Heath was recorder of London in 1618, solicitor general in 1621, and appointed attorney general in 1625. He was subsequently chief justice of the court of common pleas (1634) and a justice of the King 's Bench (1640), and he became Chief Justice in 1643.

Born in Connington, Huntingdonshire, Cotton was educated at Westminster School and Jesus College, Cambridge. He moved to 'Cotton House', Westminster , which stood on the site of the present House of Lords, and began to amass the extraordinary collection of manuscripts for which he is now known; he also collected coins. Scholars (including Bacon, Camden, Speed, Ralegh, Selden, Ussher - and Jonson ) were freely given access to his library. He collaborated with Camden on some of his historical works, but published little independently, although he did write many papers for the Royal Society of Antiquaries. He was knighted in 1603, became MP for Huntingdon in 1604, and created a baronet in 1611. In 1615-16 he altered papers implicating his friend and patron the Earl of Somerset in the Overbury scandal, and he was imprisoned in the Tower for several months. He became an MP again in 1624, 1625 and 1628-9, and quickly became known as a member of the Parliamentary party of Sir John Eliot, in which cause he published his tracts The History of Henry III (1627) and Dangers wherein the kingdom now standeth (1628). As a result of his political activism he was excluded from his own library by Charles I from 1629 until his death. The library was eventually gifted to the nation in 1702, and was transferred to the British Museum (now the British Library) in 1753, where its shelfmarks are still those of Cotton's original organisation into fourteen cases, each named for the Roman emperor whose bust decorated it.

St Margaret's, Westminster was founded in the twelfth century to serve the needs of the Abbey's lay community; like Westminster Abbey, it is a 'royal peculiar', which means that it is technically not part of the diocese of London . It was rebuilt between 1486 and 1523 and, although restored several times in later centuries, remains structurally much the same. It became the 'parish church' of the House of Commons in 1614.

Modernized text of Zouche Townley’s poem, based on British Library Sloane MS 826, fols 192-3v. Other copies are in Philadelphia Rosenbach MS 240/2, p. 93, Yale Osborne MS 200, pp. 120-1, and Bodleian MS. Eng. poet. e. 97, pp. 91-2. Townley also has a poem ‘To Mr Jonson’ (‘Ben, the world is much in debt’) in the two collections of Jonson’s poetry printed in 1640 by John Benson. To his Confined Friend Mr Felton

Enjoy thy bondage; make thy prison know
Thou hast a liberty thou canst not owe
To those base punishments; keep entire, since
Nothing but guilt shackles the conscience.
I dare not tempt thy valiant blood to weigh,
Enfeebling it with pity, nor dare pray
Thy act may mercy find, lest thy great story
Lose somewhat of its miracle and glory.
I wish thy merit laboured cruelty;
Stout vengeance best befits thy memory,
For I would have posterity to hear
He that can bravely do, can bravely bear;
Tortures may seem great in a coward’s eye;
‘Tis no great thing to suffer, less to die.
Should all the clouds fall out and in that strife
Lightning and thunder send to take my life,
I would applaud the wisdom of my fate,
Which knew to value me at such a rate
As at my fall to trouble all the sky,
Emptying upon me Jove’s full armoury.
Serve in your sharpest mischiefs; use your rack;
Enlarge each joint and make each sinew crack:
Thy soul before was streightened; thank thy doom
To show her virtue she hath larger room.
Yet sure if every artery were broke
Thou wouldst find strength for such another stroke.
And now I leave thee unto death and fame,
Which lives to shake ambition with thy name;
And if it were not sin, the court by it
Should hourly swear before the favourite.
Farewell: for thy brave sake we shall not send
Henceforth commanders enemies to defend;
Nor will it ever our just monarch please
To keep an admiral to lose our seas.
Farewell: undaunted stand, and joy to be
Of public sorrow the epitome.
Let the Duke’s name solace and crown thy thrall,
All we by him did suffer, thou for all.
And I dare boldly write, as thou dar’st die
‘Stout Felton, England's ransom, here doth lie’.