More, disposing of a small reversion given her by the Queen, pawning her plate and jewels, selling a dozen of gold buttons here and a set of viols there, and borrowing of powerful friends such as Lord Cobham or Henry Sackford, the Master of the Tents. Meanwhile Hunnis and Newman disposed of their interest to one Henry Evans, a scrivener, and More, incensed at this, took definite steps in the spring of 1583 to recover his house by executing a fresh lease to one of his men, Thomas Smallpiece, and setting Smallpiece to sue for the ejectment of Evans. The latter tried to elude him by a further transfer of the sub-lease to the Earl of Oxford, who passed it on to John Lyly, the poet; and thus, says More, the title was 'posted over from one to another from me' contrary to the conditions of the original lease. Doubtless Hunnis, Lyly, and Evans were all working together under the Earl's patronage, for a company under Oxford's name was taken to Court by Lyly in the winter of 1583-4 and by Evans in the winter of 1584-5, and it seems pretty clear that in 1583-4, at any rate, it was in fact made up of boys from the Chapel and Paul's.[1] More, however, pursued his point, and about Easter 1584 recovered legal possession of his house. Some months before, Anne Farrant, in despair, had appealed to Sir Francis Walsingham, and had also brought actions at common law against Hunnis and Newman for the forfeiture of their bonds. They applied to the Court of Requests to take over the case, and there is no formal record of the outcome. But in January 1587 Mrs. Farrant was again complaining to the Privy Council, and Sir John Wolley was asked to bring about a settlement between her and More, who was his father-in-law.[2]
So ends the story of the first Blackfriars theatre. The premises which it had occupied came into the hands of Henry Lord Hunsdon, who was also about the same time tenant of More's mansion house and garden.[3] It would seem that Lord Oxford and Lyly had passed on to Hunsdon their sub-leases from the Farrants and that, even when he recovered
- ↑ Cf. ch. xii (Chapel).
- ↑ Jahrbuch, xlviii. 99; Wallace, i. 152 (Will of Farrant, 30 Nov. 1580), 153 (Anne Farrant to More, 25 Dec. 1580), 154 (Leicester to More, 19 Sept. 1581), 158 (Anne Farrant to Walsingham, c. 1583), 159 (Court of Common Pleas, Farrant v. Hunnis and Farrant v. Newman, 1583-4), 160 (Court of Requests, Newman and Hunnis v. Farrant, 1584), 177 (Wolley to More, 13 Jan. 1587), 174 (Memoranda by More, c. 1587; cf. Dasent, xv. 137).
- ↑ M. S. C. ii. 123. More's rental of 1584 includes £50 from Hunsdon for the mansion house, £20 from Oxford, £8 from Lyly; that of 1585 the same three sums, all from Hunsdon. But the two smaller sums represent twice Farrant's rent, which was £14.
