richard Springham, in a Chancery Close Roll on vellum, Westminster, 23 July 1566. 1566.

PtG 40: George Puttenham, Document(s)

C 66/1315, m. 7

Record in Latin, in a Chancery Close Roll on vellum, of a grant to George Puttenham in consideration of his faithful and acceptable service (‘in consideratione boni veri & fidelis & acceptabilis servicii nobis’) of the reversion of the leases of the rectories of Marten, Wiltshire, and St Botolphs without Aldgate, London, at annual rents of £18 and £22 respectively, [May 1588]. 1588.

PtG 202: George Puttenham, Document(s)

C 104/63

A box of papers and commonplace books of the Cary family, including the Rev. Francis Henry Cary (1642-1712), rector of Brinkworth, Wiltshire.

[unnumbered item]

• DoC 351.8: Charles Sackville, Sixth Earl of Dorset, Rochester's Farewell (‘Tir'd with the noisome follies of the age’)

Copy, headed ‘The L R^s farewell’, on six pages of two conjugate folio leaves, in a folder of unbound verse (at the top of the box). Late 17th century.

First published in A Third Collection of the Newest and Most Ingenious Poems, Satyrs, Songs &c (London, 1689). POAS, II (1965), 217-27. Discussed and Dorset's authorship rejected in Harris, pp. 190-2. The poem is noted by Alexander Pope as being ‘probably by the L^d Dorset’ in Pope's exemplum of A New Collection of Poems Relating to State Affairs (London, 1705), British Library, C.28.e.15, p. 121.

[unnumbered item]

• BcF 392: Francis Bacon, Speech(es)

Copy of Bacon's speech on the naturalization of the Scots, in a professional secretary hand, on ff. [2r-17v] in a folio sewn booklet in wrappers.

[unnumbered item]

• MaA 139.91: Andrew Marvell, A Country Clowne call'd Hodge Went to view the Pyramid, pray mark what did ensue (‘When Hodge had number'd up how many score’)

Copy, in a professional hand, with corrections, on two conjugate folio leaves.

First published, as ‘Hodge a Countryman went up to the Piramid, His Vision’, in A Collection of Poems on Affairs of State (London, 1689), p. 5. Sometimes called Hodge's Vision from the Monument, [December, 1675]. Cooke, II, Carmina Miscellanea, pp. 81-8. Thompson, III, 359-65. Grosart, I, 435-40. Poems on Affairs of State: Augustan Satirical Verse, 1660-1714, Volume II: 1678-1681, ed. Elias F. Mengel, Jr (New Haven & London, 1965), pp. 146-53.

First attributed to Marvell in Poems on Affairs of State (London, 1697), but probably written in 1679, after Marvell's death.

[unnumbered item

• DrJ 43.91: John Dryden, An Essay upon Satire (‘How dull and how insensible a beast’)

Copy, on nine pages of five folio leaves stitched together, in a folder of unbound verse (at the top of the box). Late 17th century.

A satire written in 1675 by John Sheffield, Earl of Mulgrave, but it was widely believed by contemporaries (including later Alexander Pope, who had access to Mulgrave's papers) that Dryden had a hand in it, a belief which led to the notorious assault on him in Rose Alley on 18 December 1679, at the reputed instigation of the Earl of Rochester and/or the Duchess of Portsmouth.

First published in London, 1689. POAS, I (1963), pp. 396-413.

The authorship discussed in Macdonald, pp. 217-19, and see John Burrows, ‘Mulgrave, Dryden, and An Essay upon Satire’, in Superior in His Profession: Essays in Memory of Harold Love, ed. Meredith Sherlock, Brian McMullin and Wallace Kirsop, Script & Print, 33 (2009), pp. 76-91, where is it concluded, from stylistic analysis, that ‘Mulgrave had by far the major hand’. Recorded in Hammond, V, 684, in an ‘Index of Poems Excluded from this Edition’.

[unnumbered item]

• RoJ 33.5: John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, An Allusion to Horace, the Tenth Satyr of the First Book (‘Well, sir, 'tis granted I said Dryden's rhymes’)

Copy, headed ‘Writ Anno 1677. An allusion to Horace 10 Satyr 1^o booke’, on all four pages of two conjugate folio leaves (followed by DoC 251.5), in a folder of unbound verse (at the top of the box). Late 17th century.

First published in Poems on Several Occasions (‘Antwerp’, 1680). Vieth, pp. 120-6. Walker, pp. 99-102. Love, pp. 71-4.

[unnumbered item]

• DoC 251.8: Charles Sackville, Sixth Earl of Dorset, A Song on Black Bess (‘Methinks the poor town has been troubled too long’)

Copy, headed ‘Song’ and here beginning ‘My thinks y^e poor towne hath been troubled too long’, following RoJ 33.5 at the end of the fourth page of two conjugate folio leaves, in a folder of unbound verse (at the top of the box). Late 17th century.

First published in Methinks the Poor Town (London, 1673). Choice Songs and Ayres…The First Book (London, 1673). Harris, pp. 90-2.

C 104/110/Part 1

Muniments principally of Anne (née St John: 1614-96), Countess of Rochester, and the associated Lee and Cary families.

[unnumbered item]

• RoJ 595.5: John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, Upon Nothing (‘Nothing! thou elder brother even to Shade’)

Copy, in a version divided between speakers ‘D: B:’, ‘E: R:’ and ‘F: B:’, in a professional hand, with emendations in the hand of the poet's mother, Anne, Countess of Rochester, on three pages of two conjugate folio leaves, endorsed ‘Lord Rochester On Nothing’. Late 17th century.

Discovered and identified by Germaine Greer.

First published, as a broadside, [in London, 1679]. Poems on Several Occasions (‘Antwerp’, 1680). Vieth, pp. 118-20. Walker, pp. 62-4. Harold Love, ‘The Text of Rochester's “Upon Nothing”’, Centre for Bibliographical and Textual Studies, Monash University, Occasional Papers 1 (1985). Love, pp. 46-8.

[unnumbered item]

• RoJ 595.8: John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, Upon Nothing (‘Nothing! thou elder brother even to Shade’)

Copy, in the mixed hand of John Cary, steward of the poet's mother, Anne, Countess of Rochester, on both pages of a single folio leaf, endorsed ‘Upon nothing’. Late 17th century.

C 108/63

A box of unbound and unnumbered legal and miscellaneous papers.

unnumbered item

• RaW 371.2: Sir Walter Ralegh, Epitaph on the Earl of Salisbury (‘Here lies Hobinall, our Pastor while ere’)

Copy, in a secretary hand, untitled, here beginning ‘Here lieth Hobbynol ou^r sheapard w^ch eare’, on the first page of a pair of conjugate folio leaves of verse, once folded as a letter or packet, in a file of verse MSS. c.1620s.

First published in Francis Osborne, Traditionall Memoyres on the raigne of King Iames (London, 1658). Works (1829), VIII, 735-6. Latham, p. 53.

Of doubtful authorship according to Latham, p. 146, and Lefranc (1968), p. 84.

unnumbered item

• HoJ 226: John Hoskyns, S^r Fra: Bacon. L: Verulam. Vicount S^t Albons (‘Lord Verulam is very lame, the gout of go-out feeling’)

Copy, in a secretary hand, untitled, here beginning ‘Great Verulam is very lame, the, Gout, of goe out, feeling’, on one side of a single folio leaf, once folded as a letter or packet, in a file of verse MSS. c.1620s.

Osborn, No. XXXIX (p. 210). Whitlock, pp. 558-9.

unnumbered item

• DyE 57: Sir Edward Dyer, ‘My mynde to me a kyngdome is’

Copy, in a secretary hand, untitled, on a single folio leaf, once folded as a letter or packet, in a file of verse MSS. Early 17th century.

First published, as two poems (one comprising stanzas 1-4, 6 and 8. the other stanzas 9-12) in a musical setting, in William Byrd, Psalmes, Sonets & Songs (London, 1588). Sargent, No. XIV, pp. 200-1. The uncertain authorship of this poem and its textual history are discussed in Steven W. May, ‘The Authorship of “My mind to me a kingdom is”’, RES, NS 26 (1975), 385-94. EV 15376.

unnumbered item

• DyE 58: Sir Edward Dyer, ‘My mynde to me a kyngdome is’

Copy, in a cursive secretary hand, untitled, on the first two pages of a pair of conjugate folio leaves, endorsed ‘A Song’, once folded as a letter or packet, in a file of verse MSS. c.1620s-30s.

unnumbered item

• CmT 104.8: Thomas Campion, ‘There is none, O none but you’

Copy, in a secretary hand, untitled, on one side of a single quarto leaf, once folded as a letter or packet, in a file of verse MSS. Early 17th century.

First published in Two Bookes of Ayres (London, [c.1612-13]), Book II, No. xiii. Davis, p. 102.

unnumbered item

• DeJ 80.8: Sir John Denham, A Second Western Wonder (‘You heard of that wonder, of the Lightning and Thunder’)

Copy, in double columns, headed ‘The Westerne Wonder; The second part to the same Tune’, here beginning ‘You haue hard of that wonder’, subscribed ‘S^r John Hotham’, on a folio leaf, once folded as a letter or packet, in a file of verse MSS. c.1630s.

First published in Rump: or an Exact Collection of the Choycest Poems and Songs (London, 1662). Poems and Translations (London, 1668). Banks, pp. 133-4.

unnumbered item

• RuB 167: Sir Benjamin Rudyerd, Speech in the House of Commons, ?7 November 1640

Copy, in a neat largely italic hand, headed ‘S^r Beniamin Rudyer his speech in Parliment 1640’, on four pages of two pairs of conjugate folio leaves, once folded as a letter or packet, in a folder of political speeches. c.1640.

Speech (variously dated 4, 7, 9 and 10 November 1640) beginning ‘We are here assembled to do God's business and the King's...’. First published in The Speeches of S^r. Benjamin Rudyer in the high Court of Parliament (London, 1641), pp. 1-10. Manning, pp. 159-65.

unnumbered item

• RuB 168: Sir Benjamin Rudyerd, Speech in the House of Commons, ?7 November 1640

Copy, in a mixed hand, headed ‘S^r Beniamin Rudyard his speech in Parliam^t 1640’, on five pages of two pairs of conjugate folio leaves, once folded as a letter or packet, in a file of political speeches. c.1640.

C 152/61

Milton's faltering post-blindness autograph signature (‘John Milton’) on a certified affidavit recording payment to him of a £500 debt by Richard Powell, 29 November 1659, written on the verso of Powell's bond to Milton of 11 June 1627. 1659.

