George Ferrers
Encyclopedia
George Ferrers was a courtier and writer. In an incident which arose in 1542 while he was a Member of Parliament
for Plymouth
in the Parliament of England
, he played a key role in the development of parliamentary privilege
.
and his wife, Alice, the daughter of John Cockworthy of Cockworthy, Devon
. He is said to have graduated as a bachelor of canon law
at the University of Cambridge
before being admitted to Lincoln's Inn
on 22 November 1534. There is no evidence that he followed a legal career, although he was a frequent litigant, and was praised by John Leland for his oratory at the bar.
According to Bindoff and Woudjuysen, Ferrers's literary interests were initially legal and antiquarian. It was apparently Ferrers who in 1533 edited and translated The Great Boke of Statutes which spanned the period from the first year of Edward III
to the twenty-fifth year of the reign of Henry VIII
. His translation of Magna Carta
and other statutes was published in 1534. He may also have been the George Ferras who supplied Leland with information about the poet John Gower
.
By 1538 Ferrers had entered the service of Henry VIII's chief minister, Thomas Cromwell. After Cromwell's fall, Ferrers entered the King's service, and was present at the reception of the King's fourth wife, Anne of Cleves
. From at least 1542 to 1547 he was a page
of the chamber, and in 1544 attended the King in France. When Henry VIII died on 28 January 1547, he left Ferrers a small bequest in his will.
Ferrers sat as a member of parliament for Plymouth
in 1542, 1545 and 1553, for Cirencester
in 1547, for Brackley
in 1554, 1555 and for St Albans
in 1571.
The most notable episode in Ferrers's political career has become known as 'Ferrers Case'. In March 1542 Ferrers was arrested for a debt of '200 marks or thereabouts' for which he had stood surety
for one White of Salisbury on a loan from one Weldon, and put in the Counter
, a debtors' prison in Bread Street
. The arrest had been effected while Ferrers was on his way to the House of Commons
, and Ferrers' fellow members ordered the Serjeant-at-Arms
to obtain Ferrers' release. According to Holinshed
:
The two sheriffs of London arrived, but when the Serjeant demanded Ferrers' release, the sheriffs, according to Holinshed, treated the request "contemptuously, with many proud words".
Weldon, the creditor
who had instigated the arrest, and the two sheriffs and others were then summoned before the Commons on 28 March 1542 to answer charges of breach of parliamentary privilege
, and were committed to the Tower for two days. The matter was referred to the Privy Council
, and the King claimed privilege for his servants' attendance upon the business of parliament, stating that:
The incident thus established the immunity of members of the Commons from civil arrest while the House was in session.
During the Scottish campaign of 1547 Ferrers was a commissioner of transport, and is described by William Patten
in The Late Expedition in Scotland as being at the time ‘a gentleman of my lord Protectors’. Ferrers survived Somerset's
downfall in October 1549 and execution in January 1552, and was appointed by the Duke of Northumberland
to devise entertainments to amuse the young King Edward VI
during the Christmas season of 1551–2. The then Master of the Revels
, Sir Thomas Cawarden
(a former fellow page of the chamber with Ferrers), was told by Northumberland to assist Ferrers. Material relating to the preparation of the entertainments is in the Revels accounts in the Loseley manuscripts (now in the Folger Shakespeare Library
). The Acts of the Privy Council record that Northumberland paid Ferrers £50, and that the entire entertainment cost about £500. Ferrers is reported by the chronicler Richard Grafton
to have outdone his predecessors:
Ferrers was reappointed as Lord of Misrule
to devise entertainments during the 1552-1553 Christmas season, and as in the previous year there were jousting, a mock midsummer show, a visit to the city of London, and various masque
s, and on Twelfth Night
a triumph of Cupid, Venus, and Mars, devised by Sir George Howard
, Master of the Henchmen
, and produced by Ferrers. Ferrers was rewarded by a grant of an estate at Flamstead
. He was again reappointed during the Christmas season of 1553–4 by the new Queen, Mary I
.
In 1554 Ferrers was awarded £100 for services during Wyatt's rebellion
.
