Petition to William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke, by Edward Alleyn

Dulwich College: MS II

single sheet

To the right honorable william willim Earle of Pembrooke Lord Chamberleine to the Kings maiestie and one of his highnes right honorable privie councell/.

The humble petition of Edward Allen Esquire/.

Wheras there was a petition prefered to your honor att Edenboroughe in Scotland one the behallffe of Iacobbe Meede Esquire touchinge somme s<..>ded in interruptions by him pretended to be made by the petitioner in or about th touchinge the baytinge of bulls and beares and bulls and the keepinge of that game, the which petition remaineth with your honors secretarie/. the petitioner humblie desireth your honor to take consideration of his aunswer made to to the said petition which is as ffolloweth/.

ffirst the said Iacobbe Meede is ⸢petitioner⸣ hath not assigned made anie assignment of <..>ns Part the pattent mencioned in the said Iacobbe meedes petition/ but onlie from tyme to tyme as occasion serveth doth make to him or such as he shall appointe deputations of the said pattent and that <...>for no tyme certaine but duringe his ‸⸢your⸣ petitioners pleasure/.

Secondlie that he hath not since the tyme that the house & game menconed in the said Meedes petition weare in his cstodie receivd out of thexchecquer, neither the wages dewe <...> and ffees dewe by the Patent nor the 4 s. per diem for the Leopard and other beastes mencioned in the said meedes petition.

Thirdlie the said Meede hath covenaunted with this d<.> your petitioner that if the wages and ffees doe not amounte to 60 li. per annum then the said Meede to allowe to your petitioner p yerelie so much as ‸⸢the same⸣ shall want of 60 li. per annum.

ffowerthlie, the said Meede doth not paye his rent to your petitioner the rent of 100 li. per annum for the house but refuseth to paye it and ioy<....> combinith with those oppose the your petitioners title to defeate your petitioner of the posession of the said house and his interest therein

Ffifthlie your petitioner the said Iacobbe Meede not payenge his rent nor performinge the articles made betweene him ‸⸢your petitioner⸣ and the said Meede your petitioner warnd the said Meede to forbere to baite the said beres but the said Meede continewed baytinge notwithstandinge which the petitioner did not hinder/.

  • Footnotes
    • behallffe: first l written over another letter
    • touchinge: tou written over 2 faint letters
    • house & game: ie, the Hope/Bear Garden
    • cstodie: for custodie
    • Patent: presumably the patent for the office of the mastership of Bears. Bulls, and Mastiff Dogs, awarded to Henslowe and Alleyn in 1604
  • Endnote

    For an abstract of this record and details of its transcription in other printed sources, see the related EMLoT event.

  • Document Description

    Record title: Petition to William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke, by Edward Alleyn
    Repository: Dulwich College
    Shelfmark: MS II
    Repository location: Dulwich

    This is a draft of an undated petition from Alleyn written in response to another from Jacob Meade that has not been found. Its reference to Meade's refusal to pay Alleyn the rent of £100 annually. for the Bear Garden may date it to sometime after Meade had apparently agreed to lease it instead for the same sum from Alleyn's rival claimant William Henslowe on the 29 June 1617; see Appendix 4: IX. a. Moreover both his and apparently also Meade's petitions are addressed to William Herbert (1580–1630), earl of Pembroke, and Lord Chamberlain from 1615–26. He was in Edinburgh with the king between May and August 1617 during which period he may have been presented with Meade's petition; see Warner, Catalogue, p 80, n 2, citing Nichols, Progresses, vol 3, pp 37, 390. Alleyn's petition is printed in Collier, Memoirs, p 160; Collier states that it was wrapped up in a statement in Alleyn's handwriting of the grievances between him and Meade, also undated; see Edward Alleyn's Statement of Matters in Dispute with Jacob Meade.

    For an image of the original manuscript, see Ioppolo, Henslowe-Alleyn Digitisation Project.

    undated; English; paper; single sheet; 390mm x 307mm; folded and mounted on a guard sheet and bound with other documents in a 19th-c. brown cloth binding with gold tooling, title on spine: 'DULWICH | COLLEGE. | ALLEYN | PAPERS. | VOL.II. | BEAR | GARDEN | 1598–1626.' Foliated 76–7 in pencil by Warner and cited on p 80 of his Catalogue, but foliated as f 76b in Dulwich MSS catalogue.

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