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Revisiting Anne Line: Who Was She and Where Did She Come From?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 February 2015

Martin Dodwell
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Abstract

Anne Line ran a safe-house for Catholic priests in London during the 1590s, a time when such activities were a capital offence. She worked closely with two of the most hunted priests in England, the Jesuit superior Henry Garnet and his fellow Jesuit John Gerard, and was arrested and executed in February 1601. Although seemingly little known, it has been suggested that Shakespeare alludes to her in several works implying that the impact of her life and death on her contemporaries may have been underestimated. This fresh look at the documentary evidence seeks to clarify Anne Line's identity and the circumstances of her life up to the exile of her husband in 1586. Findings include; strong support for the suggestion that Anne Line was indeed the ‘Alice Higham’ who married Roger Line in 1583, the likely location of her childhood home near Maldon in Essex, connections to recusant networks through an aunt also called ‘Anne Line’, and evidence, previously overlooked, that Anne Line was closely related to Giles Aleyn, a Puritan landowner whose demands for increased rent from James Burbage for the site of his theatre in Shoreditch led to the founding of The Globe in Southwark.

‘I sent my fellow-prisoner with John Lillie to my house, where Mistress Line, that saintly widow, was in charge’ (John Gerard, Autobiography, p. 137)

Type
Articles
Information
British Catholic History , Volume 31 , Issue 3 , May 2013 , pp. 375 - 389
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 2013

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References

Notes

1 The relevant statute is 27 Elizabeth c.2. See Tanner, Tudor Constitutional Documents (London, 1971), pp. 154–159.Google Scholar

2 John, Stow, [Annals] A summary of the chronicles of England … to 1604, edited by Barrett, L. Beer (Lampeter, 2007), p. 458.Google Scholar

3 Anne Line generally appears as an entry in a collection such as the Dictionary of National Biography or the Catholic Encyclopaedia, the notable exceptions being two CTS pamphlets about her by Canon, Whitfield, Blessed Ann Line (1932),Google Scholar and Michael, O'Dwyer (Blessed Anne Line, Convert and Martyr (1961)Google Scholar both of which contain useful lists of sources. The first book-length biography, Anne Line: Shakespeare's Tragic Muse, by the present author, is scheduled for publication by Book Guild Publishing Ltd in September 2013.

4 John, Finnis and Patrick, Martin, ‘Another turn for the Turtle: Shakespeare's intercession for Love's Martyr’, Times Literary Supplement, April 18, 2003, 12–14;Google Scholar Clara, Longworth, My Shakespeare, Rise! (Stratford upon Avon and London, 1935).Google Scholar See also Clara, Longworth, Shakespeare a Portrait Restored, (London, 1957).Google Scholar Note that ‘The Phoenix and Turtle’ poem was untitled when first published and appears as ‘Let the bird of loudest lay’ in some modern editions.

5 See Richard, Wilson, Secret Shakespeare (Manchester and New York, 2004), p. 201.Google Scholar

6 The Tempest 4.1.235. Shakespeare quotations are from The Riverside Shakespeare 2nd Edition (Boston, 1997).

7 This episode is described in Henry Garnet's letter to Claudio Aquaviva, 11 March 1601, Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu (ARSI), Anglia 31 II, fols. 172v – 183v (hereafter Garnet, ‘Letter’). A rather approximate translation of this letter from the original Italian was published in Foley's, Records of the English Province of the Society of Jesus, vol. 7, [‘Addenda’ part 2], pp. 1344–1367 (London, 1877–83). A more accurate summary of the Anne Line material can be found in Caraman's, Henry Garnet 1555–1606 and the Gunpowder Plot (New York, 1964), pp. 277–281.