In spring and early summer 1555 Ferrers, with John Prideaux, accused John Dee
and his associates, including Sir Thomas Benger
, of conjuring, casting nativities, plotting on behalf of Princess Elizabeth
against King Philip
and Queen Mary
, and bewitching Ferrers's children. On or about 26 May 1555 Dee was arrested, and he and his associates were later imprisoned. On 4 June the Privy Council sought information concerning Ferrers's own whereabouts. After this incident there is little trace of Ferrers, and no record that he was at court during Queen Elizabeth's reign, although he was appointed escheator for Bedfordshire
and Buckinghamshire
in 1562–3 and for Essex and Hertfordshire in 1566–7.
According to Woudhuysen, 'William Baldwin
was instrumental in the creation of Ferrers's largest surviving literary work, his contributions to A Mirror for Magistrates, in which he was also associated with Sir Thomas Chaloner
and Thomas Phaer'. Woudhuysen conjectures that Ferrers wrote several pieces for a suppressed edition of A Mirror for Magistrates published about 1554 which survives only in fragments. The 1559 edition includes his tragedies of Tresilian and Thomas of Woodstock, but his other contributions were suppressed in that edition, and not printed until several years later.
According to John Stow
, Ferrers wrote the part of Grafton's chronicle (1568–9) dealing with the reign of Queen Mary, an allegation which Grafton denied, but Stow insisted upon. Bindoff states that Ferrers 'almost certainly wrote a number of masques and plays for performance at court and elsewhere' which are lost. Ferrers also contributed verses to Leicester's
lavish entertainment of Queen Elizabeth at Kenilworth Castle
in July 1575.
Confusion concerning Ferrers' literary career was engendered in 1589 by the author of The Arte of English Poesie (thought to be George Puttenham
), who in comparing Ferrers to other poets of the reign of Edward VI stated that he was ‘the principall man in this profession’, and in relation to the others ‘a man of no lesse mirth & felicitie … but of much more skil, & magnificence in his meeter, and therefore wrate for the most part to the stage, in Tragedie and sometimes in Comedie or Enterlude
, wherein he gave the king so much good recreation, as he had thereby many good rewardes’. Puttenham later praised Lord Buckhurst
and Ferrers 'for tragedy', saying that ‘for such doings as I have sene of theirs [they] do deserve the hyest price’. Unfortunately in both statements Puttenham erroneously referred to Ferrers as ‘Edward Ferrys’. This misidentification was copied by Francis Meres
in his Palladis Tamia in 1598, and repeated by later historians and literary critics until corrected by Sir Sidney Lee
in the Dictionary of National Biography
.
Little is known of Ferrers' last years. Ferrers had been a member of Parliament for several constituencies during the years 1542-1555, and in 1571 he was returned for St Albans. He is said to have supported the claim to the succession of Mary, Queen of Scots, and to have corresponded with her agent in England, John Lesley
, Bishop of Ross
. Ferrers died at Flamstead
in Hertfordshire
, and was buried there on 11 January 1579.
of her right to the lease of Markyate Priory
. His second wife was Jane, the daughter of John Southcote of St Albans, whom he married by licence dated 5 March 1546, and with whom he had a son, Julius. Ferrers married, as his third wife, by licence dated 29 November 1569, Margaret Preston, by whom he had at least three other sons and two daughters.
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for Plymouth
Plymouth
Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
in the Parliament of England
Parliament of England
The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England. In 1066, William of Normandy introduced a feudal system, by which he sought the advice of a council of tenants-in-chief and ecclesiastics before making laws...
, he played a key role in the development of parliamentary privilege
Parliamentary privilege
Parliamentary privilege is a legal immunity enjoyed by members of certain legislatures, in which legislators are granted protection against civil or criminal liability for actions done or statements made related to one's duties as a legislator. It is common in countries whose constitutions are...
.
