2»<» S. VII. JcNE 25. '09.} 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



m 



anc} how did he come ipto possession of it? The 

 authorities at the Bodleian cannot inform me. 



Queen Anne's Churches. — In the Commons' Jour- 

 nals of Feb. 1724, is a Eeport of a Committee 

 stating that the Commissioners for building the 

 fifty new churches had transformed three chapels 

 of ease into parish churches. Which are these 

 three churches ? I am only cognizant of one, viz., 

 St. George the Martyr, Queen Square, Holborn. 



C. F. Sbcrbtan. 

 10. Besboroflgh Gardens, S. W. 



ARB THESE ANT SHAKSPEARB MSS. IN SUSSEX ? 



At a recent meeting of the Sussex Archeeologi- 

 cal Society, at Uckfield, Mr. W. Durrant Cooper 

 was present, and offered some rejnarks on the 

 possibility of some of the lost Shaksperian MSS. 

 being found in that locality. Mr. Cooper drew 

 attention to the fact that Edward AUeyne, the 

 player, and Philip Henslowe, the manager, both 

 married into one family, that of the Woodwards, 

 connected both with Uckfield and Firle ; and he 

 thought it was not too much to expect that an 

 examination of the Woodward papers, as yet un- 

 explored, might bring to light at least matter of 

 interest connected with the Elizabethan drama- 

 tists — perhaps with Shakspeare himself. 



This remark has served to raise the expecta- 

 tions of Shaksperians in this part of the country, 

 perhaps a little too highly. I have, therefore, 

 drawn up a precis of the known facts which con- 

 nect Shakspere and the contemporary dramatists 

 with Sussex, with a view of showing the extent 

 of the grounds on which' we may hope for a re- 

 alisation -of Mr. Durrant Cooper's expectations. 



Perhaps an extract from my resume of the 

 question may interest some readers of " N. & Q." 



"And first, — every body who has dipped at all into 

 the subject of the Elizabethan drama has encountered 

 the name of old Philip Henslowe. This Henslowe was 

 the manager of several theatres in his advanced years ; 

 and it is specially to be noted that he is supposed to have 

 been a native of Sussex, and was certainly, from 1576 to 

 1586, engaged in transactions connected with the felling, 

 sale, and consumption of wood in Ashdown Forest, near 

 East Grinstead. These duties, probably, devolved on 

 him through his marriage; for he appears to have been 

 united to Agnes Woodward (of the familj' to whom Mr. 

 Cooper alluded), having previously been her servant; 

 and the deceased Woodward had been extensively en- 

 gaged in the iron mines and foundries of Ashdown 

 Forest. But, though busy with the management of the 

 wood, we find Henslowe in 1586 in London concerned in 

 the proprietorship and management of the Rose Theatre. 

 Toward this date also he would appear to have become 

 acquainted with Edward AUeyne, to whom Mr. Cooper 

 made special reference. 



" And who was Edward AUeyne? He is best known to 

 us as the founder of Dulwich CoUege'f respecting the right 

 appropriation of which to impoverished actors there was 

 so much controversy a few years since). But in his day 

 he was known as one of its most accomplished actors. He 



received the special commendation of Ben Jonson, who 

 addressed verses to him, and Nash bore this testimony to 

 his powers, ' JS'ot Boscius nor vEsop, those tragedians 

 admired before Christ was born, could ever perform more 

 in action than famous Ned Allej'ne.' But we have 

 chieflj' to do with the fact, that almost from the first Al- 

 lej'ne was connected with Henslowe in his theatrical 

 speculations, and on the 22nd October, 1592, he became 

 related to him through taking in marriage Joan, the 

 daughter of the widow Woodward (then become Mrs. 

 Henslowe) by her tirst husband. AUeyne thus became 

 Henslowe's step-son; but is always atfectionately referred 

 to as ' my son.' There is reason to believ.e that Al- 

 lej'ne's wife, Joan Woodward, possessed propertj' in 

 Sussex, derived under her father's will : a portion of this 

 property was, probably, the lease of the parsonage of 

 Firle. He certainly possessed that property and con- 

 templated adding to it, as is shown by a letter extant in 

 the ' AUeyne Papers,' relating to a manor culled Riches, 

 described as lying 'well to the parsonage of Fyrles,' and 

 respecting which all the particulars are furnished at Al- 

 lej'ne's request. He would not appear to have purchased 

 it, however, and four years after his marriage he sold the 

 lease of Firle parsonage for 3,000/. to one Arthur Lang- 

 worth. 



" Still, about two years after this, namely, in 1598, — we 

 have it on the authority of Mr. J. P. Collier, that Al- 

 lej'ne and his wife certainly spent the summer in Sussex. 

 Two letters have been preserved at Dulwich, addressed to 

 him while there, from which it would appear that he 

 stayed at the Brill, in the parish of Ringmer, near Lewes, 

 where Mr. Arthur Langworth (who had bought Firle 

 parsonage) resided. The Brill was a house (part of 

 which, Mr. Collier saj^s, is still standing) built during the 

 reign of the Tudors, and was formerly surrounded by a 

 park of 1,000 acres. It used to be occupied by the Arch- 

 bishops of Canterburj' ; but soon after Elizabeth came to 

 the throne they exchanged it for lands at Croj'don. The 

 stay of AUeyne at the Brill would appear to have ex- 

 tended over three months at the least, and is surmised to 

 have been in the nature of a pleasure trip. 



" This is perhaps all that need be said respecting the 

 relations of Henslowe and AUeyne with Sussex; and 

 now let us see in what way they were connected with 

 Shakspeare. From the time of his marriage, AUeyne was 

 in partnership with Henslowe in all his theatrical specu- 

 lations, and they were numerous. They were joint pos- 

 sessors of the Rose Theatre, of the Hope Theatre, and of 

 that more important structure, the Fortune Theatre. 

 The companies acting at these houses were chiefly ' The 

 Lord Admiral's men.' Now, these were not the houses 

 with which Shakspeare was connected. His theatres 

 were the Blackfriars and the Globe: and moreover the 

 actors with whom he was in association were the Lord 

 Chamberlain's men. When it is borne in mind that at 

 that period each company had its own dramatists, it 

 seems, on the face of it, exceedingly probable that the 

 descendants of Henslowe and AUeyne should be in pos- 

 session of MSS. bj"^ their owp writers, such as Ben Jonson, 

 Dekker, Chettle, Marston, Heywood, MidJleton, Web- 

 ster, Drayton, and the rest ; but exceedingly mprobable 

 that any Shakspearian papers should have come down to 

 them, seeing how jealously the various companies guarded 

 their literary property. 



" But it so happens that there was one periqd during 

 which the Lord (Chamberlain's men and the Lord Admi- 

 ral's men were playing at the same house, and probably 

 in conjunction. This was from 1594 to 1596, at the thea- 

 tre at Newington Butts. What relation the two compa- 

 nies had to each other cannot be ascertained ; but we 

 have the fact that during that period Henslowe was in 

 the receipt of a daily sum from the proceeds of the per- 