8 There are four surviving contemporary accounts of Anne Line's execution; Henry Garnet's is included in his letter of 11 March 1601 (see note 7 above); there is an anonymous account in Manuscripts of the Duke of Rutland at Belvoir Castle, vol. 1 (London, 1888), pp. 369–370; the unpublished Latin MS ‘Annales Elizabethae Reginae’ , pp. 1009–1013 by Anthony Champney held at Westminster Diocesan Archive; and Thomas Jollet, ‘Authoritates’ (Brudenell MS), Bodleian Lib. MS Eng. th. b. 2, fols. 117,118. For a transcript of the latter see Shanahan, “Petticoats on the Gallows”, Essex Recusant vol. 10, num. 3 (Dec 1968), 107–110.

9 Garnet, ‘Letter’, fols. 172v–183v; John, Gerard, The Autobiography of an Elizabethan, trans. by Philip, Caraman, intro. Michael, Hodgetts (Oxford, 2006)Google Scholar (hereafter Gerard, Autobiography), pp. 81, 82.

10 Gerard, Autobiography, p. 86.

11 Gerard, Autobiography, pp. 82, 83.

12 Gerard, Autobiography, pp. 82, 83.

13 See below and Gerard, Autobiography, p. 83.

14 See Christine, Kelly, ‘Line, Anne [St Anne Line] (d. 1601)’, ODNB online edition, updated article Jan 2009,Google Scholar and below.

15 See Kelly, ODNB.

16 Gerard, Autobiography, p. 82.

17 See ‘Heigham’, ODNB.

18 See Morant, History and Antiquities of Essex, 1.15. William Heigham Esq. lived at East Ham, about 25 miles from Chelmsford, where he died in 1620 and was buried in the Parish Church. According to Morant, among his eight children was a son called William and a daughter called Anne, but this Anne Heigham married a William Dutton.

19 See ERO; Q/SR 97/2, 2a (1586); Q/SR 113/2, 2A (1590); Q/SR 123/2–3 (1593)

20 Gerard is not always accurate on the detail. He asserts later that Anne Line's trial was ‘a few months’ after her arrest when in fact it was less than a month later. See Gerard, Autobiography, p. 85.

21 Kelly, ODNB.

22 BL Add. Ch. 5982. Monsignor Daniel Shanahan discusses this document with a partial transcription in ‘Anne Line, nee Heigham: Where was she born?’ Essex Recusant 5 (Brentwood, 1963), 22–26, and credits A.F. Allison for first noting it though it must has been known much earlier to Clara Longworth's source Fr Newdigate. I am indebted to the researchers at the British Library for tracking it down again as there is an error in Shanahan's reference. Line is spelt ‘Lyne’ in the latter document. Where I have standardized the spelling to Line it is in all cases from this variant.

23 It has long been thought that Anne Line's husband was Roger Line of Ringwood. Eg., Longworth, Shakespeare A Portrait Restored, p. 240, and more recently Hodgetts’ note in Gerard, Autobiography, p. 238 n.83, and Kelly, ODNB. Shanahan, ‘Anne Line, nee Heigham: Where was she born?’, 24, claims that the Ringwood parish register records the baptism of Roger Line on 30 August 1564, but this may be a miss-reading of a ‘Roger Bissopp’ next to a ‘Thomas Lynde’. If this is not Roger Line's baptism record then it is probably irretrievably lost. The Ringwood records start in 1561 but are partially damaged and the years 1565–70 are missing altogether. It must also be taken into account that Roger Line is known as ‘of Ringwood’ due to being the heir of his uncle Richard Lyne, but his father's land appears to have been in the parish of Fordingbridge and he was probably baptised there. Unfortunately there are no surviving sixteenth-century baptism records for Fordingbridge parish.

24 According to Burke's General Armory (London, 1842), ‘LYNE’, the first [Line] to receive a grant of arms was Richard [Line] of Chichester and Ringwood in the second year of Philip and Mary (1554/55).

