Edward Alleyn: His Brothel's Keeper?

2 Burford's argument rests chiefly on Alleyn's ownership of four properties, specifically the Barge, the Bell, the Cock, and the Unicorn—all of which were located in the parish of St. Saviour's, Southwark. The earliest piece of evidence is a lease of part of the messuage “sometimes called the Barge” from Edward Jarvys of London, leatherseller, to Johan Gravesende, of St. Saviour's, widow. [...]of the patent, the property was in dispute between William Henslowe (Philip's brother) and Jacob Meade (a waterman and Keeper of the Royal Game, and also a business associate of Henslowe and Alleyn), of the one party, and the attorney general.6 Both the Unicom and the parcel known as the Barge, the Bell, and Cock were set aside in Alleyn's will (1626) to secure the £1500 due to Constance Donne Alleyn, his second wife.7 With the exception of the terms governing these transactions, the documents preserved by Henslowe and Alleyn offer little evidence of the nature of the properties themselves. In reference to the first collection of properties, a lease from Stephen Gardiner, bishop of Winchester, to William Payne and his assigns (dated March 6, 1540) describes the Barge, the Bell, and the Cock as “capital leases and tenementes … set, Lyinge, and being upon the banke called Stewes … lynge against the Kinges highe way next the water of Thamis on the north sid[e] and against a Tenement Called the Rose on the east Sid[e] and against a Tenement som[e]times the Lady Stratfordes on the west sid[e] and against a Land called maiden lane on the south sid[e].”