Jerome Savage, an actor with the Warwick's Men, sues Richard Hickes and Peter Hunningborne over their failure to honour his lease on the Newington Butts property. His bill of complaint provides details of the Newington lease and property. Savage claims that Hicks and Honingborne have conspired by underhanded means to deprive him of the property. His interest in the property, he explains, derives from Richard Thompson, who originally held a nineteen-year lease on the property. On 25 March 1576, Hicks granted Savage's request for a thirty-year lease on the property, for the sum of £10 and a yearly rent of four marks, due quarterly at four terms. A proviso in the lease granted Hicks the right to repossess the property 'if the said rent or any part thereof were behind in part or in all at any feast or day aforesaid wherein the said rent ought to be paid and by fourteen days after, being lawfully demanded.' Hicks, in the interest of repossessing the property for his son-in-law, now claims that Honingborne has a right in the property based on a grant ante-dating Savage's lease. Fearing, however, that this factitious lease may not be sufficient to defeat Savage's claim, Hicks and Honingborne have devised a further plot to dispossess Savage, as follows. At the feast of the annunciation, Savage left his quarterly rent in the charge of Thomas Whaston, with the order to pay the sum to Hicks when called upon. Aware of Savage's absence, Hicks deliberately avoided the house for the first thirteen days of the pay-period; Honingborne visited on the fourteenth day, when he knew that Whaston had gone to London. Claiming default of rent, Honingborne immediately took control of the property, and refused to yield or accept the money when Whaston returned and offered to pay. Honingborne again refused the rent when Whaston visited him at home, but subsequently received it through his wife, and has it now in his possession. Although they now have the rent, Hicks and Honingborne 'seek still to frustrate and make void the interest of your said subject by such their indirect and extreme dealing.'
| Name | Event Role(s) | Document Role(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Hickes, Richard | defendant | |
| Honingborne, Peter | defendant | |
| Savage, Jerome | plaintiff | |
| Thompson, Richard | tenant |