Map Key and Documentary Sources

The Map Key (see pages 164–65) offers a partial representation of the locations of black people in Elizabethan London derived from documentary sources and superimposed on [Georg Braun and Frans Hogenberg], Londinum feracissimi Angliae Regni metropolis ([Cologne], [1574]), hand-colored and letterpress text in Latin on back from 1635 edition; Folger Shakespeare Library Shelfmark: MAP L85c no.27. This map is used by permission of the Folger Shakespeare Library under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. All locations are approximate. For the locations that exceed the borders of the map, arrows indicate approximate direction. The numbered entries of the Documentary Sources correspond to the numbers on the Map Key. The list of Documentary Sources begins below and continues on page 166, following the Map Key. For a color image of this scholarly map with additional markings for recorded residential neighborhoods of theater personnel and for documented residences of Shakespeare in London, see the cover of this issue.

1. 1. 6 May 1565, St. Mary the Virgin, Aldermanbury, baptism: “Jhon the Blackamor.” Registers of St Mary the Virgin, Aldermanbury, ed. W. Bruce Bannerman (London: John Whitehead and Sons, 1931), p. 26.

2. 2. 23 May 1566, St. Mary the Virgin, Aldermanbury, burial: “Jhon, a Blackamoor.” Registers of St Mary the Virgin, Aldermanbury, ed. Bannerman, p. 27.

3. 3. 15 December 1567, St. Michael Paternoster, (under “Vyntry Ward”): “Blackmor 2.” “The Bishop of London’s Certificate,” in A Collection of State Papers Relating to Affairs of the Reigns of King Henry VIII, King Edward VI, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, ed. S. Haynes, 2 vols. (London: William Bowyer, 1740), 1:457.

4. 4. n. d. 1567, St. Olave, Old Jewry, (under “Vyntry Ward”): “Moore, Robert Tego, a Morisco servaunt with Thomas Castlyn Not denizens.” Returns of Aliens Dwelling in the City and Suburbs of London from the Reign of Henry VIII to that of James I, ed. R. E. G. and Ernest Kirk, 10 vols. (Nendeln, Leichtenstein: Kraus Reprints, 1969), 1:336.

5. 5. n. d. 1567 (under the Ward of Colman Street): “St. Olives [sic] [St. Olave’s, Old Jewry] “Niger 1.” “The Bishop of London’s Certificate,” in A Collection of State Papers Relating to Affairs of the Reigns of King Henry VIII, King Edward VI, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, ed. Haynes, 1:460.

6. 6. n. d. 1567 (under “Bushopsgate Ward” [sic] [Bishopsgate Ward]): “Moryon ‘Francys Fran’, in the house of … Peter Fanall 4 yeres No denizen.” Returns of Aliens Dwelling in the City and Suburbs of London from the Reign of Henry VIII to that of James I, ed. R. E. G. and Kirk, 1:323.

   • . Note: For entries 4, 5, and 6, above, because St. Olave’s, Old Jewry sat on the border of Colman Street Ward and Bishopsgate Ward, it was often identified interchangeably with the names of those two wards.

7. 7. 27 September 1571, St. Martin in the Fields, burial record: “Septes Fuit Marareta a Moore [Margareta a Moore was seven].” The Registers of Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials in the Parish of St. Martin in the Fields, ed. John Mason (London: Mitchell and Hughes, 1898–1936), p. 116.

1. 8. 14 April 1574, Whitehall Palace, Westminster, Queen Elizabeth’s household documents: “[given] a gasket Coate for a litell blak a More.” BL Egerton 2806, fol. 270, warrant dated 14 April 1574; cited by Janet Arnold, Queen Elizabeth’s Wardrobe Unlock’d (Leeds, UK: Maney, 1988), p. 106.

2. 9. n. d. 1582, All Sayntes [sic] (Saints) Staynings Parish, Langbourne Ward, City Census and Tax Assessment: “In the house of John Baptista Sambitores: Fardinando, a blackamore … iiij d.” Returns of Aliens Dwelling in the City and Suburbs of London from the Reign of Henry VIII to that of James I, ed. R. E. G. and Kirk, 2:235; “1582 London Subsidy Roll: Langeburne [sic] [Langbourne] Ward,” in Two Tudor Subsidy Rolls for the City of London 1541 and 1582, ed. R. G. Lang (London: London Record Society, 1993), p. 360; also available at http://www.british-history.ac.uk/london...