Shakespeare of Stratford/The Biographical Facts/Fact 65
LXV. FRIENDLY CHANCERY SUIT OF SHAKESPEARE AND OTHERS CONCERNING DOCUMENTS RELATING TO HIS PROPERTY IN BLACKFRIARS (1615).
(A) Petition of Shakespeare and other owners of property in Blackfriars to compel Matthew Bacon to produce the old papers necessary to the establishment of their respective titles. (Public Record Office, London.)
xxvjto die Aprilis, 1615. To the Right Honorable Sir Thomas Egerton, Knight, Lord Ellesmere and Lord Chancellor of England. Humbly complaining showeth unto your honorable Lordship your daily orators, Sir Thomas Bendish, Baronet, Edward Newport and William Thoresbie, Esq., Robert Dormer, Esq., and Mary his wife, William Shakespere, Gent., and Richard Bacon, citizen of London, that whereas your orators be and are severally lawfully seised in their demesne as of fee [in various specified pieces of real estate] . . . all which messuages, tenements, and premises aforesaid be lying within the precinct of Blackfriars in the city of London. . . . Unto which foresaid capital messuages, tenements, and premises aforesaid several deeds, charters, letters patents, evidences, muniments, and writings be and are belonging and appertaining, and do belong unto your orators, and do serve for the proving of your orators’ lawful right, title, interest, and estate into and unto the foresaid messuages and premises: all which foresaid letters patents, deeds, evidences, charters, muniments, and writings aforesaid were left in trust with Ann Bacon, deceased, for and unto the use and behoof of your orators. . . .
The document proceeds to declare that on Ann Bacon’s death the papers in question passed into the possession of Matthew Bacon, her sole executor, and begs that the said Matthew be required to appear before your Lordship in his Majesty’s high court of chancery, then and there for to make answer unto the premisses and also to bring with him the said letters patents, deeds, evidences, charters, and writings into this honorable court and to stand to and abide such further orders therein as to your honorable Lordship shall be thought fit. . . .
(B) 5 Maij, 1615. The answer of Mathy Bacon, gent., defendant, to the bill of complaint of Sir Thomas Bendish, Baronet, Edward Newport, Esq., William Thoresby, Esq., Robert Dormer, Esq., and Mary his wife, William Shakespeare, gent., and Richard Bacon, citizen of London, complainants.
Matthew Bacon answers that he thinks the statements of the complainants to be true, and that he does not himself claim any title to their respective properties, but that he does not certainly know whether the documents demanded belong exclusively to the complainants or whether other persons may have a claim to them. Provided he may be relieved of all future responsibility regarding the papers in his possession, he is ready to deliver them to such person or persons and in such sort as the court shall order.
(C) The court’s decree. xxij die Maii. After briefly recapitulating the statements in the two preceding papers, It is thereupon ordered that the said defendant shall bring into this court all the said letters patents, deeds, evidences, writings, and muniments so by him confessed to be in his custody or possession upon his oath, here to remain to be disposed of as shall be meet, and for that purpose the plaintiffs may take process against the defendant if they will.
Note. These papers were discovered by Professor C. W. Wallace, and printed in University Studies of the University of Nebraska, 1905, with a commentary which inaccurately represents the attitude of the parties to the suit. There was no quarrel, but Matthew Bacon, as executor for his mother’s estate, required authorization of the court before surrendering the documents. As stated in Shakespeare’s deed for his Blackfriars property (see p. 71), Henry Walker, who sold it to the poet, had himself bought it in 1604 from ‘Mathie’ Bacon (the father).[1] The difficulty about the deeds arose from the intricate way in which the valuable and fashionable residence property at Blackfriars had been subdivided. Sections covered by a single early deed or charter were in Shakespeare’s day held by many owners, all of whom would require to have access to the old papers in tracing their titles.
The names of most of the complainants associated with Shakespeare indicate the high social standing of his neighbors in the Blackfriars district.
- ↑ Mathias Bacon of Holborn, London, was a scrivener, admitted to Gray’s Inn, March 1, 1597 (Joseph Foster, Register of Admissions to Gray’s Inn, p. 91; Basil Brown, Law Sports at Gray’s Inn, p. 29). This was prohably Anne Bacon’s husband.