Indictment against
Ben Jonson
for the manslaughter of
Gabriel Spencer
(1576-1598, actor)
on 22
Sept. 1598 , at Shoreditch
.
Jonson
escaped the usual penalty for murder, hanging, by
pleading benefit of the clergy (i.e. proving that he could read the Latin 'neck
verse'), and so was instead given the less severe punishments of being branded on
the thumb and forfeiting his property
.
Jonson
in effect pleaded guilty and accepted full responsibility for starting the
fray. Later, speaking with Drummond, he suggested that Spenser instigated the
duel.
Eugene Giddens
Cognoscit indictamentum petit librum legit
vt Clericus signatur cum litera T Et
deliberatur iuxta formam statuti &c.
Middlessex
Iuratores pro
domina Regina presentant quod
Beniaminus Johnson nuperde london yeoman Vicesimo Secundo die
Septembris Anno regni domine nostrae
Elizabethe dei gracia Anglie ffrancie &
hibernie Regine fidei defensoris et
cetera Quadragisimo Vi & armis et cetera In et
superquendam Gabrielem Spencer in pace dei &
dicte domine Regine apud Shordiche
in Comitatu Middlesexie predicto in
Campis ibidem existenteminsultumfecit
Et eundem Gabrielem cum quodam gladio de ferro et calibe
vocato a Rapiour precij iijs quem in manu sua dextera adtunc & ibidem
habuit & tenuit extractum ffelonice ac
voluntarie
eidem
percussit & pupugit dans eidem
Gabrieli Spencer adtunc & ibidem cumgladio
predicto ⎡in et superdexterumlatus ips ius
Gabrielis⎤ vnam plagam mortalem
pro funditatis sex pollicum &
latitudinis vnius pollicis de qua quidem plaga mortali
idem
Gabriel Spencer
apud Shordiche predictam in
predicto Comitatu Middlesexie in Campis predicis
adtunc & ibidem instanterobiit Et sic
Iuratores predicti dicunt
superSacramentum suum quod prefatus Beniaminus [
John
] son
predictum Gabrielem Spencer apud Shordiche
predictam in
predicto Comitatu Middlesexie & in Campis
predictis [
<die et
anno>
]
[Missing words supplied by Jeaffreson (1886)]
predictis felonice ac voluntarie interfecit & occidit Contra pacem Di cte
domine Regine &c.
Billa Vera
[Trans.:
[Translation supplied by Jeaffreson, ed.,
Middlesex County Records
]
He confesses
the indictment, asks for the book, reads like a Clerk, is marked with the letter
T, and is delivered according to the form of the statute,
&c.
Middlesex
The jurors for the Lady the
Queen
present
that Benjamin Johnson late of
London
yeoman on the twenty-second day of September
in the fortieth year of the Lady
Elizabeth
by God's grace
Queen
of
England
,
France
, and
Ireland
, Defender of the faith, etc. made an assault with force and
arms etc. against and upon a certain
Gabriel Spencer
, when he was in God's and
the said Lady the
Queen
's peace, at Shoreditch in the aforesaid county of
Middlesex
, in the fields there, and with a certain sword of iron and steel
called a Rapier, of the price of three shillings, which he then and there had in
his right hand and held drawn, feloniously and wilfully struck and beat the same
Gabriel, then and there with the aforesaid sword giving to the same
Gabriel
Spencer, in and upon the same Gabriel's right side, a mortal wound, of the depth
of six inches and of the breadth of one inch, of which mortal wound the same
Gabriel Spencer
then and there died instantly in the aforesaid Fields at
Shoreditch aforesaid in the aforesaid County of
Middlesex
. And thus the
aforesaid jurors say upon their oath that the aforesaid Benjamin Johnson
feloniously and wilfully slew and killed the aforesaid
Gabriel Spencer
at
Shoreditch aforesaid in the aforesaid County of
Middlesex
and in the aforesaid
Fields [in the year and day] aforesaid against the Peace of the said Lady
the
Queen
etc.
True Bill]
Bibliography
Jeaffreson
(1886)
Jeaffreson, ed.,
Middlesex County
Records , pp. xxxviii-xlii [vol. 4 contains a facsimile]
H&S,
1.219-20
JAB, 3-4
Nungezer,
336-7
Spencer was a member of the earl of Pembroke 's Men in 1597, and may previously have been one of the Lord Chamberlain 's Men. When Pembroke 's Men disbanded after the Isle of Dogs controversy, Spencer joined Henslowe's Admiral's Men, and his name first appears in the Diary on 11 Oct. 1597. His duel with Ben Jonson took place in Hoxton fields; he was buried at St Leonard's, Shoreditch on 24 Sept. 1598.
Shoreditch is an area of London to the northeast of St Paul's. It probably got its name from an open sewer or drain running down the main road, now Shoreditch High Street but in the early modern period Holywell Street. Being outside the jurisdiction of the City , Shoreditch was the location of London 's first theatres, Burbage's Theatre and the smaller Curtain.
Jeaffreson notes that Jonson must have forfeited property to the crown, in addition to receiving a branded 'T' on his thumb: 'on being convicted, by his confession of manslaughter, he had chattels for forfeiture. Had he possessed no goods and chattels, "ca null" would have appeared in the memorandum over his name, at the top of the indictment' (Jeaffreson, Middlesex County Records , xli