*MnJ 106: John Milton, Document(s)

Discussed, with a complete facsimile, in J. Milton French, ‘The Powell-Milton Bond’, HSNPL, 20 (1938), 61-73. Edited in Columbia XVIII, 419-20, and in LR, I, 135-7.

C2/CHASI/K12/1

‘Severall answeres’ by Wither to Thomas Knollis's bill of complaint, entirely in a professional hand and unsigned, 15 December 1645. 1645.

WiG 53: George Wither, Document(s)

C2/CHASI/W32/69

Wither's autograph bill of complaint, to the Privy Council, against Humphrey Fledger, on a single large membrane of vellum, 6 May 1647. 1647.

*WiG 54: George Wither, Document(s)

C5/31/144

An autograph bill of complaint by Wither, to the Privy Council, concerning a suit against him by ‘one Thomas Beauchamp a pore Tradsman in London’, on a single membrane of vellum, 28 January 1657/8. 1558.

*WiG 61: George Wither, Document(s)

C6/338/78

Vanbrugh's bill of complaint against Thomas Holford about the Haymarket Theatre site, entirely in the hand of a legal clerk, 14 August 1703. 1703.

VaJ 388: Sir John Vanbrugh, Document(s)

Register, No. 1732.

C115/101

Muniments of the Duchess of Norfolk.

M. 21, No. 7631

• ElQ 228: Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Elizabeths Armada speech to the Troops at Tilbury, August 9, 1588

Copy, in a predominantly secretary hand, headed ‘The oration or speech that Queene Elizabeth made to the soldiers in her Campe at Tylbury in August 1688’ [sic], here beginning ‘My good people I have byn warned by some...’, subscribed ‘Queene Elizabeths speech at Tilbury Anno 1686’ [sic], on two conjugate folio leaves. Mid-17th century.

This MS recorded in Selected Works, p. 81.

Beginning ‘My loving people, I have been persuaded by some that are careful of my safety to take heed. how I committed myself to armed multitudes...’. Collected Works, Speech 19, pp. 325-6. Selected Works, Speech 10, pp. 77-83. The Queen's authorship supported in J.E. Neale, Essays in Elizabethan History (London, 1958), pp. 103-6.

M 21, No. 7632

• RaW 959: Sir Walter Ralegh, Letter(s)

Copy of a letter by Ralegh, to his wife, from St Christopher, 22 March 1617/18, in a secretary hand, on two conjugate quarto leaves. c.1630s.

M 21, No. 7633

• RaW 960: Sir Walter Ralegh, Letter(s)

Copy of a letter by Ralegh, to Sir Robert Carr, 1608, on two conjugate folio leaves.

CO 137/12/72

Autograph letter signed, to the Secretary of the Board of Trade, from Ashley, 5 October 1717. 1717.

*CgW 101: William Congreve, Letter(s)

Hodges, No. 83. McKenzie, III, 182 (Letter 62)

Conventual Leases (Essex 46)

Heywood's signature on a lease, 20 February 1538/9. 1539.

*HyJ 23: John Heywood, Document(s)

Discussed in A. W. Reed, Early Tudor Drama (London, 1926), pp. 35-7, 237-8, with a facsimile example facing p. 124.

REQ 4/1/4/1 (Court of Requests: William Shakespeare: Documents)

Shakespeare's signature, in a cursive secretary hand, on a deposition in the case of Belott versus Mountjoy, 11 May 1612. Twenty-five other documents relating to the case, many mentioning Shakespeare, are REQ 4/1/3. 1612.

*ShW 125: William Shakespeare, Document(s)

Facsimile in S. Schoenbaum, William Shakespeare: A Documentary Life (New York, 1975), p. 212.

E 36/228/7-8

Autograph, untitled, subscribed ‘Per me laurigerum britonu skeltonida Vatem:’, on two conjugate folio leaves, once folded as a letter or packet, endorsed ‘A lawde and prayse made for our Sovereigne Lord the Kyng’, probably the MS presented to Henry VIII in 1509. c.1509.

*SkJ 6: John Skelton, A Lawde and Prayse Made for Our Souereigne Lord the Kyng (‘The Rose both White and Rede’)

Edited from this MS in Dyce and in Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII, ed. J. S. Brewer, Vol. II, Part II (London, 1864), p. 1518.

Complete facsimile and transcript in Croft, Autograph Poetry, I, 6-8. Facsimile examples in William Nelson, John Skelton, Laureate (New York, 1939), p. 164; in Maurice Pollet, John Skelton, trans. John Warrington (London, 1971), after p. 62; in John Skelton, The Book of the Laurel, ed. F. W. Brownlow (Newark, Delaware, 1990), p. 26; in DLB, vol. 136, Sixteenth-Century British Non-Dramatic Writers. Second Series, ed. David A. Richardson (Detroit, 1994), p. 306; and in Henry VIII Man and Monarch, ed. Susan Doran (British Library, London, 2009), p. 62.

Canon, C35, p. 11. First published in Dyce (1843), I, ix-xi. Scattergood, pp. 110-12.

E 134/MISC/2478, in box 2363-2536

‘Articles to be inquired of executed and p[er]formed for and on the behalf of her ma^tie in the Counties of Staff warwick and Oxford’, inquiring about outstanding debts to the Queen of Sir John Throckmorton deceased and George Puttenham, in seventeen several bonds of £40, the document signed by Sir John Fortescue, Chancellor of the Exchequer, on one membrane of vellum, [undated, but between 1589 and 1603]. c.1589-1603.

PtG 207: George Puttenham, Document(s)

E 322/16/191

An official document signed by Leland, 20 May 1545.

*LeJ 101: John Leland, Document(s)

Recorded in Letters and Papers Foreign and Domestic of Henry VIII, Vol. XX, part 1 (1905), No. 776.

KB 33/24/8

Official enrolled copy of an indictment of Thomas Betterton's company for profane or obscene expressions.

[no page numbers]

• VaJ 14: Sir John Vanbrugh, The Provok'd Wife

Extracts from an early acting version of the play, as performed at Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre, on two membranes of vellum.

This MS discussed and extracts quoted in Joseph Wood Krutch, Comedy and Conscience after the Restoration (New York, 1924), pp. 171-2, and in T.C. Duncan Eaves and Ben D. Kimpel, ‘The Text of Congreve's Love for Love’, The Library, 5th Ser. 30 (1975), 334-6.

First published in London, 1697. Works, I, 103-92.

[no page numbers]

• CgW 62: William Congreve, Love for Love

Extracts from an early acting text of the play, as performed on 26 December 1700 at Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre, on two skins of vellum.

This MS discussed and extracts printed in T.C. Duncan Eaves and Ben D. Kimpel, ‘The Text of Congreve's Love for Love’, The Library, 5th Ser. 30 (1975), 334-6.

First published in London, 1695. Summers, II, 79-171. Davis, pp. 208-316. McKenzie, I, 247-391.

LC 7/2, f. 1r

Agreement between Vanbrugh and Owen Swiney concerning the Haymarket Theatre, the text entirely in Vanbrugh's hand and signed by him and Swiney, 14 August 1706. 1706.

*VaJ 403: Sir John Vanbrugh, Document(s)

Edited in Coke Papers, p. 7. Recorded by Milhous and Hume in TN, 35 (1981), p. 77. Register, No. 1860.

LC 7/2, f. 2r

Agreement between Vanbrugh and Wilks, in a professional hand and signed by both men, 15 August 1706. 1706.

*VaJ 404: Sir John Vanbrugh, Document(s)

Recorded by Milhous and Hume in TN, 35 (1981), 77. Register, No. 1861.

LC 7/2, f. 3r

Agreement between Vanbrugh and Mrs Oldfield, in a professional hand and signed by both Vanbrugh and by Mrs Oldfield, 15 August 1706. 1706.

*VaJ 406: Sir John Vanbrugh, Document(s)

Recorded by Milhous and Hume in TN, 35 (1981), 77. Register, No. 1862.

LC 7/2, f. 4r

Agreement between Vanbrugh and Henry Norris, in a professional hand and signed by both men, 15 August 1706. 1706.

*VaJ 405: Sir John Vanbrugh, Document(s)

Recorded by Milhous and Hume in TN, 35 (1981), 77. Register, No. 1863.

LC 7/2, f. 5r

Agreement between Vanbrugh and John Mills, in a professional hand and signed by Mills only, 20 August 1706. 1706.

VaJ 407: Sir John Vanbrugh, Document(s)

Recorded by Milhous and Hume in TN, 35 (1981), 77. Register, No. 1864.

LC 7/2, f. 6r

Agreement between Vanbrugh and William Bullock, in a professional hand and signed by Bullock only, 20 August 1706. 1706.

VaJ 408: Sir John Vanbrugh, Document(s)

Recorded by Milhous and Hume in TN, 35 (1981), 77. Register, No. 1865.

LC 7/2, f. 7r

Agreement between Vanbrugh and Theophilus Keen, in a professional hand and signed by Keen only, 20 August 1706. 1706.

VaJ 409: Sir John Vanbrugh, Document(s)

Recorded by Milhous and Hume in TN, 35 (1981), 77. Register, No. 1866.

LC 7/2, f. 8r

Agreement between Vanbrugh and Thomas Newman, in a professional hand and signed by Newman only, 20 August 1706. 1706.

VaJ 410: Sir John Vanbrugh, Document(s)

Recorded by Milhous and Hume in TN, 35 (1981), 77. Register, No. 1867.

LC 7/3, Part 1, f. 98r-v

‘M^r Vanbrughs proposall’ concerning actresses' salaries, in the hand of Sir John Stanley, [spring 1706]. 1706.

VaJ 402: Sir John Vanbrugh, Document(s)

Recorded by Milhous and Hume in TN, 35 (1981), 83.

LC 7/3, Part I, ff. 130r-1v

Autograph letter signed by Vanbrugh, to [? Thomas Coke, Vice-Chamberlain], from Whitehall, 6 July 1714. 1714.

*VaJ 192: Sir John Vanbrugh, Letter(s)

Edited in Albert Rosenberg, ‘New Light on Vanbrugh’, PQ, 45 (1966), 603-13 (p. 609). Recorded by Milhous and Hume in TN, 35 (1981), 84. Register, No. 2424.

LC 7/3, Part I, ff. 132r-132A

Autograph letter signed by Vanbrugh, to [? Thomas Coke, Vice-Chamberlain], 13 August 1714. 1714.