Life
George Ferrers was the eldest son of Thomas Ferrers of St AlbansSt Albans
St Albans is a city in southern Hertfordshire, England, around north of central London, which forms the main urban area of the City and District of St Albans. It is a historic market town, and is now a sought-after dormitory town within the London commuter belt...
and his wife, Alice, the daughter of John Cockworthy of Cockworthy, Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
. He is said to have graduated as a bachelor of canon law
Canon law
Canon law is the body of laws & regulations made or adopted by ecclesiastical authority, for the government of the Christian organization and its members. It is the internal ecclesiastical law governing the Catholic Church , the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches, and the Anglican Communion of...
at the University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
before being admitted to Lincoln's Inn
Lincoln's Inn
The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn. Although Lincoln's Inn is able to trace its official records beyond...
on 22 November 1534. There is no evidence that he followed a legal career, although he was a frequent litigant, and was praised by John Leland for his oratory at the bar.
According to Bindoff and Woudjuysen, Ferrers's literary interests were initially legal and antiquarian. It was apparently Ferrers who in 1533 edited and translated The Great Boke of Statutes which spanned the period from the first year of Edward III
Edward III of England
Edward III was King of England from 1327 until his death and is noted for his military success. Restoring royal authority after the disastrous reign of his father, Edward II, Edward III went on to transform the Kingdom of England into one of the most formidable military powers in Europe...
to the twenty-fifth year of the reign of Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
. His translation of Magna Carta
Magna Carta
Magna Carta is an English charter, originally issued in the year 1215 and reissued later in the 13th century in modified versions, which included the most direct challenges to the monarch's authority to date. The charter first passed into law in 1225...
and other statutes was published in 1534. He may also have been the George Ferras who supplied Leland with information about the poet John Gower
John Gower
John Gower was an English poet, a contemporary of William Langland and a personal friend of Geoffrey Chaucer. He is remembered primarily for three major works, the Mirroir de l'Omme, Vox Clamantis, and Confessio Amantis, three long poems written in French, Latin, and English respectively, which...
.
By 1538 Ferrers had entered the service of Henry VIII's chief minister, Thomas Cromwell. After Cromwell's fall, Ferrers entered the King's service, and was present at the reception of the King's fourth wife, Anne of Cleves
Anne of Cleves
Anne of Cleves was a German noblewoman and the fourth wife of Henry VIII of England and as such she was Queen of England from 6 January 1540 to 9 July 1540. The marriage was never consummated, and she was not crowned queen consort...
. From at least 1542 to 1547 he was a page
Page (servant)
A page or page boy is a traditionally young male servant, a messenger at the service of a nobleman or royal.-The medieval page:In medieval times, a page was an attendant to a knight; an apprentice squire...
of the chamber, and in 1544 attended the King in France. When Henry VIII died on 28 January 1547, he left Ferrers a small bequest in his will.
Ferrers sat as a member of parliament for Plymouth
Plymouth (UK Parliament constituency)
Plymouth was a parliamentary borough in Devon, which elected two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons in 1298 and again from 1442 until 1918, when the borough was merged with the neighbouring Devonport and the combined area divided into three single-member constituencies.-In the...
in 1542, 1545 and 1553, for Cirencester
Cirencester (UK Parliament constituency)
Cirencester was a parliamentary constituency in Gloucestershire. From 1571 until 1885, it was a parliamentary borough, which returned two Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom until 1868, and one member between 1868 and 1885...
in 1547, for Brackley
Brackley (UK Parliament constituency)
Brackley was a parliamentary borough in Northamptonshire, which elected two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons from 1547 until 1832, when the constituency was abolished by the Great Reform Act.-History:...
in 1554, 1555 and for St Albans
St Albans (UK Parliament constituency)
St Albans is a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Established in 1885, it is a county constituency in Hertfordshire, and elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.From 1554 to 1852 there was a...
in 1571.
The most notable episode in Ferrers's political career has become known as 'Ferrers Case'. In March 1542 Ferrers was arrested for a debt of '200 marks or thereabouts' for which he had stood surety
Surety
A surety or guarantee, in finance, is a promise by one party to assume responsibility for the debt obligation of a borrower if that borrower defaults...
for one White of Salisbury on a loan from one Weldon, and put in the Counter
Compter
A compter, sometimes referred to as a counter, was a type of small English prison controlled by a sheriff. The inmates were usually civil prisoners, for example dissenters and debtors...