25 Gerard, Autobiography, p. 83.

26 The will of Richard Lyne was proved 4 May 1587 (PCC PROB 11/70). The manor of Laybrook, owned by the same Richard [Line] of Chichester, was quit-claimed by Roger Line in 1586 and went to his younger brother Richard who was in possession of this property when he died in 1599. See, A History of the County of Hampshire, vol. 4. (London, 1911) pp. 610–11.Google Scholar

27 The Visitation of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, 1686. Harleian New Series, Vol. 10 (London, 1991);Google Scholar Pedigrees from the Visitation of Hampshire 1530, 1575, 1622–34, Harleian New Series, Vol. 64 (London, 1991); will of John [Line]: PCC PROB 11/87.

28 The Visitation of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, 1686, p. 27.

29 Pedigrees from the Visitation of Hampshire 1530, 1575, 1622 -34, p. 203.

30 Will of John Lyne: PCC PROB 11/87. Will of Agnes Line: PCC PROB 11/101. I am indebted to Michael Andrews-Reading for directing me to the wills.

31 Shanahan, despite his study of this document, remained perplexed by the discrepancy between the names Anne and Alice and the inconsistency in the Essex visitations records dealt with below. He was also unaware of the wills of John and Agnes Lyne that have only come to light in recent years.

32 Gerard, Autobiography, p. 83.

33 BL Add. Ch. 5982.

34 BL Add. Ch. 5982. The relevant clause is transcribed in Shanahan, ‘Anne Line, nee Heigham: Where was she born?’, 23.

35 BL Add. Ch. 5982. Among the sessions rolls at the ERO are two references to ‘William Higham of “Gynken Maldon”, gentleman’ among lists of citizens liable to contribute to the repair of local bridges in 1580 and 1581: ERO Q/SR 74/62, 63; Q/SR 78/50, 51, 52.

36 Victoria County History of Essex, vol. 2 (London, 1907), pp.189–190.Google Scholar

37 Morant, The History and Antiquities of Essex, vol. 1, part 2, (London, 1768), p.330.

38 Morant, facing page 190. The name on this map is ‘Maldon Jenkins’, other variants include Jenkynmaldons and Gynken Maldon.

39 Visitations of Essex, PT 1, Harleian Vol. 13 (London, 1878), p. 218.Google Scholar

40 Visitations of Essex, PT 1, p. 218. The spelling here is ‘Allen’ but I have standardized to ‘Aleyn’; common variants include ‘Aleyne’, ‘Alleyne’ and ‘Alleyn’.

41 Visitations of Essex, PT 1, p. 133.

42 Jenkyn Maldon and Hazeleigh Hall were the two principal houses in Hazeleigh parish. It has so far gone unremarked that, on this account, Anne Line was related to Giles Aleyn of Hazeleigh, the Puritan owner of the land at Shoreditch where Burbage built The Theatre. The well-known dispute over the lease led to the building of The Globe south of the river. See James, Shapiro, A Year in the Life of Shakespeare: 1599 (London, 2005), pp. 4, 7.Google Scholar

43 See Burke, ‘Alleyne, of Hatfield’ Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies, (London, 1841), pp. 3, 4 Google Scholar; Morant, 343f. The confusion is due in part to there being two Giles Aleyn's in close proximity. I think it most likely that Giles Aleyn of Hatfield Peverell was Agnes Aleyn's brother, and Giles Aleyn of Hazeleigh (and Shoreditch) was her first cousin.

44 The Clockhouse has an impressive Dutch-styled brick frontage added to an older house, and it is possible that the money to pay for this came from the sale detailed in the 1586 indenture. A very similar brick frontage can be seen at Mortimer's Hall, the house of one of William Higham's neighbours near Maldon.

45 McCoog, English and Welsh Jesuits, 1555–1650, Part 2, p. 206. According to the records of the Jesuit order, William Higham was enrolled on 20th December 1598 in Rome and then early in 1599 obtained permission to go to Spain where he served as a brother at the English College at Valladolid, dying there in 1625. His birth is recorded as 1566, in the diocese of Colchester, Essex.

