Ralph Symonds: a gentleman of Norfolk, sold to a London fishmonger, Thomas Langham (twice a Sheriff of the city Stowe again), a tenement in Whitecross Street in the Parish of St. Giles-without-Cripplegate, then in the tenancy of William Gill
Thomas Langham: 1566 Langham sold this, and two other tenements in " Golding " Lane adjacent, then in the tenancy of William Gill or his assigns, to the same William Gill, gardener (i.e. market-gardener), for &163;100 the lot
William Gill: in his will dated 1575 bequeathed his dwelling-house there and four other tenements partly to his wife Katherine and then to his son Daniel, and four further tenements there to his grandson, another Daniel Gill
Daniel Gill the elder: 1584, of the Isle of Man, yeoman, leased his share to Patrick Brew, of London, goldsmith, for 41 years, and immediately afterwards made it over by feoffment to his son Daniel Gill the younger, clerk of " St. Andrew's in the Isle of Man " i.e. Kirk Andreas. The latter in his will proved at Douglas in 1592 left the estate in trust for the benefit of his four daughters. He died a few years later, and the property became administered by his father, Daniel the elder, and his uncles William and Edmond. In 1601 Daniel and his brothers William and Edmond Gill of Lezayre, yeomen, leased the whole property to John Garrett of London, clothworker, for 21 years from the expiry of Brew's lease
Patrick Brew: 1599: assigned his lease to Edward Alleyn, " Gent.", otherwise the eminent actor-manager. Brew's friendship with Alleyn must have been the means of introducing him into literary and theatrical circles. Three years later Alleyn entrusted his friend Brew with a commission to cross to the Island and buy the estate on his behalf, of which Norris had promised him the first refusal, without any obvious right to do so. Garrett, as both Brew and Alleyn were aware, had already bid for it. Patrick Brew it is possible to glean a few particulars from contemporary sources. In the Marriage Licences just mentioned, which cover the requisite period, the name Brew occurs virtually but once; Patrick Brew married Margaret Battle, spinster, of the City of London, by general licence in 1571. hat he, Rector Crowe of Kirk Bride, and the Gills were all related to each other appears in their various letters
Edward Alleyn evidently became increasingly desirous of purchasing the land Gill and his brothers leased on the whole of which on he had already built, in 1600, the Fortune Theatre in conjunction with Philip Henslowe, but it had been so leased and re-leased that his way was far from clear. His difficulties were accentuated by the fact that after the death of Daniel Gill, the younger, the family had fallen out among themselves with regard to the estate, as is seen from the following Award which terminated the dispute. Never, so far as is known, came nearer to the Isle of Man than Chester, where he acted while touring in 1593 with the company of Ferdinando Stanley, Lord Strange, afterwards the fifth Earl of Derby.
" Award by William Norres, clerk, vicar of Kirke Lonan, Isle of Man, Nicholas Moore, yeoman, William Crowe, parson of Kirke Bride, John Vescye, Constable of Rushen Castle, and John, Bishop of Sodor and Man, in a dispute between Daniel Gill, the elder, and Katherine, Elizabeth, Jane and Margaret, daughters of Daniel Gill the younger, deceased, whereby land, tenements, etc., in Whitecross Street and Goldingelane, in the par. of St. Giles without Cripplegate, London, are divided between William Gill and Edmond Gill, sons of Daniel Gill the elder, and the said Katherine, Elizabeth, Jane and Margaret, with a proviso that the said Daniel Gill and Isabell, wife of William Norres and widow of Daniel Gill, the younger, shall not be molested in their life-interest in their several moieties of rent, and that &163;21 shall be paid by Daniel, William and Edmond Gill to the said Katherine, Elizabeth, Jane and Margaret. Dated 19 Dec., 3 Jas. i., 1605. Signed, with seals. . . .
