Shakespeare: The Hull Connection

There is a trail, still being researched, which suggests a link between Shakespeare, his group of actors, The King’s Men, and Hull.

The key figure in this mystery is John Jackson – a name linked closely to Shakespeare himself, and one connected to the city of Hull through business and possibly the place of Jackson’s birth.

The connections have even led some academics to ask whether Shakespeare’s actors The Kings Men – the premier troupe of his day – actually performed in far-flung Hull itself.

If proven to be true, it tantalisingly shows the strength in demand for his plays – no matter how tough the terrain or distance. (Academics believe that travelling by land was still the most common form of transport in this time – and there was a road running from York to Hull.)

Dr Diana Wyatt, research associate for Durham University and Yorkshire East Riding Editor for the Records of Early English Drama, tries to unravel the mystery:

In March 1613, according to the surviving title deed, Shakespeare purchased the gatehouse at the Blackfriars in Puddle Dock, close to the Blackfriars Theatre where The King’s Men performed. The title deed includes the information that three trustees were associated with Shakespeare in the purchase: William Johnson, John Heminge and John Jackson.

Johnson has been confidently identified as the landlord of the Mermaid Tavern, and Heminge was probably Shakespeare’s fellow-member of The King’s Men who would help to compile the First Folio.

John Jackson has proved trickier to pin down, but an article by Leslie Hotson intriguingly, and very plausibly, connects him with Hull. Hotson notes that Jackson bequeathed money in his will to Esther White, daughter of John White, a former chamberlain of Hull, and also left property in Hull to his wife with reversion to John Lockwood, defaulting to Peter Lockwood and then to Esther White.

Hotson has also shown that John Jackson was engaged in business with prominent Hull merchants including John White, Joseph Field and John Ramsden (the latter two both in their time mayors of Hull, and both buried in Holy Trinity Church there).

It seems likely that the original link between Jackson and Shakespeare was John Heminge, who after being appointed one of ten seacoal-meters for the city of London appointed a John Jackson as his deputy.

John Jackson is not an uncommon name, but in this case a single individual, an associate of Heminge and introduced by him to Shakespeare, is more likely than two separate individuals of the same name.

REED research on Hull has not so far found any proven link between John Jackson and the city, but his lasting association with several prominent Hull merchants and members of the city corporation is striking, and does suggest that he originated in or near Hull itself.

What significance that might have had in theatrical terms remains speculative at this stage, but Leslie Hotson has opened a fascinating line of enquiry by noting that the account by John Taylor the Water Poet of his Very Merry Wherry-Ferry-Voyage by coast and inland waterways from London to York in 1622 includes the information that he made a (rather alarmingly stormy) detour down the Humber from the mouth of the Trent to Hull, where he was greeted by Alderman Field and others to whom his friend ‘Mr I.I.’ had given him letters of introduction.

Hotson is persuaded that ‘Mr I.I.’ must be Shakespeare’s trustee, and although it has not yet been proved, it is - like most of his case - quite plausibly presented.

If we accept the identification for the purposes of argument, it opens up a new possibility: that The King’s Men may have toured as far as Hull. There are two arguments against it: one is that successive Hull corporations in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries had a pronounced Puritan streak which expressed itself in, among other pronouncements, a 1599 prohibition against any inhabitant of Hull going to see public performances of any plays or interludes. Certainly the contemporary corporation records, though regularly recording the appointment of waits, are pretty silent on visiting actors.

The second argument against any visit to Hull by The King’s Men (or any other London company) is the sheer difficulty of getting there: Hull is well to the east of main roads from London to the north.

The Hull prohibition of public plays might not prevent a company (such as The King’s Men) with not only respectable credentials, but also perhaps personal letters of introduction from a reputable associate of some of the great and good of the city, from being received and rewarded for private performances in the houses of merchants. Research continues...