*VaJ 193: Sir John Vanbrugh, Letter(s)

Edited in Albert Rosenberg, ‘New Light on Vanbrugh’, PQ, 45 (1966), 603-13 (pp. 609-10). Recorded by Milhous and Hume in TN, 35 (1981), 84. Register, No. 2427.

LC 7/3, Part I, ff. 135r-6v

Autograph letter signed by Vanbrugh, to [? Thomas Coke, Vice-Chamberlain, or Sir John Stanley]. 27 December 1714. 1714.

*VaJ 196: Sir John Vanbrugh, Letter(s)

Edited in Albert Rosenberg, ‘New Light on Vanbrugh’, PQ, 45 (1966), 603-13 (p. 610). Recorded by Milhous and Hume in TN, 35 (1981), 84. Register, No. 2491.

LC 7/3, Part II, ff. 169r-72r

Memorandum [? to Thomas Coke, Vice Chamberlain] on the history of Vanbrugh's agreement with Owen Swiney, in a professional hand and signed by Vanbrugh (f. 169r), with professional copies of related letters by Lord Shrewsbury and Colley Cibber (ff. 169v-70r) and Vanbrugh's autograph copies of letters by Swiney (ff. 171-2), [c.February 1714/15]. 1715.

*VaJ 481: Sir John Vanbrugh, Document(s)

Edited in Albert Rosenberg, ‘New Light on Vanbrugh’, PQ, 45 (1966), 603-13 (p. 609), and in Coke Papers, pp. 233-6. Recorded by Milhous and Hume in TN, 35 (1981), 122. Register, No. 2506.

LC 7/3, Part II, ff. 179r-80r

Autograph memorandum by Vanbrugh explaining why he denied Rich the right to produce plays, [c. August 1706]. 1706.

*VaJ 411: Sir John Vanbrugh, Document(s)

Edited in Coke Papers, pp. 9-10 (No. 5). Register, No. 1856.

LCCRO E/WOO/1

Purchase by Vanbrugh from Woolley of ground for the Haymarket Theatre, [1703]. 1703.

VaJ 389: Sir John Vanbrugh, Document(s)

Recorded in 1984 by Graham Barlow: see Register, No. 1731.

LR 1/282, ff. 190r-1r

Copy of Vanbrugh's indenture assigning the Haymarket Theatre to Charles Vanbrugh, 13 October 1720. c.1720.

VaJ 512: Sir John Vanbrugh, Document(s)

Register, No. 3031.

LR2/124, ff. 75r-88v

‘A true Inventory of y^e Goods that are in the Tower Wardrobe’, signed at the end by Wither as member of the Committee of Trustees for the Sale of the Late King's Goods. c.1649.

*WiG 62: George Wither, Inventories

Edited in Millar, pp. 1-19.

LR2/124, f. 90r-v

‘A true inventory of the plate now being in the Jewell=house of Whitehall in the Custody of M^r Carew Mildmay taken the 31^th of July. 1649’, signed at the end by Wither as member of the Committee of Trustees for the Sale of the Late King's Goods. 1649.

*WiG 63: George Wither, Inventories

Edited in Millar, pp. 20-1.

LR2/124, ff. 193v-6r

‘Goods belonging to y^e late King vallued as followeth’, signed near the end by Wither as member of the Committee of Trustees for the Sale of the Late King's Goods. c.1649.

*WiG 64: George Wither, Inventories

Edited in Millar, pp. 322-6.

PC 2/10: Vol. II, p. 5

Copy of an order by the Council in the Privy Council Registers, agreeing, with sureties of £200, to allow Puttenham, currently prisoner in the Fleet, to appear at Winchester Assizes, 15 June 1570. 1570.

PtG 53: George Puttenham, Document(s)

Dasent, VII, 364.

PC 2/10: Vol. II, p. 253

Copy of an order by the Council, in the Privy Council Register, commanding the Warden of the Fleet prison to pay Puttenham £20 due to him, 22 July 1574. 1574.

PtG 66: George Puttenham, Document(s)

Dasent, VIII, 274.

PC 2/10: Vol. II, pp. 394

Copy of a letter by the Council, in the Privy Council Registers, informing the Dean of the Arches of Lady Windsor's suit with her husband George Puttenham and her state of destitution, 31 October 1575. 1575.

PtG 71: George Puttenham, Document(s)

Dasent, IX, 39-40.

PC 2/10: Vol. II, p. 444.

Copy of a letter by the Council, in the Privy Council Registers, ordering Puttenham to obey the Court of Arches decree to pay his wife Lady Windsor £3 a week from the end of May until 18 November or else to appear before the Council to answer cause to the contrary.12 March 1575/6. 1576.

PtG 72: George Puttenham, Document(s)

Dasent, IX, 96.

PC 2/11: Vol. III, p. 5

Copy of a letter by the Council, in the Privy Council Registers, requiring the Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop of London to settle the dispute between Puttenham and his wife, ‘for that the Ladies case seemeth Lamentable and her husbandes dealinge[s] extreme considering he hath all his Livinge[s] by her’, 20 April 1576. 1576.

PtG 74: George Puttenham, Document(s)

Dasent, IX, 107.

PC 2/11: Vol. III, p. 32

Copy of a letter by the Council, in the Privy Council Registers, ordering Puttenham to pay his wife £112, ‘wh[i]ch he hath heretofore contemptuouslie refused to do’, or else appear before the Council, ‘and not to faile in any wise as he will aunswer to the contrarie at his p[er]ill’, 19 June 1576. 1576.

PtG 76: George Puttenham, Document(s)

Dasent, IX, 144.

PC 2/11: Vol. III, p. 36

Report, in the Privy Ciuncil registers, concerning Puttenham's willingness to defend himself in Star Chamber against the accusation that he unlawfully conveyed lands from Lady Windsor and without recourse to the Queen's pardon, 24 June 1578. 1576.

PtG 96: George Puttenham, Document(s)

Dasent, IX, 148.

PC 2/12: Vol. IV, p. 202

Order by the Council, in the Privy Council Registers, to seek advice of the Master of the Rolls with respect to Lady Windsor's petition, 15 June 1578. 1578.

PtG 93: George Puttenham, Document(s)

Dasent, X, 255.

PC 2/12: Vol. IV, pp. 205

Order by the Council, in the Privy Council Registers, for apprehending Puttenham and his servant John Cressett, 23 June 1578. 1578.

PtG 94: George Puttenham, Document(s)

Dasent, X, 260.

PC 2/12, Vol. IV, pp. 277-8

Order, in the Privy Council Registers, notifying the Attorney General that they are ‘moved with compassion’ for Lady Windsor and granting Puttenham twenty days to retrieve £120 from Lord Windsor before he appears before the Council, 26 October 1578. 1578.

PtG 98: George Puttenham, Document(s)

Dasent, X, 355-6. Quoted in Willis, p. 454.

PC 2/12: Vol. IV, p. 287

A letter by Sir John Throckmorton, in the Privy Council Registers, about deferred payment of £220 to Puttenham. 21 October 1578. 1578.

PtG 99: George Puttenham, Document(s)

Dasent, X, 363.

PC 2/12: Vol. IV, pp. 294-5

A letter by the Council, in the Privy Council Registers, to Sir John Throckmorton, notifying him of their requiring him or Puttenham to appear before the Council in order to bring ‘some order’ into the Lady Windsor dispute, 6 November 1578. 1578.

PtG 102: George Puttenham, Document(s)

Dasent, X, 375-6. Quoted in Willis, pp. 454-5.

PC 2/12: Vol. IV, p. 344

A letter by the Council, in the Privy Council Registers, requesting Dr Lewes and others to ascertain what is owed to Lady Windsor by Puttenham, 8 December 1578. 1578.

PtG 105: George Puttenham, Document(s)

Dasent, X, 430.

PC 2/12: Vol. IV, p. 348

Warrant by the Council, in the Privy Council Registers, for the Keeper of the Gatehouse, Westminster, to receive Puttenham into custody, 23 December 1578. 1578.

PtG 110: George Puttenham, Document(s)

Dasent, X, 435. Quoted in Willis, p. 455.

PC 2/12: Vol. IV, p. 411

Order by the Council, in the Privy Council Registers, to deliver the disputed lands of Puttenham to John Paulet, 1 March 1578/9. 1579.

PtG 144: George Puttenham, Document(s)

Dasent, XI, 61.

PC 2/12: Vol. IV, p. 479

Council proceedings, entered in Robert Beale's hand: in the Privy Council Registers, about investigating the dealings of Puttenham and Sir John Throckmorton, 17 May 1579. 1579.

PtG 146: George Puttenham, Document(s)

Dasent, XI, 129-30.

PC 2/12: Vol. IV, pp. 527, 538

The Council's settlement of Lady Windsor's case against Puttenham, in the Privy Council Registers, 13 July 1579. 1579.

PtG 152: George Puttenham, Document(s)

Dasent, XI, 168.

PC 2/12: Vol. IV, p. 540

Autograph agreement signed by George Puttenham (‘Geo. putenham~’), countersigned by his former wife Elizabeth Lady Windsor (‘Elizabethe wenser’), for a settlement between them, specifying his allowances to her and overseeing by Sir John Trockmorton or someone else appointed by the Council, Puttenham's text considerably emended in the hand of Lord Burghley, who has also added the names of the Lords of the Council; on one folio page, tipped into Volume IV of the Privy Council Registers, Greenwich, 13 July 1579. 1579.

*PtG 151: George Puttenham, Document(s)

Dasent, XI, 188-9.

PC 2/12: Vol. IV, p. 653

Council proceedings, in the Privy Council Registers, wanting Throckmorton to find out why the agreed settlement by Puttenham was not performed, [c.1579-81]. c.1579-81.

PtG 157: George Puttenham, Document(s)

Dasent, XI, 299.

PC 2/13: Vol. V, p. 427

A letter by the Council, in the Privy Council registers, requesting the Judges Delegate to help Lady Windsor to get the relief due to her, 19 June 1581. 1581.

PtG 182: George Puttenham, Document(s)

Dasent, X, 93.

PC 2/13: Vol. V, p. 482

A letter by the Council, in the Privy Council Registers, ordering Puttenham to settle Lady Windsor's complaints or answer to the Council, 7 August 1581. 1581.

PtG 183: George Puttenham, Document(s)

Dasent, XIII, 162.

PC 2/13: Vol. V, pp. 516-17

Letter by the Council, in the Privy Council Registers, requesting commissioners to investigate or settle the Puttenham-Windsor dispute relating to the Herriard estate, 11 September 1581. 1581.