Alleyn was of Buckinghamshire extraction and born in London; his first recorded wife was Henslowe's step-daughter, Joan Woodward, of unknown lineage; his second marriage and this measures the extent of his rise in the social scale was with Constance Donne, daughter of the famous Dean of St. Paul's, whom, by the way, Alleyn did not scruple to address after the marriage in extremely outspoken terms, both verbally and in a long letter. His mother's name was Towneley; in his pedigree he states that she belonged to the Towneleys of Towneley in Lancashire, of which proof is said to be lacking. There is a tradition that he was a companion of Shakespeare's
Shakespeare; the company to which Shakespeare belonged was, while under Lord Strange's patronage, combined with that of Alleyn, the Lord Admiral's, at Henslowe's new theatre the Rose, for some months in 1592. During that period Alleyn was manager of both troupes, and some degree of contact between the two men was inevitable. It is unfortunate that the surviving portion of Alleyn's diary only begins in the yeare after Shakespeare's death. Years of penname and The Tempest
Sir Sidney Lee, it is true, states that Shakespeare's membership of Lord Strange's company of actors is proved for the years 1592 and 1594
Sir Jeremy Turnour, a prominent Surrey man, went over to attend to the legal side of the transfer when in 1609 Brew wrote to Alleyn from Douglas thrice (and probably much oftener) reporting progress, and finally brought the negotiations to a head. The vendors were the four daughters, now married, of Daniel Gill, the younger, deceased, and their respective husbands, Philip Moore of Kirk Lonan, William Clarke of Jurby, yeomen, Hugh Cannell, Vicar of Kirk Michael, and Donald Qualtroughe of Kirk Lonan, yeoman. Sir William Norris, Vicar General and Vicar of Kirk Lonan, had acquired a right to half the rent through his wife, but she had died in July, 1609, and their names do not appear in the Deed of Sale
Parson Crowe's matter-of-fact comment on this union was, " she is now married to a better living." The property is described as twelve tenements and " all that their Playhouse, comonlie called or knowen by the name of the Fortune," six tenements being on the East side of Goldinge Lane and six on the West side of Whitecrosse Street. The document is dated 30 May, 1610. Crowe, besides addressing Brew twice in the course of a long epistle as " Cousin," continues thus (I modernise the Rector's spelling, which is surprising even for the age in which he lived) : " Having had perfect intelligence of your prosperity in your late letter sent by young Gill . . . your well-willers and poor kinsmen, of whose number I protest unfeignedly to be one." " Young Gill " must have been Daniel, Curate of Andreas. He is alluded to in a later letter of Brew's to Alleyn : " the eldest of Gylle's sons was att Chester, intending to go for London att halantyde, and hearinge of the sicknes cam home agayne, butt I thinke he will go agayne at the Springe." Another Insular messenger was John More (Moore), to whom, as bearer of one of his letters from Douglas, Brew asks Alleyn to pay certain rent due to his " cozin Norris."
The Fortune; At its entrance stood a plaster figure of the Goddess Fortuna, but she was unable to prevent its destruction by fire in 1621. For the entire estate Alleyn paid the Gills, and for Brew's lease of a portion of it, and for Garrett's lease, and thus became with his partner and father-in-law Henslowe, owner of the land, the twelve dwelling-houses, theatre, and other buildings which he had erected in connection with it. That the ground was of considerable extent is evident from a recommendation made subsequently that further twenty-three houses should be built on it. It was rebuilt immediately
" A Playhouse Yard " now enters Golden Lane about midway in its length. Farther North on the same side is " Garrett Street," but this name may be of modern origin. The profits from this theatre, together with those from his other enterprises, enabled Alleyn to found Dulwich College, which he endowed with the property he had purchased from the Gills
Bishop John Phillips, as an earnest prelate and the first translator of the Prayer Book into Manx, is a well-known figure, and it is unnecessary to say more of him, except that Crowe mentions him then merely an Archdeacon and Rector of Andreas as being in England in January, 1592
Sir William Norris, a lesser light in the Manx Church, was of Lancashire extraction, like so many of the Insular clergy
Hugh Cannell, Vicar of Michael, assisted Phillips, a prelate in his Prayer Book translation. He is mentioned by Chaloner in his Treatise published in 1656, and numerous details of his life are given by Paul Bridson in the notes to Cumming's edition of Chaloner
