aT as 
Chapel Royal. 
ESTABLISHMENT OF BLACKFRIARS 
67 
The practice of impressment was not confined to supplying the 
April 26, 1585, Queen Elizabeth granted to one 
Thomas Gyles,? Master of the Children of Paul’s, a warrant under 
her signet, for the taking up of children to be used in her service 
Lande or water at such Reasonable 
prises as by thé discretion of hym 
or his saide deputie shalbe thought 
sufficiente and also to take vpp suf- 
ficient Lodgynge for hym & the 
saide Childerne when they for o* 
service shall Remove to any place 
or places Prouided also that if o* 
saide Servaunte or his deputie or 
deputies bearers Hereof in His 
name cannot forthw‘ Remove the 
Childe or Childerne when He by 
vertu of this o* comyssion Hath 
taken hym or them, That then the 
saide childe or Childerne shall re- 
mayne there vntill suche tyme as o* 
saide servaunte william Hunnys 
shall sende for Hym or them 
Wherefore we will and commaunde 
yo" and every of yo" to whome this 
0” commyssion shall come to be 
Helpinge aydinge and assistinge to 
the vttermoste of yo™ powers as yo" 
will answere at yo" vttermoste per- 
ills In witnesse whereof &c 
The Patent may be found in the 
Public Record Office in Patent 
Rolls, 9 Eliz., Part 10, Mem. 19 
(16), dorso. With the exception 
of orthography, it is an exact copy 
of the Privy Seal. At the close 
after “In witnesse whereof &c’” is 
added simply, ‘““Witnes our self at 
Westminster the xviij™ daye of 
Aprill 
per ipsam Reginam &c.” 
*In no way connected with Na- 
thaniel Gyles of the Chapel Royal 
and Blackfriars theatre. 
*This document is printed in full 
+ in J. P. Collier, op. cit., (1831"), I, 
265; (1879°), I, 258-59, but mis- 
dated by him as 1586. It is also 
misdated as 1584 by A. Albrecht, 
Das Englische Kindertheater (Diss. 
Halle, 1883), 31, with reference to 
John Nichols, The Progresses, &c., 
of Oueen Elizabeth (1823), II, 432, 
_whenever she might call for them.? 
where Nichols. erroneously prints 
“26th” for “27th” in the last line 
of the document, giving the year. 
Reprinted, with correct date, in The 
English Drama and Stage (ed. Haz- 
litt, Roxburghe Library, 1869), 33- 
34. Hazlitt was unable to find the 
original document in the Public 
Record Office. The reason is, it is 
in the British Museum, Sloane 
MS. 2035b, fol. 73 (Album of 
George Willingham, 1585-1650), 
from which I offer the following 
transcript as an accurate copy. 
At the top, below the words “By 
the Queene,” Elizabeth has placed 
her signature with her usual tall, 
clear, sharply individualized sepa- 
rate letters. 
By the Queene. 
clizabethy} Greet 
/ signature 
Whereas we haue authorysed our 
servaunte Thomas Gyles M’ of the 
children of the Cathedrall Churche 
of St Pauls within our Cittie of 
London to take vpp suche apte and 
meete Children as are most fitt to 
be instructed and framed in the 
arte and science of musicke and 
singinge as may be had and founde 
out within anie place of this our 
Realme of England or Wales, to 
be by his education and bringinge 
vp made meete and hable to serve 
vs in that behalf when our pleasure 
is to call for them. Wee therefore 
by the teno” of these present®* will 
and require you that ye permitt and 
suffer from henceforthe our saide 
servaunte Thomas Gyles and his 
deputie or deputies and every of 
them to take vp in anye Cathedral 
or Collegiate Churche or Churches 
and in everye other place or places 
of this our Realme of England and 
Wales, suche Childe and Children 
as he or they or anye of them shall 
181 