, a debtors' prison in Bread Street
Bread Street
Bread Street is a ward of the City of London and is named from its principal street, which was anciently the bread market; for by the records it appears that in 1302, the bakers of London were ordered to sell no bread at their houses but in the open market...
. The arrest had been effected while Ferrers was on his way to the House of Commons
House of Commons of England
The House of Commons of England was the lower house of the Parliament of England from its development in the 14th century to the union of England and Scotland in 1707, when it was replaced by the House of Commons of Great Britain...
, and Ferrers' fellow members ordered the Serjeant-at-Arms
Serjeant-at-Arms
A Sergeant-at-Arms is an officer appointed by a deliberative body, usually a legislature, to keep order during its meetings. The word sergeant is derived from the Latin serviens, which means "servant"....
to obtain Ferrers' release. According to Holinshed
Raphael Holinshed
Raphael Holinshed was an English chronicler, whose work, commonly known as Holinshed's Chronicles, was one of the major sources used by William Shakespeare for a number of his plays....
:
there ensued a fray within the Counter gates between Ferrers and the officers, not without hurt of either part, so that the serjeant was driven to defend himself with his mace of armsCeremonial maceThe ceremonial mace is a highly ornamented staff of metal or wood, carried before a sovereign or other high official in civic ceremonies by a mace-bearer, intended to represent the official's authority. The mace, as used today, derives from the original mace used as a weapon...
, and had the crown thereof broken off by bearing off a stroke, and his man struck down.
The two sheriffs of London arrived, but when the Serjeant demanded Ferrers' release, the sheriffs, according to Holinshed, treated the request "contemptuously, with many proud words".
Weldon, the creditor
Creditor
A creditor is a party that has a claim to the services of a second party. It is a person or institution to whom money is owed. The first party, in general, has provided some property or service to the second party under the assumption that the second party will return an equivalent property or...
who had instigated the arrest, and the two sheriffs and others were then summoned before the Commons on 28 March 1542 to answer charges of breach of parliamentary privilege
Parliamentary privilege
Parliamentary privilege is a legal immunity enjoyed by members of certain legislatures, in which legislators are granted protection against civil or criminal liability for actions done or statements made related to one's duties as a legislator. It is common in countries whose constitutions are...
, and were committed to the Tower for two days. The matter was referred to the Privy Council
Privy Council of England
The Privy Council of England, also known as His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, was a body of advisers to the sovereign of the Kingdom of England...
, and the King claimed privilege for his servants' attendance upon the business of parliament, stating that:
We be informed by our judges that we at no time stand so highly in our estate royal as in the time of Parliament, wherein we as head and you as members are conjoined and knit together into one body politic, so that whatsoever offence or injury during that time is offered to the meanest members of the House is to be judged as done against our person and the whole court of Parliament.
The incident thus established the immunity of members of the Commons from civil arrest while the House was in session.
During the Scottish campaign of 1547 Ferrers was a commissioner of transport, and is described by William Patten
William Patten (historian)
William Patten was an author, scholar and government official during the reigns of King Edward VI and Queen Elizabeth I.-Early career:...
in The Late Expedition in Scotland as being at the time ‘a gentleman of my lord Protectors’. Ferrers survived Somerset's
Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset
Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, 1st Earl of Hertford, 1st Viscount Beauchamp of Hache, KG, Earl Marshal was Lord Protector of England in the period between the death of Henry VIII in 1547 and his own indictment in 1549....
downfall in October 1549 and execution in January 1552, and was appointed by the Duke of Northumberland
John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland
John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, KG was an English general, admiral, and politician, who led the government of the young King Edward VI from 1550 until 1553, and unsuccessfully tried to install Lady Jane Grey on the English throne after the King's death...
to devise entertainments to amuse the young King Edward VI
Edward VI of England
Edward VI was the King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death. He was crowned on 20 February at the age of nine. The son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, Edward was the third monarch of the Tudor dynasty and England's first monarch who was raised as a Protestant...
during the Christmas season of 1551–2. The then Master of the Revels
Master of the Revels
The Master of the Revels was a position within the English, and later the British, royal household heading the "Revels Office" or "Office of the Revels" that originally had responsibilities for overseeing royal festivities, known as revels, and later also became responsible for stage censorship,...
