Witter v. Heminges and Condell: Shareholdings in the Globe: Decree and Order books (second entry)

In 1606 John Witter of Mortlake, Surrey, married Anne Phillips, widow of Augustine Phillips, a member of the King’s Men who had died in 1605. Though Anne was both a beneficiary and the executrix of her deceased husband’s estate, a clause in Phillips’s will stipulated that, should she re-marry, the executorship of the estate, including the Phillips share in the Globe, would pass to his overseers John Heminges, Richard Burbage, and William Slye, who were principal actors with the King’s Men, and to Timothy Whitehorn. Accordingly, in 1607, a year after Anne’s remarriage, the executorship passed to John Heminges (Playhouse Wills, p. 74). Following Anne’s death in January 1618, Witter sued Heminges and Henry Condell for her share in the Globe. The resulting lawsuit, from which eight documents survive, provides useful information on the Globe site and the Globe playhouse. One document, the Answer of Heminges and Condell specifically names William Shakespeare.

This contemporary Decree and Order Book, greatly decayed, preserves enough details of John Witter’s case against Heminges and Henry Condell to reveal that the case, which was opened on April 20, 1619 with Witter’s Complaint, continued to make its way through the courts to the end of 1619 and into 1620. There is also an earlier entry in the Decree and Order book, although both are difficult to date.