Entry for the Parish of
St Anne
's, Blackfriars
, 7 May 1606 , citing
Jonson
and his wife
for
recusancy, from
A Book of Corrections or
Presentments of the Consistory Court of London
. The record
occupies one page of the register.
Eugene Giddens
[fol. 321v]
Beniaminum Iohnson
et eius < . . . . . >
ʌ ⎡et eius
vxor ⎤
[Trans.:
Benjamin Jonson
and his
wife] sainte
Anne
in blackfriers
23. b 1
To
certify of their diligent going to Churche / And he Presented that he is by fame a
seducer of youthe to popishe religion / he was monished to appeare to see farther
pro seeding herein he having denyd bothe the fact & the fame
& the Churchwardens weare decreed
to be here to specifie what particulers they haue to Chardg him
with.
Bibliography
H&S, 1.222
Fincham (1921), 103-39
Stow, 320-21
Blackfriars was the former location of the Dominican foundation in London , south-west of St Paul's. It retained the right of sanctuary, and in the early seventeenth century was home to many fashionable people (including, for example, the earl and countess of Somerset , and Jonson 's patron and friend Esmè Stuart, Lord Aubigny), many of whom lived in converted monastic buildings. Two parts of the former monastery housed the first and second Blackfriars theatres, in 1577-1584 and 1596- respectively; a number of Jonson 's plays were first performed here by the resident boys' companies. Blackfriars was also known as a Puritan neighbourhood, with many of its Puritan residents being engaged in the trade of feathermaking.
Anne Lewis , here unnamed, is virtually invisible in Jonson 's life records, appearing only in the record of her marriage (L1594_10) and this and the two other related recusancy citations (L1606_20, L1606_50).