Donald Qualtroughe was probably one of the Qualtroughs of Raby, a member of which family, " Colcheragh Raby," is the hero of the old Lonan legend and song of " Kiree fo Niaghtey." A Dan. Qualtroughe was among the Lonan representatives chosen to confer with the Lord, the Lord Bishop, and the Keys in 1643. " Dan." is probably short for Danold, but in many cases Daniel was used as its equivalent, and this individual, if not our Donald, was in all likelihood his son
Philip Moore and a Nicholas Moore were members of the House of Keys at the period of the sale to Alleyn
John Garrett kept the Cross Keys Inn, Whitecross Street, in or immediately before 1601 (London Inq. Post Mortem, iii., Brit. Rec. Soc.). He may not have been the same man as the clothworker who leased a portion of the Gills' estate and was Alleyn's competitor for the purchase of the whole of it, but such a doubling of occupations was not uncommon; Alleyn's step-father, Browne, was described as " actor and haberdasher." Garrett, Garrard, Gerrard, was a common name; there was a Nicholas Garrett, for example, in Alleyn's company at the Fortune, whose name occurs twice in Alleyn's diary. Gill is also to be found in the metropolis from quite early times, as it is in the Isle of Man. A marriage solemnised in 1569 at All Hallows, Barking, between Thomas Gill of St. Peter in the Tower of London, and Alice Garrett, widow, of Barking (Chester's London Marriage Licences), might perhaps be fancied to bear on the present subject. But whether Thomas was a relative or not, it is probable that William Gill, the first owner of the property, came, like Patrick Brew, from the Isle of Man to make his fortune in London, and left no surviving children in his adopted city
Henslowe's Diary there is a note in the yeare 1601 of a loan evidently an advance made to Harry Chettell " by the company " of the Rose Theatre at the " Eagle and Child " in part payment for " a book called the Rising of Cardinal Wolsey; " probably the manuscript acting-copy of a play. Brew, a goldsmith by trade, and lived in Lombard Street at the sign of the " Eagle and Child." In the same yeare Henslowe has another entry, " Paid at the appointment of the company to him &91;a Mr. Gosson&93; at the Eagle and Child for halberds, 18s. " evidently stage properties. In his Memoir of Edward Alleyn Payne Collier observes that the name was uncommon, and that there was a Henry Gosson who published the first edition of Pericles in 1609. At an " Eagle and Child " lived Thomas Walkley, the publisher of the first edition of Othello in 1622 first played in 1602 before Queen Elizabeth at the house of Sir Thos. Egerton and his wife the Dowager Countess of Derby.
Certain passages in Brew's letters are lucid and picturesque from the Island to Alleyn
" This is to certifye you that the Gylles, and the daughters of Gill deseased, cannott agree uppon the sayle as yet, and yett theye would sell, and yett theye strayne curteseye who shall begynn."
On the 8th of August, 1608, he writes from Douglas : " . . . I dyd send to youe by my wyffe those wrytinges I promysed youe; I pray youe keep them saffe."
On the 6th of April, 1609, he writes again : " I woulde have sente to you the writinges whiche I dyd promys to sende to youe, but I can not meete with a trustye messenger to sende them bye; as also to write untoe youe sum other thinges whiche I dare nott put to writtinge, except I knewe him very well, and to be verye trustye too, for they are thinges youe littel thinke of; but eyther I wilbe messenger my selfe or sum other trustye and spetyall frende, for oure letters are commonlye opened commynge or goinge; but assure youre selfe that you shall have them God willinge. . . . Your verye lovinge frende to his power, Patricke Brewe."
In a letter carried by the John More mentioned above, he says " I have sente youe according to my promys, and my wyffe will tell youe other thinges which I spare from writinge. Douglas, this 3 of Auguste, 1609."
.The politics of the Isle of Man were then at a crisis, for the fifteen years of litigation between branches of the Stanley family had just terminated in the grant of the Island to William, the sixth Earl, and he was on the point of coming into his kingdom. In the Church, the " Spiritual Statutes " were then being codified for the first time; they gave the Bishop power to amend wills in certain cases of injustice to infants and orphans, but these Statutes, though hitherto unwritten, had been operative for long before, let alone vicarious and they could have imported no new difficulty into the Gills' right to dispose of their land
William Stanley, sixth Earl of Derby and Lord of Man: third person sonnetmen. In one case an Insular family owned during four generations an extensive and increasingly valuable piece of property on the fringe of Tudor London, as well as theatre which one of their lessees built on a corner of their land. The forty-four documents, some of the correspondence is printed in The Alleyn Papers (Shakespeare Society)