John and Jane Daniell
In late May 1601, officers of the Court of Star Chamber
at Westminster arrived in Hackney with warrants for the arrest of the
tenant of the rectory. He was a country gentleman from Cheshire and
would-be courtier, in his fifties, called John Daniell. He had moved
to Hackney less than a year previously with his wife Jane, a Protestant
exile from the Low Countries, and their children.
He was accused of blackmailing £1,720 from the Countess
of Essex, by threatening to reveal to the authorities the contents of
letters to her from her husband the Earl. She had deposited these letters
for safe keeping with Jane Daniell, whom she had formerly employed as
her gentlewoman. The Earl of Essex, Elizabeth I's disgraced favourite,
had been John's patron but the relationship had not produced the material
rewards he had expected.
John was tried and imprisoned and their house and goods
were seized by the Crown. An inventory of their possessions was written
down and the document survives to this day. Browse the inventory and drawings of the goods.
As part of the Tudor Hackney project, a play was performed
to local Hackney schools re-enacting this story of 'The Dysasters and
Misfortunes of John and Jane Daniell'.
At the same time, a video was produced of their story
and this can be viewed as video clips or as words and pictures.
The video clips will take a few moments to load depending on the speed
of your modem and you will require Windows Media Player to run them. Download
Windows Media Player first if not already loaded, then select the View
option matching your Internet access type
The pictures are stills from the video clips and are presented along
with text to tell the story of the Daniells.