PtG 185: George Puttenham, Document(s)

Dasent, XIII, 203-4.

PC 2/86, p. 104

A summary in official minutes of a petition by Congreve to the Board of Trade, 9 February 1717/18. 1718.

CgW 102: William Congreve, Letter(s)

Hodges, No. 86.

PRO 30/53/1/81

A letter subscribed and signed by Dudley Carleton, the text in Carew's hand, to Edward Herbert in Paris, from The Hague, 5 October 1619 NS.

*CwT 1296: Thomas Carew, Letter(s)

PRO 30/53/1/97

A letter subscribed and signed by Dudley Carleton, most of the last page in his hand, the rest in Carew's hand, [to Edward Herbert], from The Hague, 9 November 1619 NS.

*CwT 1297: Thomas Carew, Letter(s)

PRO 30/53/7/8 (f. 15)

Autograph letter signed, to Sir Edward Herbert, 23 January 1614/15. 1615.

*DnJ 4122: John Donne, Letter(s)

Edited in Hayward, pp. 465-6.

PRO 30/53/7/37-38

Autograph letter signed by Habington, to Lady Herbert, endorsed as received 1 February 1645/6.

*HaW 52: William Habington, Letter(s)

PRO 30/53/9, No. 6

A folio volume of antiquarian tracts and papers relating to the Earl Marshall and duels, entirely in the hand of Ralph Starkey (c.1569-1628), antiquary, 46 leaves, imperfect, disbound.

From papers of the Herbert family, of Powis Castle.

ff. 16r-30r

• HoH 65: Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, Duello Foiled

Copy, in Starkey's hand.

A discourse, with a dedicatory epistle to ‘my very good Lord’, beginning ‘Reasons moving me to write this thing which handleth not the whole matter...’, the tract beginning ‘The two parties between whom this single fight was appointed...’. Published in Thomas Hearne, A Collection of Curious Discourses written by Eminent Antiquaries (London, 1771), II, 223-42, where it is attributed to Sir Edward Coke. It is not certain whether this tract is by Howard or simply annotated by him as a reader.

PRO 30/53/9, No. 10

A folio composite sheaf of autograph writings by Edward, Lord Herbert of Cherbury, 25 leaves, sewn but unbound. c.1625.

From papers of the Herbert family, of Powis Castle.

f. 1r

• *HrE 8: Edward, Lord Herbert of Cherbury, Echo in a Church (‘Where shall my troubled soul, at large’)

Autograph draft with copious revisions.

This MS discussed in Rossi, III, 389-91. Facsimile in IELM, I.ii, after p. 169, Facsimile XIX.

First published in Occasional Verses (1665). Moore Smith, pp. 47-8.

f. 2r

• *HrE 8.3: Edward, Lord Herbert of Cherbury, Echo in a Church (‘Where shall my troubled soul, at large’)

Autograph draft with some revisions.

This MS discussed in Rossi, III, 389-91.

First published in Occasional Verses (1665). Moore Smith, pp. 47-8.

ff. 3r-20r

• *HrE 93: Edward, Lord Herbert of Cherbury, Advice to the King during the War with Spain

Autograph draft, with copious revisions, of a memorial to the King, 1624.

This MS discussed in Rossi, II, 407-16, and III, 542.

Unpublished.

ff. 21r-2v

• HrE 113: Edward, Lord Herbert of Cherbury, De veritate

Autograph draft, headed ‘A designe for a perpetuall entertainment of about 15000 Foote and 3000 Horse for his Ma^ties service’. 14 February [1624/5].

Edited from this MS in Rossi, III, 484-6.

First published in Paris, 1624. Translated by Meyrick H. Carré (Bristol, 1937). Facsimile of the London edition of 1645 introduced by Günter Gawlick (Stuttgart, 1966).

f. 25v

• *HrE 8.5: Edward, Lord Herbert of Cherbury, Echo in a Church (‘Where shall my troubled soul, at large’)

Autograph draft, with some revisions.

This MS discussed in Rossi, III, 389-91.

First published in Occasional Verses (1665). Moore Smith, pp. 47-8.

PROB 1/literary wills

Thomas Southerne's last will and testament, 6 November 1731, proved 3 June 1746.

SuT 10: Thomas Southerne, Will

Edited in Jordan & Love, II, 432-3.

PROB 1/4

Shakespeare's last will and testament, in the cursive secretary hand of a legal clerk or scrivener, signed by Shakespeare in a shaky hand three times on three separate pages, the last ‘By me William Shakspeare’, dated 25 March 1616, proved 22 June 1616. 1616.

ShW 128: William Shakespeare, Will

Facsimiles in S. Schoenbaum, William Shakespeare: A Documentary Life (New York, 1975), pp. 243-5; in William Shakespeare: A Documentary Volume, ed. Catherine Loomis, DLB, 263 (Detroit, 2002), pp. 245-7; and elsewhere.

PROB 1/5

Donne's last will and testament, made 13 December 1630, proved 5 April 1631. 1630.

DnJ 4154: John Donne, Will

The text edited in Bald, Life, pp. 563-7.

PROB 1/9

Pepys's last will and testament, originally written 2 August 1701, with codicils dated 12-13 May 1703, proved 25 June 1703. 1703.

*PpS 16: Samuel Pepys, Will

Edited in H.B. Wheatley, Pepysiana (London, 1899), pp. 251-70.

PROB 1/33

Bacon's last will and testament, signed by him 19 December 1625, proved 13 July 1627. 1626.

*BcF 654: Francis Bacon, Will

The text printed in Spedding, XIV, 539-45.

Spedding, XIV, 228-9.

PROB 1/36

Herbert's last will and testament, in the hand of his curate, Nathaniel Bostocke, and signed by Herbert, dated 25 February 1632/3, and proved 12 March 1632/3. 1633.

*HrG 330.5: George Herbert, Will

Edited in Hutchinson, pp. 382-3.

PROB 1/47

Walton's autograph last Will and testament, begun 9 August and finished and signed before witnesses on 24 October 1683, proved 4 February 1683/4. 1683.

*WtI 37: Izaak Walton, Will

Edited (with errors) in Nicolas, I, ciii-cviii. Reprinted in Keynes (1929), pp. 605-9. Edited from the original in Ernest G. Marriott, Izaak Walton 1593-1683 (London, 1987), pp. 17-20. Unfolding facsimile in The Compleat Angler, ed. George A. B. Dewar, 2 vols (London, 1902), after p. xliv.

PROB 1/55

Evelyn's autograph last will and testament, proved 18 March 1705.

*EvJ 227: John Evelyn, Will

PROB 10/154

Puttenham's last will and testament, entirely in the hand of a scribe, bequeathing all his goods and chattels, including his bille[s] bonnde[s] ‘obligac[i]ions’, to ‘Marye Sym[m]es wydowe his servaunt…for the good service she did hym’, written in the presence of Sebastian Archebold scrivener, James Clerke, William Johnson ‘and dyvers others’, ‘aboute the fyrste day of September Anno d[omi]ni 1590’; proved according to a subsequent inscription in Latin, 14 October 1594. 1594.

PtG 221: George Puttenham, Will

PROB 1/61

Vanbrugh's autograph last will and testament, unsigned, written, with a codicil, 30-31 August 1725 and proved 22 April 1726. 1725.

*VaJ 523: Sir John Vanbrugh, Will

PROB 10/173

Last will and testament of Richard Puttenham, entirely in the hand of a scribe, written as a ‘prisoner in her mat^ies Bench’, bequeathing all his goods to ‘my verely, reported and reputed daughter Katherin Puttenham’ and appointing ‘my trustye frinds John Armatage and John Peter’ as his ‘overseers’, witnessed by William Blithe, John Calvert, Frances Syckes, Thomas Blithe and John Peter; made 22 April 1597, proved 2 May 1597. 1597.

PtG 224: George Puttenham, Will

PROB 10/371

Daniel's autograph last will and testament, signed, dated 4 September 1619. 1619.

*DaS 64: Samuel Daniel, Will

The text edited in Sellers, p. 54.

PROB 10/388

Walton's autograph signature as witness to the will of Nicholas Hare of the Inner Temple, also witnessed by Walton's brother-in-law Thomas Grinsell, 19 December 1621. This will was proved 7 January 1621/2: a probate copy PROB 11/139/1. 1621.

*WtI 14: Izaak Walton, Document(s)

Recorded in Jonquil Bevan, Izaak Walton's The Compleat Angler The Art of Recreation (Brighton, 1988), p. 7.

PROB 10/405

Camden's last will and testament, proved 10 November 1623. 1623.

CmW 200: William Camden, Will

Camden's will edited in Hearne (1720), Appendix II, 277-80, and (1771), II, 390-2.

PROB 10/528

Marston's autograph signature on his last will and testament, drawn up on 17 June 1634, proved 9 July 1634. 1634.

*MrJ 16: John Marston, Will

The text printed in The Works of John Marston, ed. James Orchard Halliwell (London, 1856), I, viii-ix. Discussed by Robert E. Brettle in ‘John Marston, Dramatist at Oxford, 1591(?)-1594, 1609’, RES, 3 (1927), 398-405; in ‘John Marston, Dramatist: Some New Facts about his Life’, MLR, 22 (1927), 7-14; and in ‘Notes on John Marston’, RES, NS 13 (1962), 390-3.

PROB 10/541

Corbett's last will and testament, signed by him twice, dated 7 July 1635; proved 5 September 1635. 1635.

*CoR 804: Richard Corbett, Will

PROB 10/602

Burton's autograph last will and testament, with his revisions, dated 15 August 1639, proved 11 May 1640.

*BuR 11: Robert Burton, Will

Edited and discussed in Nicolas K. Kiessling, ‘Robert Burton's Will Holograph Copy’, RES, NS 41 (February 1990), 94-101. Complete facsimile in Nicolas K. Kiessling's exhibition catalogue The Legacy of Democritus Junior (Bodleian Library, 1990), Plates VII-IX, pp. 22-4.

PROB 10/697

Herbert's last will and testament, proved October 1648. 1648.

HrE 147: Edward, Lord Herbert of Cherbury, Will

PROB 10/837

Hall's partly autograph and signed last will and testament, dated 21 July 1654, emended on 7 September 1656, and proved 18 September 1656. 1656.

*HlJ 139: Joseph Hall, Will

Wynter, I, lxxvii-lxxxi.

