C 142/257/68
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Document-specific information
Creator: Chancery
Title: Brend, Thomas: Surrey
Date: May 16, 1599
Repository: The National Archives, Kew, UK
Call number and opening: C 142/257/68
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Images reproduced by permission of The National Archives, London, England.
Terms of use
The National Archives give no warranty as to the accuracy, completeness or fitness for the purpose of the information provided.
Images may be used only for purposes of research, private study or education. Applications for any other use should be made to The National Archives Image Library, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU, Tel: 020 8392 5225 Fax: 020 8392 5266.
Document-specific information
Creator: Chancery
Title: Brend, Thomas: Surrey
Date: May 16, 1599
Repository: The National Archives, Kew, UK
Call number and opening: C 142/257/68
View online bibliographic record
The Inquisition Post Mortem of Thomas Brend, shown here, is a near-contemporary witness of the lease for the site of the Globe on Maid Lane, Southwark, and a witness to the recent construction of the “house” itself. The Inquisition Post Mortem documents William Shakespeare’s participation in the lease and his leadership position among the theater’s leaseholders.
An Inquisition Post Mortem was an official inquiry into the financial status and obligations of individuals who died while possessing lands in which the Crown had an interest. Thomas Brend, gentleman, of West Molesey, Surrey, owned land along Maid Lane in St. Saviour’s Parish, Southwark. Upon his death on September 21, 1598, the land passed to his son, Nicholas Brend. Though Thomas Brend’s will, dated June 15, 1597, makes no mention of this particular property, the Inquisition post mortem of his estate, dated May 17, 1599, records his interest in a recently constructed “house”:
... Ac de et in vna Domo de novo edificata cum gardino eidem pertinente in parochia Sancti Salvatoris predicta in Comitatu ^Surrie predicto in occupacione Willielmi Shakespeare et aliorum...
[Translation:] ... And of and in one house newly constructed together with a garden thereunto appertaining in the aforesaid parish of St. Savior in the aforesaid county of Surrey in the occupation of William Shakespeare and others ...
From various sources, including Ostler v. Hemings, it is clear that the “house” was the Globe playhouse on Maid Lane, Bankside. Shakespeare alone is named in the Inquisition Post Mortem, presumably as principal among the current tenants of the house and garden. Construction on the Globe was presumably not begun before the lease was signed on February 21, 1599, but progressed quickly enough that the playhouse could be described as “newly constructed”—though not necessarily completed—by May 17.
The “house” with its garden is one of many properties owned by Thomas Brend in London and Surrey, also including the Star in Bread Street, London. Over time the Globe site on Maid Lane rose to the status of a property legally distinct from the others.
Contemporary events relative to the Brend family ownership of the Globe site are these:
June 15, 1597: Thomas Brend signs his will (TNA PROB 11/93/316)
September 21, 1598: Thomas Brend buried
February 21, 1599: Lease on Globe site signed by Nicholas Brend (not extant; see essay on the 1599 lease of the Globe playhouse site)
May 8, 1599: Thomas Brend’s will probated
May 17, 1599: Thomas Brend’s Inquisition Post Mortem
October 10, 1601: Nicholas Brend signs his will (TNA PROB 10/205)
October 10, 1601: Nicholas Brend buried, leaving his minor son Matthew as heir
Thomas Brend’s Inquisition Post Mortem is of particular importance because neither the land as the site of the Globe playhouse nor the name of William Shakespeare is specifically mentioned in Brend’s own will, or in the will of his son Nicholas.
To learn more, read Alan H. Nelson's essay on the 1599 lease of the Globe playhouse site.
Written by Alan H. Nelson
Sources
Charles William Wallace, “Further new documents,” The Times, 1 May 1914.
B. Roland Lewis, The Shakespeare Documents: Facsimiles, Transliterations, Translations and Commentary, vol. 2, (Stanford University, California: Stanford University Press, 1940), 508.
David Thomas, Shakespeare in the Public Records (London: H.M.S.O., 1985).
Herbert Berry, Shakespeare’s Playhouses (New York: AMS, 1987), 75-119.
E.A.J. Honigmann and Susan Brock, eds., Playhouse Wills, 1558-1642 (New York: Manchester University Press, 1993), 63-4 (Thomas Brend), 67-8 (Nicholas Brend).
Last updated February 13, 2018
