Extract

THE known biographical facts about William Haughton, author of the play Englishmen for My Money (written in 1598), have been marshalled by David Kathman for his Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry. The article incorporates the work of Kathman's Dictionary of National Biography predecessor, A. H. Bullen, the impressive but occasionally dated research in A. C. Baugh's 1917 critical edition of Englishmen, and E. K. Chambers's biography of Haughton in The Elizabethan Stage.1 Most biographical detail relates to Haughton's death: Kathman has already detailed Haughton's nuncupative will, made on 6 June 1605 in the London parish of All Hallows Staining, and proved by his widow, Alice, on 20 July 1605.2 His inventory of moveable property was valued at £19.1s.

Kathman suggests that Haughton ‘probably died within a day or two’ after making the will.3 A hitherto unidentified burial receipt, found in Thomas Parrot's churchwarden's account for All Hallows Staining, confirms this.4 The receipt reads:

   £s d 

June i605 i0 Received for the buriall of Mr Hawton ________________ 00 ii i0

This record provides us with the important information that, on 10 June 1605, a ‘Mr Hawton’ was buried for a fee of 11s.10d.5 Although it is unfortunate that the first name for this record is not supplied, a consistency in the surname, parish, and dates in surviving records accumulatively occurs beyond coincidence: as Kathman suspected, Haughton indeed appears to have died a day or two after making his will on 6 June 1605, as he was doubtless buried only four days later.

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