PROB 10/993

Shirley's last will and testament, entirely autograph, with copious revisions, and signed by Shirley (‘James Shirley’), on four large broadsheets, July 1666, proved 6 November 1666. A registered copy is National Archives, Kew, PROB 11/319-22.

*ShJ 211: James Shirley, Will

Edited (incomplete and with inaccuracies) in Arthur Huntington Nason, James Shirley, Dramatist (New York, 1915), pp. 158-60. Facsimile pages are in Greg, English Literary Autographs, Plate XCV(b-c), and in IELM, II.ii (1993), Facsimile XII, after p. xxi.

PROB 10/1024

Denham's last will and testament, signed by him, 13 March 1668/9, proved 9 May 1670. 1669.

*DeJ 140: Sir John Denham, Will

Edited in Wills from Doctors' Commons, ed. John Gough Nichols and John Bruce, Camden Society No. 83 (1863), pp. 119-23, C ited in O Hehir, Harmony, pp. 253, 256.

PROB 10/1058

The last will and testament of John Beaumont, Agnes Beaumont's father, signed by her as a witness, made 15 August 1670, proved 30 May 1674. 1670.

*BmA 4: Agnes Beaumont, Will

Recorded in Patricia L. Bell, ‘Agnes Beaumont of Edworth’, Bunyan Studies: Bunyan and his Times, 10 (2001/2). 7-28 (pp. 12 and 27 n. 8).

PROB 10/1059

Autograph signature of Traherne (‘Tho. Traherne’)as witness to the will of his patron, Sir Orlando Bridgeman, 19 February 1673/4, proved 15 July 1674. A registered copy (unsigned) is PROB 11/345/83. 1674.

*TrT 251: Thomas Traherne, Document(s)

Recorded in Gladys Wade, Thomas Traherne (Princeton, 1944), p. 103.

PROB 10/1061

Traherne's noncupative will, bequeathing, among other things, ‘All my books…to my brother Phillip’, drawn up after his death and witnessed by Alice Coxson, Mary Linum, John Berdoe and K. Digby Jr, 27 September 1674, proved 22 October 1674.

TrT 252: Thomas Traherne, Will

PROB 10/1181

Autograph last will and testament signed by More, 12 June 1686. 1686.

*MoH 27: Henry More, Will

PROB 10/1182

A registered copy of Waller's last will and testament, entirely in a professional hand, 19 June 1686, with a separate codicil dated 2 July 1687, and proved 7 November 1687. 1687.

WaE 861: Edmund Waller, Will

PROB 10/1238

Shadwell's last will and testament, entirely autograph and signed by him, [1690], proved 13 December 1692. Edited in Summers, I, ccxxxv-ccxxxvi, with a complete unfolding facsimile after p. ccxxx. It is is accompanied by a probate deposition signed by Ellenor Leigh on 13 December 1692, certifying that Shadwell wrote the Will ‘between Bartholomew=tide and Michaelmas 1690’. This is edited in Summers, I, ccxxxv (where it is misdated ‘3, December’), with an unfolding facsimile before p. ccxxxi. 1690.

*SdT 62: Thomas Shadwell, Will

PROB 10/1265

Halifax's last will and testament signed by him, proved 17 April 1695. 1695.

*HaG 73: George Savile, First Marquess of Halifax, Will

PROB 10/1343

Sedley's Last Will and Testament, the text in the hand of a clerk or scrivener and signed by Sedley, proved 30 August 1701. 1701.

*SeC 143: Sir Charles Sedley, Will

Edited in Sola Pinto, Life, pp. 315-18.

PROB 10/1530

Wycherley's last Will and Testament, the text in the hand of a scrivener and signed in a shaky hand by Wycherley the day before his death, 31 December 1715, proved 13 January 1715/16. 1715.

*WyW 32: William Wycherley, Will

PROB 11/31, f. 110

Probate copy of Elyot's last will and testament, 1546. 1546.

ElT 15: Thomas Elyot, Will

PROB 11/35 (f. 130r-v) and 11/36 (ff. 73v-4r)

Registered copies of Barclay's last will and testament, dated 10 June 1552 and 13 May 1553. 1552-3.

BaA 2: Alexander Barclay, Will

PROB 11/73 (ff. 55-6)

A registered copy of Sidney's last will and testament. c.1580s.

SiP 232: Sir Philip Sidney, Will

Edited in Duncan-Jones & Van Dorsten, pp. 147-52.

PROB 11/78, s. 127

A registered copy of Hoskyns's last will and testament, dated 31 January 1635[/6].

*HoJ 394: John Hoskyns, Will

Osborn, pp. 241-2

PROB 11/84/69

A registered copy of Puttenham's last will and testament, which was written c.1 September 1590 and proved 10 October 1594. 1594.

PtG 222: George Puttenham, Will

PROB 11/89/39

A registered copy of the last will and testament of Richard Puttenham, made 22 April 1597, proved 2 May 1597. 1597.

PtG 225: George Puttenham, Will

PROB 11/135

A registered copy (on f. 94) of Daniel's last will and testament, proved 1 February 1619/20. 1620.

DaS 65: Samuel Daniel, Will

PROB 11/142 (ff. 351v-2r)

A registered copy of Camden's last will and testament, proved 10 November 1623. 1623.

CmW 201: William Camden, Will

Camden's will edited in Hearne (1720), Appendix II, 277-80, and (1771), II, 390-2.

PROB 11/147, sig. 142

A registered copy of Gorges's last will and testament, proved 27 December 1625.

GgA 146: Sir Arthur Gorges, Will

PROB 11/150, f. 109, 11/151, ff. 23-4

A registered copy of Andrewes's last will and testament, dated 16 February 1626/7. 1627.

AndL 96: Lancelot Andrewes, Will

Edited in LACT, Minor Works (1854), pp. c-cxix.

PROB 11/152, f. 78

A registered copy of Bacon's last will and testament, 19 December 1625, proved 13 July 1627. 1626.

BcF 655: Francis Bacon, Will

Spedding, XIV, 228-9.

PROB 11/163/204

A registered copy of Herbert's last will and testament, in a professional hand, proved 12 March 1632/3. 1633.

HrG 330.8: George Herbert, Will

PROB 11/166/71

A registered copy of Marston's last will and testament, 9 July 1634. 1634.

MrJ 17: John Marston, Will

PROB 11/169

A registered copy of Corbett's last will and testament, dated 7 July 1635, proved 5 September 1635. 1635.

CoR 805: Richard Corbett, Will

PROB 11/183 (f. 56)

Probate copy of Burton's last will and testament. 1640.

BuR 12: Robert Burton, Will

Edited from this MS in Publications of the Oxford Bibliographical Society, 1 (1926), 218-20, and in Paul Jordan-Smith's edition of Philosophaster (Stanford, 1931), pp. 275-7.

PROB 11/197

A registered copy of Martha Moulsworth's last will and testament, 19 July 1646. 1646.

MhM 2: Martha Moulsworth, Will

Edited in ‘The Muses Females Are’: Martha Moulsworth and Other Women Writers of the English Renaissance, ed. Robert C. Evans and Anne C. Little (West Cornwall, CT, 1995), pp. 221-4.

PROB 11/243/36

A registered copy of Anne Venn's last will and testament, made 19 November 1653, proved 26 January 1654/5. 1655.

VeA 1: Anne Venn, Will

Unpublished.

PROB 11/258 (ff. 161-3)

Probate copy of Hall's last will and testament, made by him on 21 July 1654, emended 7 September 1656, and proved 18 September 1656.

HlJ 140: Joseph Hall, Will

PROB 11/318/159

A registered copy of Earles's last will and testament, proved 18 December 1665. 1665.

EaJ 112: John Earle, Bishop of Worcester and Salisbury, Will

Cited in Darwin, p. 237.

PROB 11/319-22

A registered copy of Shirley's last will and testament, July 1666, proved 6 November 1666. 1666.

ShJ 212: James Shirley, Will

PROB 11/331/136

A registered copy of King's last will and testament, 14 July 1653, proved 16 November 1669. 1669.

KiH 828: Henry King, Will

Edited in Hannah, pp. cviii-cxiv.

PROB 11/332/57

A registered copy of Denham's last will and testament of 13 March 1668/9, proved 9 May 1670. c.1670.

DeJ 141: Sir John Denham, Will

PROB 11/346/119

A registered copy of Traherne's noncupative will, 27 September 1674, proved 22 October 1674. c.1674.

TrT 253: Thomas Traherne, Will

Edited from this copy in Dobell (1903), pp. 167-8. Reprinted in Margoliouth, I, xxvi-xxvii.

PROB 11/375

Probate copy of Katherine Austen's last will and testament. 1683.

AuK 2: Katherine Austen, Will

PROB 11/389/172

A registered confirmation of the codical, made on 2 July 1687, to Waller's last will and testament dated 19 June 1686, proved 7 November 1687. 1687.

WaE 862: Edmund Waller, Will

PROB 11/388/127

A registered copy of More's last will and testament of 12 June 1686, proved 2 [or 22] October 1687. 1687.

MoH 28: Henry More, Will

Edited in Nicolson, pp. 481-3.

PROB 11/389/163

Registered copy of Waller's last will and testament, 19 June 1686, with a separate codicil dated 2 July 1687, and proved 7 November 1687. 1687.

WaE 863: Edmund Waller, Will

PROB 11/412/231

A registered copy of Shadwell's last will and testament, proved 13 December 1692. 1692.

SdT 63: Thomas Shadwell, Will

PROB 11/427 s. 152

A registered copy of Killigrew's last will and testament, dated 3 October 1695. 1695.

KiW 54: Sir William Killigrew, Will

Edited from this MS in Motten, pp. 326-7.

PROB 11/424-9

A registered copy of Halifax's last will and testament, proved 17 April 1695. 1695.

HaG 74: George Savile, First Marquess of Halifax, Will

Edited in Foxcroft, II, 264-6.

PROB 11/461/118).

A registered copy of Sedley's last will and testament, proved 30 August 1701. 1701.

SeC 144: Sir Charles Sedley, Will

PROB 11/470/97

Probate copy of Pepys's last will and testament, originally written 2 August 1701, with codicils dated 12-13 May 1703, proved 25 June 1703. 1703.

PpS 17: Samuel Pepys, Will

PROB 11/494/105

A registered copy of of Dorset's last will and testament, proved 21 April 1708. 1708.

DoC 378: Charles Sackville, Sixth Earl of Dorset, Will

PROB 11/539, f. 184v

A registered copy of the last will and testament of Elizabeth Freke, proved 15 April 1714. 1714.

