Anne Bedingfeild

Anne Bedingfeild or Anne Draper (1560 – 1641) was an English theatre landlord and a benefactor.

Anne Bedingfeild
Memorial brass to Bedingfeild in Darsham church
Born
Anne Draper

1560
Probably Middlesex
Died1641
Probably Darsham
NationalityKingdom of England
Occupationlandowner
Known forinvolved with early theatre
Spouse(s)Eustace Bedingfeld
ChildrenAnne

Life

Bedingfeild was born in 1560 to John and Mary Draper. When her father died he left his brewery business to Mary and her children. He left some land specifically to Anne on what was known as the Seckford estate. The land was still held in trust after the death of Thomas Seckford to fund almhouses that Seckford had also left in his will.[1] Anne had these lands from (probably) the age of sixteen.[2]

In 1579 she married into the recusant family of Eustace Bedingfeld. Bedingfeld lived at Holme Hall.[3] He died in 1599 and Anne took over the management of their affairs. In 1605 her lease of the Seckford land was sub-let to a tailor cum innkeeper named Aaron Holland and to an actor named Martin Slater. The Red Bull Theatre was built by Holland around an existing inn and a company of players called the "Queen's Servants" were resident. Notably one of the plays by their main playwright Thomas Heywood made fun of Sir Henry Bedingfeld who had been the "jailer" of Queen Elizabeth when she was just a princess. This was unusual as Sir Henry Bedingfeld was her dead husband's uncle.[1]

When she died in 1641 there was a memorial brass placed in All Saints church in Durston which includes a picture of her in a watchman's greatcoat. The plaque notes that she was 80 years and seven months old.[3] Her will included instructions to her daughter to continue to look after seven poor men in Clerkenwell.[1]

References
  1. Griffith, E. (2004-09-23). Bedingfeild [née Draper], Anne (1560–1641), theatre landlord and benefactor. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 7 Dec. 2017, from link
  2. Eva Griffith (28 November 2013). A Jacobean Company and its Playhouse: The Queen's Servants at the Red Bull Theatre (c.1605–1619). Cambridge University Press. pp. 43–. ISBN 978-1-107-47135-1.
  3. Alfred Suckling (1846). The history and antiquities of the County of Suffolk. pp. 225–.
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