, Sir Thomas Cawarden
Thomas Cawarden
Thomas Cawarden of Bletchingley was Master of Revels to Henry VIII of England, Edward VI, and Mary.Thomas was the son of William Carden, a cloth-fuller and citizen of London...
(a former fellow page of the chamber with Ferrers), was told by Northumberland to assist Ferrers. Material relating to the preparation of the entertainments is in the Revels accounts in the Loseley manuscripts (now in the Folger Shakespeare Library
Folger Shakespeare Library
The Folger Shakespeare Library is an independent research library on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., in the United States. It has the world's largest collection of the printed works of William Shakespeare, and is a primary repository for rare materials from the early modern period...
). The Acts of the Privy Council record that Northumberland paid Ferrers £50, and that the entire entertainment cost about £500. Ferrers is reported by the chronicler Richard Grafton
Richard Grafton
Richard Grafton , was King's Printer under Henry VIII and Edward VI. He was a member of the Grocers' Company and MP for Coventry elected 1562-63.-Under Henry VIII:...
to have outdone his predecessors:
in shew of sundry sightes and devises of rare invention, and in act of divers enterludes and matters of pastime, played by persons, as not onely satisfied the common sorte, but also were very well liked and allowed by the counsayle and other of skill in the like pastimes.
Ferrers was reappointed as Lord of Misrule
Lord of Misrule
In England, the Lord of Misrule — known in Scotland as the Abbot of Unreason and in France as the Prince des Sots — was an officer appointed by lot at Christmas to preside over the Feast of Fools...
to devise entertainments during the 1552-1553 Christmas season, and as in the previous year there were jousting, a mock midsummer show, a visit to the city of London, and various masque
Masque
The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment which flourished in 16th and early 17th century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio...
s, and on Twelfth Night
Twelfth Night (holiday)
Twelfth Night is a festival in some branches of Christianity marking the coming of the Epiphany and concluding the Twelve Days of Christmas.It is defined by the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary as "the evening of the fifth of January, preceding Twelfth Day, the eve of the Epiphany, formerly the...
a triumph of Cupid, Venus, and Mars, devised by Sir George Howard
Sir George Howard (courtier)
Sir George Howard was an English courtier, politician, author and diplomat. He was a younger brother of King Henry VIII's fifth Queen, Katherine Howard. Howard held offices at court under four monarchs, namely Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I, most notably Master of the Armoury, and...
, Master of the Henchmen
Henchman
Henchman referred originally to one who attended on a horse for his employer, that is, a horse groom. Hence, like constable and marshal, also originally stable staff, henchman became the title of a subordinate official in a royal court or noble household...
, and produced by Ferrers. Ferrers was rewarded by a grant of an estate at Flamstead
Flamstead
Flamstead is a village and civil parish in north-west Hertfordshire, England, close to the junction of the A5 and the M1 motorway at junction 9. The name is thought by some historians to be a corruption of the original Verulamstead...
. He was again reappointed during the Christmas season of 1553–4 by the new Queen, Mary I
Mary I of England
Mary I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from July 1553 until her death.She was the only surviving child born of the ill-fated marriage of Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon. Her younger half-brother, Edward VI, succeeded Henry in 1547...
.
In 1554 Ferrers was awarded £100 for services during Wyatt's rebellion
Wyatt's rebellion
Wyatt's Rebellion was a popular uprising in England in 1554, named after Thomas Wyatt the younger, one of its leaders. The rebellion arose out of concern over Queen Mary I's determination to marry Philip II of Spain, which was an unpopular policy with the English...
.