FrE 6: Elizabeth Freke, Will

PROB 11/550/16

A registered copy of Wycherley's last will and testament, 31 December 1715, proved 13 January 1715/16. 1716.

WyW 33: William Wycherley, Will

PROB 11/599/194-5

A registered copy of Manley's last will and testament, made 6 October 1723 and proved 28 September 1724. 1724.

MyD 1: Delarivier Manley, Will

Edited in Daniel Hipwell, ‘Mary de la Rivière Manley’, N&Q, 7th Ser. 8 (1889), 156-7.

PROB 11/608/84

A registered copy of Vanbrugh's last will and testament, written 30-31 August 1725 and proved 22 April 1726. 1726.

*VaJ 524: Sir John Vanbrugh, Will

PROB 11/621/135

A registered copy of Congreve's last will and testament, made 26 February 1725/6, proved 3 February ‘1728’. 1728.

CgW 146: William Congreve, Will

Hodges, Letters, No. 148, pp. 254-8.

PROB 32/8/45

A registered copy of Denham's last will and testament, made 13 March 1669, proved 9 May 1669, with an inventory. 1669.

DeJ 142: Sir John Denham, Will

REQ 1/14, f. 279r-v

Petition by Richard Puttenham, after four years' imprisonment, relating to his estranged wife Mary, 3 May 1587. 1587.

PtG 199: George Puttenham, Document(s)

REQ 1/14, f. 392r-v

Petition relating to Richard Puttenham and Katherine Jenninge, widow, 6 November 1587. 1587.

PtG 200: George Puttenham, Document(s)

REQ 2/73/96, in box 1-100

Interrogatories to be administered to Francis Morris (husband of Richard Puttenham's daughter) on behalf of George Puttenham, about the circumstances of his forfeiture of £1,000 to the Queen by virtue of confiscation and Morris's stay of it and repayment of it into the Exchequer; with Francis Morris's answers signed, confirming that ‘the byll signed by her ma^tie was staied and Revokd’ by his means, on a membrane of vellum and two broadsheets, 2 December 1578. 1578.

PtG 104: George Puttenham, Document(s)

REQ 2/165/33 (in box 1-259)

John Caborne versus Richard Puttenham and John Morris relating to the manor of Sherfield, 1590. 1590.

PtG 208: George Puttenham, Document(s)

REQ 2/219/25, in box 1-95

A bill of complaint to the Queen by Richard Hartilpoole (‘a verye poor and Aged man’) about George Puttenham's unlawful removal of bedding from his house to Puttenham's dwelling house in Trinity Lane, London, about 1564-65 [September or October 1565], and his withholding for three years of a £5 annuity due to him according to his deed of 5 April 1565, [1569]; the answers of George Puttenham to Hartilpoole's bill of complaint, 17 May 1569; the replication of Hartilpoole to Puttenham's answers, 19 May 1569; interrogatoreis to be administered on behalf of Richard Hartilpoole to George Puttenham; Depositions of Edmund Walwyne, Richard Price, Richard Dyckenson and John Francis Maganza in answer to interrogatories by Puttenham, 6 June 1569; and (at the top) a warrant by the Queen and Master of Requests for the arrest and imprisonment of George Puttenham because of his disobedience, ‘To the manyfeste contempte of vs and o^r said Counsaill’, of their decree and other letters of injunction relating to Hartilpoole's bill of complaint, on five membranes of vellum and five folio pages, 24 July 1569. 1569.

PtG 47: George Puttenham, Document(s)

REQ 2/240/54 (in box 1-81)

Edmund Molinex versus Thomas Colbie and Richard Puttenham concerning the manor of Sherfield, 1584. 1584.

PtG 194: George Puttenham, Document(s)

REQ 2/251/115 (in box 1-122)

Richard Puttenham versus Thomas Hargrave and Elizabeth his wife concerning the manor of Sherfield, 1583. 1583.

PtG 192: George Puttenham, Document(s)

REQ 2/252/71, in box 1-102

A bill of complaint to the Queen by George Puttenham against John Ashe concerning money owned to him in accordance with a statute staple resulting from a bond for £400 made earlier to Ashe by Henry Pockham who had since been attainted and executed, 13 May 1564, together with the Answer of John Ashe, denying the debt, on two membranes of vellum, [1564]. 1564.

PtG 37: George Puttenham, Document(s)

REQ 2/256/75 (in box 1-82)

A lawsuit involving Richard Puttenham's estranged wife Mary Puttenham, 1591. 1591.

PtG 209: George Puttenham, Document(s)

REQ 2/276/23, in box 1-86

A bill of complaint to the Queen by Henry Thackham, who for two years had served George Puttenham ‘in thoffice of his clark and in other busynes and affaires’ at an annual salary of £10 but who had accrued in Puttenham's service expenses of £40 which Puttenham ‘w^thout respect of any vpright dealing’ had refused to pay, having also ‘by his synister practises and subtill p[er]swasions and devyces procured and allured’ Thackham in Puttenham's affairs ‘to spende and consume…the some of C [100] m[a]rke[s]’, on one membrane of vellum, [undated, c.1570s-80s]. c.1570s-80s.

PtG 174: George Puttenham, Document(s)

REQ 2/414/124, in boxes 1-157, Part 3.

A bill of complaint to King James I by ‘y^r poore and distressed subiect’ Mary Simmes, widow, administratrix of George Puttenham's Will, against Sir Richard Paulet, demanding restitution for the chattels, books and ‘diuers Evidence[s], Indentures Leases, statuts, Obligac[i]ons, bonds, bills, defesants [defeasances], certificats, and other Writings’, all ‘of a very greate valewe’, which his parents John and Katherine Paulet had violently taken away from Puttenham's lodgings in Whitefriars [in 1578], referring to the inventory of ‘Nine Leaves’ they had delivered to Puttenham's servant John Cresset about November 1579 ‘as a trew coppy’, the goods kept by the Paulets being worth £1,000 or more, and explaining how she had looked after Puttenham in his sickness, spending ‘not only the little goods she had but also her time’ in his service, being now reduced to extreme poverty; Sir Richard Paulet's lengthy answer, defending the lawfulness of his family's proceedings (in which, however, he took no part, being then only a youth) and summarising related matters concerning title, valuation and subsequent legal and financial arrangements, mentioning a letter by ‘Humfrye Moseley secondarye of woodstreet’ about a jury's valuation of ‘so many of y^e said Puttenhms goode[s]…at twentie three pounde[s] four shillinge[s] and two pence’, referring to Puttenham as ‘an ill disposed man, much bent to troubles’, who ‘as the world knoweth by keeping the plaint[iff] or other leawd women giving cause of divorce’ had ‘much abused’ Paulet's grandmother, Lady Windsor, 29 April (docketed 5 May) 1613; and Mary Simmes's replication to this answer, insisting that the goods the Paulets had originally taken were worth £5,000, referring to another inventory of certain of George Puttenham's goods left in Herriard House to the value of £2,000 or more which Richarde Paulet gave to John Cresset about November 1597, and demanding restoration or recompense, on three membranes of vellum, 4 July 1613. 1613.

PtG 217: George Puttenham, Document(s)

Recorded in Eccles, p. 109 (as Req 2/414/196).

REQ 2/414/157, in boxes 1-157

A deposition by ‘Gabriel Harvey of Walden...Essex Doctor of the lawe aged threeskore and thirteene yeres or thereaboutes’, at Saffron Walden, 12 April 1626. 1626.

*HvG 15: Gabriel Harvey, Letter(s)

Recorded in Eccles, pp. 61-2.

REQ 2/436, [unnumbered item]

A document in a professional secretary hand and signed ‘JHoskyns’, relating to a replication of Henry Hoskyns in a case relating to Launcelot Mills and his wife, on a large membrane of vellum, 3 May 1622?. 1622.

*HoJ 389: John Hoskyns, Document(s)

REQ 12/16/61

Directions by Queen Elizabeth concerning the case of Richard Puttenham, found guilty of rape, 25 April 1561. 1561.

PtG 31: George Puttenham, Document(s)

SO 3/1, f. 153v

Record in a Signet Office register on vellum of ‘A lease in Revercon graunted vnto George Puttenham esq^r of the p[ar]sonage of Marten in the County of Wiltesh^r & ye personage of S^r Botholphe w^thout Aldgate London for the terme of xl^tie, yeare[s] Rent xl^li, & noe fyne in consideracon of service Sub: by the L: T[reasu]rer, & S^r Walter Mildmay. Procured by M^r wyndebancke’, May 1588. 1588.

PtG 203: George Puttenham, Document(s)

SP 1/115 (p. 63)

Autograph letter signed by Leland, to Thomas Cromwell, 25 January 1536/7.

*LeJ 100: John Leland, Letter(s)

Edited in Letters and Papers Foreign and Domestic of Henry VIII, Vol. XII, part 1 (1890), No. 230.

SP 1/72/36-7

Autograph letter signed, to Thomas Cromwell, 18 November 1532. 1532

*ElT 4: Thomas Elyot, Letter(s)

Wilson, pp. 7-10.

SP 1/75/81

Autograph letter signed, to Sir John Hackett, 6 April 1533. 1533.

*ElT 7: Thomas Elyot, Letter(s)

Wilson, pp. 16-17.

SP 1/76/149

Autograph letter signed, to Thomas Cromwell, [April or May 1533]. 1533.

*ElT 8: Thomas Elyot, Letter(s)

Wilson, pp. 18-19.

SP 1/104/248

Autograph letter signed, to Thomas Cromwell, [Autumn 1534-Spring 1535]. 1534-35.

*ElT 11: Thomas Elyot, Letter(s)

Wilson, pp. 24-5.

SP 1/111

A folio guard-book of independent Tudor state papers, stamped foliation 1-252.

ff. 166r-71v

• *BaJ 3: John Bale, The answer of John Bale pryst vnto serten artycles vniustlye gadred vpon hys prechyng

Autograph MS, headed ‘The aswer of John Bale pryst vnto sten artycles vniustlye gadred vpo hys p^rechygs’, on nine pages of six quarto leaves, foliated in pencil 182r-7v. [January-February 1536/7].

The first page inscribed ‘Rastell / ffelde / J Bale’ and the name ‘Rastall’ also on the last page.

Edited from this MS in McCusker.

First published in McCusker (1942), pp. 6-11. Synopsis in Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII, XI (London 1888), 446-7. Recorded in Fairfield, p. 163.

SP 1/235 Part 3/242

Autograph letter signed, to Thomas Cromwell, 25 March [1528]. 1528.

