Letters: Earl of Oxford to Baron Burghley, before August 5, 1590. [Spelling modernized.]

BL Lansdowne 63/71, ff. 181-2 (bifolium, 278mm x 195mm) Oxford to Burghley; 5 August 1590 (W304;F365).

[Click here for original spelling.]

 

My very good Lord,

Where I mortgaged my lease of Aveley to Mr. Herdsone, and not as yet redeemed, and now as well for the supply of my present wants, as also  to have some three hundred pounds of ready money, to redeeming certain leases at Hedingham, which were gotten from me very unreasonably, for divers years yet enduring, and are of as good clear yearly value, as my said lease of Aveley is. I therefore most earnestly desire your Lordship, to signify your liking to me in writing, to dispose of said lease, at my pleasure; otherwise there is not any will deal with me for the same, nor for any part thereof, wherein I shall be greatly beholding to your Lordship, as I am in all the rest of my whole estate. The 5^th of August.

Your lordship’s

to command

(signed) Edward Oxenford

The lease depends upon divers casualties. which lease I hold chiefly by your lordship’s favor, and the casualties, & defects are as follow.

First the lease is made by the name of the master of the chaplains called the Hospital of the Savoy, & not called the Savoy, & therefore the lease supposed void.

Secondly Mr. Payne’s claim, and pretending interest to the said lease, does cost me one hundred pounds by the year to defend.

Thirdly any creditor of mine, to whom I am indebted, may by Writ of Elegit, or Fieri facias, or Levari facias, extend and sell the said lease for a trifle and utterly defeat me thereof.  And I intend for 300l. in money, to redeem leases of my own Land, of a greater yearly value.

Addressed (by Oxford): To the right honorable and his very good Lord the Lord Treasurer of England give this [seal]

 

Endorsed: Received 5 August 1590: The Earl of Oxford to my Lord; Aveley.

 

Second endorsement: That his lordship would signify his liking in writing to dispose of his Lease of Aveley, without which none would deal with him for it.

Also at Virtual Grub Street:

• A 1572 Oxford Letter and the Player’s Speech in Hamlet. August 11, 2020. “The player’s speech has been a source of consternation among Shakespeare scholars for above 200 years.  Why was Aeneas’ tale chosen as the subject?”
• Edward de Vere, Shakespeare and Tycho Brahe.  June 9, 2020. “When Brahe was encouraged by his friends and associates to publish a book on the November 1572 supernova for which he is now famous, his answer belonged to his times.”
• Shakespeare’s Funeral Meats. May 13, 2020. “Famous as this has been since its discovery, it has been willfully misread more often than not.  No mainstream scholar had any use for a reference to Hamlet years before it was supposed to have been written.”
• Malvolio’s Crow's Feet and “the new Mappe”. October 14, 2019. “Percy Allen’s candidate is not mentioned by any of these parties. The traditionalists, of course, could not consider it possible because it would suggest far too early a date for the play.”
• Check out the English Renaissance Article Index for many more articles and reviews about this fascinating time and about the Shakespeare Authorship Question.
• Check out the English Renaissance Letter Index for many letters from this fascinating time, some related to the Shakespeare Authorship Question.