In spring and early summer 1555 Ferrers, with John Prideaux, accused John Dee
John Dee
John Dee was a Welsh mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, occultist, navigator, imperialist, and consultant to Queen Elizabeth I.John Dee may also refer to:* John Dee , Basketball coach...
and his associates, including Sir Thomas Benger
Thomas Benger
Sir Thomas Benger Master of the Revels succeeded Sir Thomas Cawarden as Elizabeth I's Master of the Revels on 18 January, 1560. He served until 1572 when it appears Sir Thomas Blagrave stepped in. Benger was considered to be an ineffectual master of the revels, purely on account that a charter for...
, of conjuring, casting nativities, plotting on behalf of Princess Elizabeth
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
against King Philip
Philip II of Spain
Philip II was King of Spain, Portugal, Naples, Sicily, and, while married to Mary I, King of England and Ireland. He was lord of the Seventeen Provinces from 1556 until 1581, holding various titles for the individual territories such as duke or count....
and Queen Mary
Mary I of England
Mary I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from July 1553 until her death.She was the only surviving child born of the ill-fated marriage of Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon. Her younger half-brother, Edward VI, succeeded Henry in 1547...
, and bewitching Ferrers's children. On or about 26 May 1555 Dee was arrested, and he and his associates were later imprisoned. On 4 June the Privy Council sought information concerning Ferrers's own whereabouts. After this incident there is little trace of Ferrers, and no record that he was at court during Queen Elizabeth's reign, although he was appointed escheator for Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire is a ceremonial county of historic origin in England that forms part of the East of England region.It borders Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Northamptonshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the west and Hertfordshire to the south-east....
and Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
in 1562–3 and for Essex and Hertfordshire in 1566–7.
According to Woudhuysen, 'William Baldwin
William Baldwin (author)
-Life:From the West Country, England, Baldwin studied logic and philosophy at Oxford. On leaving Oxford, he became a corrector of the press to the printer Edward Whitchurch. During the reigns of Edward VI and Queen Mary, it appears that Baldwin was employed in preparing theatrical exhibitions for...
was instrumental in the creation of Ferrers's largest surviving literary work, his contributions to A Mirror for Magistrates, in which he was also associated with Sir Thomas Chaloner
Thomas Chaloner (statesman)
Sir Thomas Chaloner was an English statesman and poet.-Life:He was the son of Roger Chaloner, mercer of London, a descendant of the Denbighshire Chaloners...
and Thomas Phaer'. Woudhuysen conjectures that Ferrers wrote several pieces for a suppressed edition of A Mirror for Magistrates published about 1554 which survives only in fragments. The 1559 edition includes his tragedies of Tresilian and Thomas of Woodstock, but his other contributions were suppressed in that edition, and not printed until several years later.
According to John Stow
John Stow
John Stow was an English historian and antiquarian.-Early life:The son of Thomas Stow, a tallow-chandler, he was born about 1525 in London, in the parish of St Michael, Cornhill. His father's whole rent for his house and garden was only 6s. 6d. a year, and Stow in his youth fetched milk every...
, Ferrers wrote the part of Grafton's chronicle (1568–9) dealing with the reign of Queen Mary, an allegation which Grafton denied, but Stow insisted upon. Bindoff states that Ferrers 'almost certainly wrote a number of masques and plays for performance at court and elsewhere' which are lost. Ferrers also contributed verses to Leicester's
Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester
Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, KG was an English nobleman and the favourite and close friend of Elizabeth I from her first year on the throne until his death...
lavish entertainment of Queen Elizabeth at Kenilworth Castle
Kenilworth Castle
Kenilworth Castle is located in the town of the same name in Warwickshire, England. Constructed from Norman through to Tudor times, the castle has been described by architectural historian Anthony Emery as "the finest surviving example of a semi-royal palace of the later middle ages, significant...
in July 1575.
Confusion concerning Ferrers' literary career was engendered in 1589 by the author of The Arte of English Poesie (thought to be George Puttenham
George Puttenham
George Puttenham was a sixteenth-century English writer, literary critic, and notorious rake. He is generally considered to be the author of the enormously influential handbook on poetry and rhetoric, The Arte of English Poesie ....