*ElT 3: Thomas Elyot, Letter(s)

Wilson, p. 1.

SP 1/246

An oblong quarto music part book (bass), the lyrics in a secretary hand, occupying ff. 19-32 (pencil foliation 16-29) in a folio guardbook of independent Tudor state papers, stamped foliation 1-97. Mid-16th century.

f. 22v

• SuH 44: Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, ‘Marshall, the thinges for to attayne’

Copy of the incipit only, here ‘My friendes’, in a musical setting by John Shepherd, foliated in pencil 25v.

This MS recorded in Mumford, p. 15.

First published at the end of Book III in William Baldwin, A treatise of Morrall phylosophye (London, 1547/8). Songes and Sonettes (London, 1557). Padelford, No. 41, p. 94. Jones, pp. 34-5.

The texts discussed in J.M. Evans, ‘The Text of Surrey's “The Meanes to Attain Happy Life”’, N&Q, 228 (1983), 409-11; in W.D. McGaw, ‘The Text of Surrey's “The Meanes to Attain Happy Life” -- A Reply’, N&Q, 230 (December 1985), 456-8; and in A.S.G. Edwards, ‘Surrey's Martial Epigram: Scribes and Transmission’, EMS, 12 (2005), 74-82.

ff. 28v-9v

• SuH 46: Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, ‘O happy dames, that may embrace’

Copy, in a musical setting by John Shepherd, foliated in pencil 31v-2v.

This MS recorded in Mumford, p. 15.

First published in Songes and Sonettes (London, 1557). Padelford, No. 21, pp. 71-2. Jones, pp. 21-2. Edited, and tentatively attributed to John Harington (1520?-82), in Hughey, Harington of Stepney, pp. 131-2, 286-9.

SP 3/10/96

Autograph letter signed, to the Viscountess Lisle, 3 December [1533]. 1533.

*ElT 10: Thomas Elyot, Letter(s)

Wilson, pp. 20-1.

SP 9/7/11

Transcript of part of the Royal Society Register Book 1, in the hand of Michael Weeks, Clerk of the Royal Society.

Among the papers of Sir Joseph Williamson (1633-1701).

pp. 65-86

• EvJ 95: John Evelyn, An exact Relation of the Pico Tenariff, taken from M^r: Clappham, who had long resided in that Iland

Copy, in the hand of Michael Weeks.

SP 9/7/19

Papers of Sir Joseph Williamson (1633-1701).

pp. 158, 159-61

• HbT 87: Thomas Hobbes, A Proposition To find two meane proportionalls betweene two straight lines

Copy of HbT 82, in the hand of Michael Weeks, Clerk of the Royal Society, in his transcript of part of the Royal Society Register Book.

Formerly cited in IELM, II.i (1987) as HbT 80.

Published in Christiaan Huygens, Oeuvres Complètes, III (The Hague, 1890), 339-43.

SP 9/7/27

Transcript of part of the Royal Society Register book in the hand of Michael Weeks, Clerk of the Royal Society.

Among the papers of Sir Joseph Williamson (1633-1701).

pp. 212-17

• EvJ 90: John Evelyn, An Exact Account of the Making of Marbled Paper

Copy in the hand of Michael Weeks.

SP 9/12

An octavo volume of tracts and papers relating to the Court of Chancery, in a single predominantly secretary hand, 203 pages (plus blanks), in modern calf. c.1635-40s.

Name inscribed on flyleaf of ‘Joseph [?]Manson’.

ff. 123r-31v

• BcF 393: Francis Bacon, Speech(es)

Copy of Bacon's inaugural speech as Lord Chancellor, 7 May 1617.

ff. 170r-93v

• BcF 248.5: Francis Bacon, Ordinances in Chancery

Copy of 101 ‘Ordinances made by the Lord Chancellor...the first first day of Candlemas Terme. 1618’.

First published as Ordinances made by...Sir Francis Bacon Knight...being then Lord Chancellor For the better and more regular Administration of Iustice in the Chancery (London, 1642), beginning ‘No decree shall be reversed, altered, or explained, being once under the Great Seale...’. Spedding, VII, 755-74 (mentioning, on p. 757, having seen some ‘MSS and editions’ of this work but without specifying them or his copy-text).

SP 9/51

A double-folio-size guardbook of separate verse MSS, in various hands and sizes, 43 leaves, in modern cloth.

Among the papers of Sir Joseph Williamson (1633-1701), but possibly derived in part from the Conway Papers: see Donne, Introduction.

ff. 18r, 19r

• DnJ 1598: John Donne, An hymne to the Saints, and to Marquesse Hamylton (‘Whether that soule which now comes up to you’)

Copy, in a neat secretary hand, on the rectos of two conjugate folio leaves, once folded as a letter or packet, imperfect and lacking a title. c.1620s.

This MS discussed in Baird W. Whitlock, ‘A Note on Two Donne Manuscripts’, RN, 18 (1965), 9-11. Recorded in Shawcross and in Milgate.

First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 288-90. Shawcross, No. 154. Milgate, Epithalamions, pp. 74-5. Variorum, 6 (1995), pp. 220-1.

f. 25r

• CwT 293: Thomas Carew, A flye that flew into my Mistris her eye (‘When this Flye liv'd, she us'd to play’)

Copy, in a hand similar to that of Sir Henry Goodyer (1571-1627), on a single folio leaf, once folded as a letter or packets, imperfect and lacking a title. c.1620s-30s.

First published in Poems (1640). Dunlap, pp. 37-9. Musical setting by Henry Lawes published in The Treasury of Musick, Book 2 (London, 1669).

f. 36r

• WaE 204: Edmund Waller, Of His Majesty's Receiving the News of the Duke of Buckingham's Death (‘So earnest with thy God! can no new care’)

Copy, in an italic hand, untitled, on the first page of two conjugate folio leaves, once folded as a letter or packet. c.1630s-40s.

First published in Workes (1645). Thorn-Drury, I, 11-12.

ff. 39r-40v

• WaE 111.5: Edmund Waller, The Lady Katherine Howards Voyage and Enterteynement, aboard the Triumph by the Earle of Northumberland he being then Lord High Admirall (‘Madame / Mixt with the Greatest, a Grand Day at Court’)

Copy, in an italic hand, untitled, on two conjugate folio leaves, imperfect and lacking a title. c.late 1630s.

Edited from this MS in Raylor, with a facsimile of the first page on p. 213.

Firsr published, and attributed to Waller, in Timothy Raylor, ‘A new poem by Waller? Lady Katherine Howard, the Earl of Northumberland, and an Entertainment on board the Triumph’, EMS, 13 (2007), 211-31 (pp. 223-7). The attribution supported in John Burrows, ‘A Computational Approach to the Authorship of Lady Katherine Howard's Voyage’, EMS, 13 (2007), 232-49.

f. 43r

• DnJ 2183: John Donne, Loves Usury (‘For every houre that thou wilt spare mee now’)

Copy, with corrections, untitled, on one side of a single quarto leaf. c.1620s-30s.

First published in Poems (1633). Grierson, I, 13-14. Gardner, Elegies, p. 44. Shawcross, No. 38.

ff. 41r-2v

• JnB 576.5: Ben Jonson, An Entertainment of the King and Queen at Theobalds, 22 May 1607

Copy of an untitled 115-line version (without the prose description), in the hand of Sir Henry Goodyer (1571-1627), on two conjugate small folio leaves.once folded as a letter or packet. c.1607-20s.

First published in Workes (London, 1616). Herford & Simpson, VII, 151-8.

SP 9/55/12

Copies of five letters by Ralegh, to Sir John Gilbert the elder, 1583-91.

RaW 961: Sir Walter Ralegh, Letter(s)

SP 9/61

MS of the complete but probably unfinished work on 380 quarto leaves (pp. 1-182 of larger size than the rest), comprising 745 pages. MS of the complete but probably unfinished work on 380 quarto leaves (pp. 1-182 of larger size than the rest), comprising 745 pages (erroneously paginated 1-735), some mutilated at edges; pp. 1-196, a fair copy of the first fourteen chapters, in one hand, that of Daniel Skinner (being almost certainly a recopying of an earlier transcript by Jeremie Picard); pp. 197-735, bearing extensive alterations and rewriting, in a second hand, that of Jeremie Picard (evidently the original copier of the whole work), but for pp. 183-96, 308, 571-4, which are entirely in Daniel Skinner's hand, with numerous recopying (of less legible portions of Picard's MS) in Skinner's hand elsewhere, sometimes on pasted-on slips in the margin (most notably on pp. 206, 222, 235, 247, 281-2, 304, 311, 328, 350, 353, 362, 381, 411, 461A, 472, 475, 486-7, 490, 506, 552, 559, 596, 617, 642, 686 [verso], 703), with additions probably in several other hands throughout; Picard's portion probably written earlier (post 1659) and Skinner's after Milton's death; the prologue (pp. 1-6) headed with a dedication to the Christian church throughout the World (‘[IO]ANNES MILTONVS Anglus Vniversis Christi Eccleijs...’); the work headed before the first chapter (p. 7) ‘De Doctrina Christiana ex sacris duntaxat libris petita disquisitionum libri duo posthumi’; later pencil markings in the text by Charles Sumner made in the 19th century. c.1659-75.

MnJ 46: John Milton, De Doctrina Christiana

Daniel Skinner made an abortive attempt to publish this work through Elzevir in 1675, after which his father handed this MS over to Sir Joseph Williamson, Secretary of State (together with the ‘Skinner MS’ of state papers: see Introduction); it was discovered in 1823 by Robert Lemon, Deputy Keeper of the Public Records.

