Eleanor Bull (c. 1550 – 1596) was an English woman, known for owning the establishment in which

Christopher Marlowe Christopher Marlowe ( ; Baptism, baptised 26 February 156430 May 1593), also known as Kit Marlowe, was an English playwright, poet, and translator of the Elizabethan era. Marlowe is among the most famous of the English Renaissance theatre, Eli ...

, the Elizabethan playwright and poet, was killed in 1593.

Life

Eleanor (or Elinor) Whitney was daughter of James Whitney and Sybil, née Parry, of

Clifford, Herefordshire Clifford is a village and civil parish in Herefordshire, England, and to the north of Hay-on-Wye. It lies on the south bank of the River Wye, which here forms the Wales-England border, border between Wales and England. The village sits on the ...

; she was, according to Charles Nicholl, "a woman of substance, well-born and well-connected" rather than the "shabby old ale-house keeper" of some depictions.''The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe'', Charles Nicholl, Vintage, 2002, p. 41 Eleanor was a niece of

Blanche Parry Blanche Parry (1507/8–12 February 1590) of Newcourt in the parish of Bacton, Herefordshire, in the Welsh Marches, was a personal attendant of Queen Elizabeth I, who held the offices of Chief Gentlewoman of the Queen's Most Honourable Privy C ...

, a companion of Queen

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last and longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudo ...

. Blanche gave Eleanor a legacy of £100 in her will in 1589. The Whitney family, from a junior branch of which Eleanor's father came, were "an ancient border-country family" with a castle at Whitney-on-Wye in

Herefordshire Herefordshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England, bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh ...

. They can be traced back to the thirteenth century, and "provided generations of county knights, MPs and sheriffs"; a generation prior, James Whitney (son of James Whitney of Whitney and Pen-cwm and Blanche Milborne, who raised

and

Edward VI Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was King of England and King of Ireland, Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death in 1553. He was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of nine. The only surviving son of Henry VIII by his thi ...

; Blanche's sister, Alice, was mother of Sybil and Blanche Parry) had been Server of the Chamber to

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is known for his Wives of Henry VIII, six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. ...

. Eleanor married Richard Bull October 14, 1571 at

St Mary-le-Bow The Church of St Mary-le-Bow () is a Church of England parish church in the City of London, England. Located on Cheapside, one of the city's oldest thoroughfares, the church was founded in 1080, by Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury. Rebuilt s ...

, London. He held the post of sub-bailiff at Sayes Court and worked for the Clerk of the Green Cloth. He died in 1590.Park Honan, ''Christopher Marlowe: Poet and Spy'', Oxford University Press, 2005, p.344. After her husband's death, she stayed at their house on Deptford Strand,

Deptford Deptford is an area on the south bank of the River Thames in southeast London, in the Royal Borough of Greenwich and London Borough of Lewisham. It is named after a Ford (crossing), ford of the River Ravensbourne. From the mid 16th century ...

, which was in

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

, but is now within London. The house became a form of hotel or "rooming house in which meals were served". Her normal clientele included supervisors or inspectors at the dockyards, exporters of quality goods, and merchants involved in imports from Russia and the Baltic ports." She died in Deptford and was buried on March 19, 1596.

Death of Marlowe

Eleanor is known because it was at her house in which

was killed by stabbing during a quarrel with

Ingram Frizer Ingram Frizer ( ; died August 1627) was an English gentleman and businessman of the late 16th and early 17th centuries who is notable for his reported killing "According to the official story – the story told by Skeres and Poley – it was Marlo ...

. Also present were

Nicholas Skeres Nicholas Skeres (March 1563 – c. 1601) was an Elizabethan con-man and government informer—i.e. a "professional deceiver"—and one of the three "gentlemen" who were with the poet and playwright Christopher Marlowe when he was killed in Deptfo ...

and

Robert Poley Robert Poley, or Pooley (fl. 1568– aft. 1602) was an English double agent, government messenger and ''agent provocateur'' employed by members of the Privy Council during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I; he was described as "the very genius of ...

. All had spent most of the day at Bull's house, apparently engaged in conversation, eating and drinking. At the inquest it was stated that the quarrel was over the bill (known as "the reckoning") for the day's events. Leslie Hotson, who first identified the documents relating to the inquest described Bull's house as a "tavern", leading to accounts of her as a kind of

Mistress Quickly Mistress Nell Quickly is a fictional character who appears in several plays by William Shakespeare. She is an inn-keeper, who runs the Boar's Head Tavern, at which Sir John Falstaff and his disreputable cronies congregate. The character app ...

of Deptford "who is always ready to let a room for some disreputable purpose".H. N. Gibson, ''The Shakespeare Claimants: A Critical Survey of the Four Principle Theories concerning the Authorship of the Shakespearean Plays'', Barnes & Noble, 1962, p.129.

References

Sources

*''The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe'' by Charles Nicholl intage; New Ed edition (3 Oct 2002)

External links

Family summary for James and Sybil (Parry) Whitney
on the Whitney Research Group wiki website]. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bull, Eleanor People from Deptford 1596 deaths 1550s births 16th-century English businesswomen 16th-century English businesspeople English women in business