46 The Harleian ‘1612’ visitation incorporates material from 1570 to 1583 and is regarded as more accurate than the ‘1558’ records. See, preface to Harleian vol. 13.

47 ERO, T/A 418/10/6, ASS 35/8/4/6.

48 The 1612 visitation (p.133) refers to a Giles Aleyn ‘of Hatfield Peverell’, a village about five miles north west of Maldon.

49 Rosen, Witchcraft in England, 1558–1618 (Univ. of Massachusetts Press, 1969), pp 39, 171.

50 Parish Register, Woodham Ferrers, 3 September 1560: ERO, D/P 198/1/1.

51 Garnet, ‘Letter’, 11 March 1601.

52 Shanahan drew attention to this in ‘Anne Line nee Heigham: Where was she born?’, 22–26. ‘Guldeford’ is a common contemporary spelling that changes later to ‘Guildford’. The family seat was at Hemsted in Kent.

53 Smith-Bannister, Names and Naming Patterns in England, 1538–1700 (Oxford, 1997).Google Scholar

54 CSP Addenda 1580–1624, 32.64. Shanahan suggests that the Guldeford connection may explain the introduction to the Earl of Worcester's household, ‘Anne Line nee Heigham: Where was she born?’, 22–26.

55 Gerard, Autobiography, p. 83; CSP 12/190; CSP 12/195. The prison lists are transcribed in CRS 2.

56 CSP 12/190 f.78.

57 Gerard, Autobiography, p. 83.

58 Challoner, Memoirs of Missionary Priests (London, 1924), p. 258.Google Scholar

59 23 Elizabeth, c.1., see Tanner, Tudor Constitutional Documents, pp. 150–154; 153.

60 CSP 12/195 f.95.

61 Berden writes ‘Sir, if it please you to procure me the liberty of Ralph Bickley, seminary priest in the Gatehouse, at his honour's hand, it will be worth 20/. to me; and the liberty also of Richard Sherwood, alias, Carlton, prisoner in the Counter in Wood Street, will be worth 30l. They crave their liberty upon bonds with sureties to appear again at twenty days warning. The money will do me great pleasure, being now in extreme need thereof.’ CSP 12/195 f.135. There is a partial transcription in Morris, Troubles II (London, 1872), p.161f.

62 A letter to Secretary Walsingham dated 30 July 1586 mentions ‘one Higham lately condemned for hearing a mass, and enlarged out of the [Counter]’ (CSP 53/18 f.185).

63 Longworth, Shakespeare: A Portrait Restored, p. 240.

64 CSP 12/195 f.133.

65 CSP Domestic 195.74; 195.73.

66 CSP 12/249 f.142. Canon Whitfield, Blessed Ann Line, noted the existence of this letter.

67 CSP 12/249 f.142.

68 CSP 12/249 f.142.

69 CSP 12/249 f.142.

70 See Calendar of the Salisbury Manuscripts at Hatfield House vol. 12 p.704.Google Scholar This undated letter states that William Higham is in London. It is listed in the calendar under 1602–3 but must relate to 1594 because it mentions that Nicholas Owen is in the Gatehouse. I am indebted to Patrick Martin for drawing my attention to this letter and pointing out the date.

71 The Douai Diaries (London, 1878) vol.1, p. 280,Google Scholar lists one ‘Rogerus Lyne, Southantoniens’ as matriculating at the college in 1594. The 1585 statute is 27 Elizabeth c.2. see Tanner, Tudor Constitutional Documents, pp. 154–159.

72 Garnet, ‘Letter’, fol. 180.

73 PCC PROB 11/114. Roger Line's father and son were both called John.

74 Garnet, ‘Letter’, fols. 172v–183v.; See ‘The Passion of the Holy Martyrs Perpetua and Felicity’, Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 3 (Buffalo, 1885),Google Scholar or online at [http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0324.htm] accessed 16/2/2013.