Edited from this MS (in translation) in Sumner, with a facsimile of the first page of Chapter I as frontispiece; collated in Columbia. Discussed in Sotheby, Ramblings, pp. 153-63, with facsimile examples; in James Holly Hanford, ‘The Date of Milton's De Doctrina Christiana’, SP, 17 (1920), 309-19; in Arthur Sewell, ‘Milton's De Doctrina Christiana’, E&S, 19 (1933), 40-66; in Maurice Kelley, This Great Argument: A Study of Milton's De Doctrina Christiana as a Gloss upon Paradise Lost (Princeton, 1941), with facsimile examples after p. 218 (illustrating what Kelley takes to be at least seven and perhaps as many as twenty different hands); in Parker, II, 1056-7; in Maurice Kelley, ‘Considerations touching the Right Editing of John Milton's De Doctrina Christiana’, with a facsimile example, in Editing Seventeenth Century Prose, ed. D.I.B. Smith (Toronto, 1972), pp. 31-50; and in Gordon Campbell, ‘De Doctrina Christiana: Its Structural Principles and Its Unfinished State’, Milton Studies, 9 (1976), 243-60; and see also Maurice Kelley's articles, ‘The Recovery, Printing and Reception of Milton's Christian Doctrine’, HLQ, 31 (1967-8), 34-41; ‘The Composition of Milton's De Doctrina Christiana: First Phase’, in Th' Upright Heart and Pure, ed. Amadeus P. Fiore (Pittsburgh, 1967), pp. 35-44; and ‘On the State of Milton's De Doctrina Christiana’, ELN, 27 (1989), 43-8. Facsimile example also in HLQ, 33 (1969-70), after p. 400. See also Introduction above, Documents Signed on Milton's Behalf, No. ix. For an interesting but unconvincing argument that this work is not by Milton and that the ascriptions in the MS may have been spuriously added later, see William B. Hunter, ‘The Provenance of the Christian Doctrine’, SEL, 32 (1992), 129-42, illustrated with facsimile examples (and see also counter-arguments by Barbara K. Lewalski and John T. Shawcross, with Hunter's reply, pp. 143-66).

First published, in an English translation, as A Treatise on Christian Doctrine compiled from the Holy Scriptures alone, ed. Charles R. Sumner, assisted by William Sydney Walker (London, 1825). Columbia, XIV-XVII. English translation by John Carey in Yale, VI, ed. Maurice Kelley.

Almost certainly by Milton, but doubts about the authorship raised by William B. Hunter have led to considerable controversy. See, inter alia, William B. Hunter, ‘The Provenance of the Christian Doctrine’, SEL, 32 (1992), 129-42; Maurice Kelley, ‘Forum II: Milton's Christian Doctrine...A Reply to William B. Hunter’, SEL, 34/1 (Winter 1994), 153-63; William B. Hunter, Visitation Unimplor'd: Milton and the Authorship of De Doctrina Christiana (Pittsburgh, PA, 1998); and Gordon Campbell, et al., Milton and the Manuscript of De Doctrina Christiana (Oxford, 2007).

SP 9/194

An unbound quarto letterbook, in three separate sections, 109 pages (plus blanks). in a single hand, that of Daniel Skinner, comprising his transcripts of 139 chronologically arranged state letters from 10 August 1649 to 15 May 1659; the collection entitled by Skinner ‘Epistolae Johannis Miltonii Angli Pro Parlamento Anglicano interregni tempore scriptae’ (followed by three or four obliterated lines); the MS deposited in the Public Records, along with De Doctrina Christiana (MnJ 46), after the Government prevented him from publishing both with Elzevir in 1675. c.1674-6.

MnJ 85: John Milton, Letter(s)

This collection edited in part in Original Papers illustrative of the Life and Writings of John Milton, ed. W. Douglas Hamilton, Camden Society Publications, vol. 75 (1859). Used in Columbia, XIII, and see also LR, V, 237-9 & passim. Discussed in Leo Miller, ‘Milton's Personal Letters and Daniel Skinner’, N&Q, 228 (October 1983), 431-2.

SP 10/1000

Cowley's autograph and signed last will and testament, dated 18 September 1665, proved 31 August 1667. Cowley's will of 18 September 1665, mentioned above and is preserved in the poet's original autograph in the Public Record Office (PROB 10/1000 (proved 31 August 1667)), as well as in a registered copy (PROB 11/324/104 [an annotated transcript can also be found in the Bodleian, MS Eng. hist. e. 1, ff. 8-11v]). 1665.

*CoA 255: Abraham Cowley, Will

Edited in Nethercot, pp. 296-7.

SP 11/159, f. 46

A formal registered copy of Donne's last will and testament, proved 5 April 1631. 1631.

DnJ 4155: John Donne, Will

SP 11/324/104

A registered copy of Cowley's last will and testament dated 18 September 1665, proved 31 August 1667. 1667.

CoA 256: Abraham Cowley, Will

SP 11/374/24

A registered copy of Walton's last will and testament, 24 October 1683, proved 4 February 1683/4. 1684.

WtI 38: Izaak Walton, Will

SP 12/1

A folio guard-book of independendent Elizabethan state papers, stamped foliation 1-163.

f. 12r (item 7)

• ElQ 110: Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Elizabeth's First Speech, Hatfield, November 20, 1558

Copy, in a professional secretary hand, on a single folio leaf, endorsed ‘Q Elisabeth spetch to her secretary & other her Lordes befor her coronation’. c.1560.

Edited from this MS in Collected Works and in Selected Works.

‘Words spoken by her majesty to Mr. Cecil’ beginning ‘I give you this charge, that you shall be of my privy Council...’. Collected Works, Speech 1, p. 51. Selected Works, Speeches 1, pp. 32-3.

f. 12r (item 7)

• ElQ 114: Queen Elizabeth I, Words Spoken by the Queen to the Lords, January 1559

Copy, in a professional secretary hand, on a single folio leaf, endorsed ‘Q Elisabeth spetch to her secretary & other her Lordes befor her coronation’.

‘Words spoken by the queen to the lords’ beginning ‘My lords, the law of nature moveth me to sorrow for my sister...’. Collected Works, pp. 51-2 (linked to Speech 1 as if spoken on 20 November 1558). Selected Works, Speech 2, pp. 34-6 (and dated January 1559).

f. 13r (item 7)

• ElQ 111: Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Elizabeth's First Speech, Hatfield, November 20, 1558

Copy, in a predominantly italic hand, on a folio leaf. Late 16th century.

This MS cited in Selected Works.

f. 13r-v (item 7)

• ElQ 115: Queen Elizabeth I, Words Spoken by the Queen to the Lords, January 1559

Copy, in a predominantly italic hand, on a folio leaf. Late 16th century.

SP 12/2

A folio guard-book of independent Elizabethan state papers, stamped foliation 1-214.

f. 85r (item 22)

• ElQ 121: Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Elizabeth's First Speech before Parliament, February 10, 1559

Copy of Version 1, in a professional secretary hand, untitled, incomplete, endorsed (f. 86v) ‘The Quenes answere to the plamet house’, foliated in pencil 22r. c.1559.

This MS recorded in Hartley.

First published in Richard Grafton, An Abridgement of the Chronicles of England (London, 1563), 179v-80.

Version I. Beginning ‘As I have good cause, so do I give you all my hearty thanks...’. Hartley, I, 44-5. Collected Works, Speech 3, pp. 56-8 (Version 1).

Version II. Beginning ‘In a thing which is not much pleasing unto me...’. Collected Works, pp. 58-60 (Version 2).

SP 12/24/17

Autograph letter signed by Heywood, to William Cecil, Lord Burghley, 18 April 1575. 1575.

*HyJ 21: John Heywood, Letter(s)

Edited in A. W. Reed, Early Tudor Drama (London, 1926), pp. 35-7, with a facsimile example facing p. 124.

SP 12/27

A folio composite volume of state papers, in various hands, 288 leaves, in red morocco.

ff. 143r-4r

• ElQ 130: Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Elizabeth's Answer to the Commons' Petition that she Marry, January 28, 1563

Copy, in a professional cursive secretary hand, untitled, on two conjugate folio leaves, annotated in the hand of William Cecil, following a copy in the same professional hand (ff. 135r-42r) of the Lords' petition, endorsed by Cecil (f. 144v) ‘The orations made in plemet by y^e Lordes and Comons w^t the Q. Mates answer there-to’, imperfect. 1563.

Edited principally from this MS in Hartley, in Collected Works, and in Selected Works. Cited in Heisch.

Beginning ‘Williams, I have heard by you the common request of my Commons...’. First published (from a lost MS) in Nugae Antiquae, ed. Henry Harington (London, 1804), I, 80-3. Hartley, I, 94-5. Collected Works, Speech 5, pp. 70-2. Selected Works, Speech 3, pp. 37-41.

ff. 153r-4v

• ElQ 131: Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Elizabeth's Answer to the Commons' Petition that she Marry, January 28, 1563

Copy, in an italic hand, probably transcribed from ElQ 130, untitled, dated in the margin ‘1563’, on two folio leaves following a copy in the same hand (ff. 146r-53r) of the Lords' petition, endorsed (f. 154v) ‘The Orations made in the Parlement by the Lords and Commons, with the Q. Ma^ties answer thereto’. Late 16th-early 17th-century.

Edited in part from this MS in Collected Works and in Selected Works.

SP 29/12/38.I

A certificate of orthodoxy and loyalty signed by Taylor and others in favour of a petitioner, John Allington, [August?] 1660. 1660.

*TaJ 109.5: Jeremy Taylor, Document(s)

SP 12/41

A folio guard-book of independent Elizabethan state papers, stamped foliation 1-230.

f. 6r-v

• ElQ 122: Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Elizabeth's First Speech before Parliament, February 10, 1559

Copy of Version 1, in a predominantly italic hand, untitled, incomplete, foliated in pencil 4, endorsed on a second folio leaf (f. 7v) ‘The Queens Answer to the Parlement house’, presumably a copy of ElQ 121. Early 17th century.

This MS recorded in Hartley.

First published in Richard Grafton, An Abridgement of the Chronicles of England (London, 1563), 179v-80.

Version I. Beginning ‘As I have good cause, so do I give you all my hearty thanks...’. Hartley, I, 44-5. Collected Works, Speech 3, pp. 56-8 (Version 1).

Version II. Beginning ‘In a thing which is not much pleasing unto me...’. Collected Works, pp. 58-60 (Version 2).

f. 8r

• *ElQ 159: Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Elizabeth's Speech to a Joint Delegation of Lords and Commons, November 5, 1566

Autograph draft of the opening of the speech, untitled, on one folio page, a second leaf endorsed (f. 9v) by William Cecil ‘a part of y^e begyng of y^e Q. Ma^tes speche to y^e 30. lordes and 30. co^mons o tewsday, y^e v^th. of Novemb. 1566. / X a^o 9^o 8. / The Q. own had’. 1566.

Edited from this MS in Hartley (version i), in Collected Works (as Version 1), with a facsimile on p. 92, and in Selected Works.

First published in J.E. Neale, ‘Parliament and the Succession Question in 1562/3 and 1566’, EHR, 36, No. 144 (October 1921), 497-520 (pp. 514-17).

Version I. Beginning ‘If the order of your causes had matched the weight of your matter...’. Hartley, I, 145 (Text i). Collected Works, Speech 9, pp. 93-4 (Version 1). Selected Works, Speech 5, pp. 45-6.