Searches through the plea rolls of the Court of Common Pleas have revealed a number of actions involving, separately, the Tudor composers Christopher Tye and John Taverner, and Taverner’s widow, Rose. These yield the earliest sighting of Taverner so far, the date of his marriage, and two transactions in which he is involved in the transfer of property. Rose is shown defending a claim of debt incurred by John Copley, her previous husband, and attempting to recover debts owed, in one case, to her late son and, in others, to John Taverner. For Tye, no fewer than twenty-seven cases have been discovered, in almost all of which he is the defendant in a claim of debt. They shed light upon his contacts outside music and suggest that his principal places of residence were in Ely from 1547 to at least 1556, and at Doddington after 1561. They also reveal that he was claiming to be a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal much earlier than previously realised. Rose Taverner and Tye also feature in cases brought in the Court of Chancery, one of which reveals the name of Tye’s mother and the town in which she had lived.