), who in comparing Ferrers to other poets of the reign of Edward VI stated that he was ‘the principall man in this profession’, and in relation to the others ‘a man of no lesse mirth & felicitie … but of much more skil, & magnificence in his meeter, and therefore wrate for the most part to the stage, in Tragedie and sometimes in Comedie or Enterlude
Entr'acte
' is French for "between the acts" . It can mean a pause between two parts of a stage production, synonymous to an intermission, but it more often indicates a piece of music performed between acts of a theatrical production...
, wherein he gave the king so much good recreation, as he had thereby many good rewardes’. Puttenham later praised Lord Buckhurst
Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset
Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset was an English statesman, poet, dramatist and Freemason. He was the son of Richard Sackville, a cousin to Anne Boleyn. He was a Member of Parliament and Lord High Treasurer.-Biography:...
and Ferrers 'for tragedy', saying that ‘for such doings as I have sene of theirs [they] do deserve the hyest price’. Unfortunately in both statements Puttenham erroneously referred to Ferrers as ‘Edward Ferrys’. This misidentification was copied by Francis Meres
Francis Meres
Francis Meres was an English churchman and author.He was born at Kirton in the Holland division of Lincolnshire in 1565. He was educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he received a B.A. in 1587 and an M.A. in 1591. Two years later he was incorporated an M.A. of Oxford...
in his Palladis Tamia in 1598, and repeated by later historians and literary critics until corrected by Sir Sidney Lee
Sidney Lee
Sir Sidney Lee was an English biographer and critic.He was born Solomon Lazarus Lee at 12 Keppel Street, Bloomsbury, London and educated at the City of London School and at Balliol College, Oxford, where he graduated in modern history in 1882. In the next year he became assistant-editor of the...
in the Dictionary of National Biography
Dictionary of National Biography
The Dictionary of National Biography is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published from 1885...
.
Little is known of Ferrers' last years. Ferrers had been a member of Parliament for several constituencies during the years 1542-1555, and in 1571 he was returned for St Albans. He is said to have supported the claim to the succession of Mary, Queen of Scots, and to have corresponded with her agent in England, John Lesley
John Lesley
John Lesley was a Scottish Roman Catholic bishop and historian. His father was Gavin Lesley, rector of Kingussie, Badenoch.-Early career:...
, Bishop of Ross
Bishop of Ross
The Bishop of Ross was the ecclesiastical head of the Diocese of Ross, one of Scotland's 13 medieval bishoprics. The first recorded bishop appears in the late 7th century as a witness to Adomnán of Iona's Cáin Adomnáin. The bishopric was based at the settlement of Rosemarkie until the mid-13th...
. Ferrers died at Flamstead
Flamstead
Flamstead is a village and civil parish in north-west Hertfordshire, England, close to the junction of the A5 and the M1 motorway at junction 9. The name is thought by some historians to be a corruption of the original Verulamstead...
in Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
, and was buried there on 11 January 1579.
Marriages and issue
Ferrers' first wife was Elizabeth, the widow of his friend Humphrey Bourchier (d.1540), whom he married by 10 December 1541. On 29 July 1548 he obtained the reversionReversion (law)
A reversion is a type of "remainder" interest created when incomplete ownership in property is alienated subject to a condition subsequent. Upon the fulfillment of the condition subsequent, the incomplete possessory rights cease to exist and exclusive ownership returns to the holder of the...
of her right to the lease of Markyate Priory
Markyate Priory
Markyate Priory was a Benedictine priory in Bedfordshire, England. It was established in 1145 and disestablished in 1537.-History:The priory of Markyate was founded in the year 1145, in a wood which was then part of the parish of Caddington, and belonged to the Dean and Chapter of St Paul's...
. His second wife was Jane, the daughter of John Southcote of St Albans, whom he married by licence dated 5 March 1546, and with whom he had a son, Julius. Ferrers married, as his third wife, by licence dated 29 November 1569, Margaret Preston, by whom he had at least three other sons and two daughters.
External links
- Sidney Lee's DNB entry for Edward Ferrers
- Sidney Lee's DNB entry for George Ferrers
- Ferrers, George (c.1510–1579)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 7 Sept 2008]