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词条 William Danby (coroner)
释义

  1. Lincoln's Inn

  2. Coroner of The Queen's Household

  3. The Marlowe inquest

  4. Notes

  5. References

{{EngvarB|date=September 2014}}{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2014}}{{About|the sixteenth-century coroner|the eighteenth and nineteenth writer|William Danby}}

William Danby (fl. 1542–1593) was a sixteenth-century lawyer and Coroner of the Queen's Household towards the end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. He is particularly noted for having presided over the inquest into the controversial death at Deptford in 1593 of the poet/dramatist Christopher Marlowe.

Lincoln's Inn

Although the date of Danby's birth is unknown, he is most probably the William Danby who entered Lincoln's Inn on 1 August 1542.[1] If so, his exact contemporary there was the father of Marlowe's friend and patron Thomas Walsingham, another Thomas, who was born in 1526.[2] Danby was therefore probably in his late sixties at the time of Marlowe's inquest.

Coroner of The Queen's Household

In 1589 Danby apparently took over the role of Coroner of The Queen's Household from Richard Vale. The first time Danby's name appears in this capacity (in the Middlesex records held at the London Metropolitan Archives) was for an inquest held in October 1589—in Shepperton, Middlesex—when he presided together with a county coroner, John Chalkhill, at the inquest on one Robert Wrote. Unfortunately for Danby, this case was later declared "insufficient"[3] because Chalkhill had not said in his report that Shepperton was within the verge, which was legally required to explain Danby's presence there.

We know that Danby's predecessor as the Royal coroner, Richard Vale, was also one of the coroners for Middlesex[4] Unfortunately only a very few (and irrelevant) Kentish inquests survive from that time to provide direct evidence that Danby similarly combined his royal responsibilities with those of a county coroner, and if he had been, it should have been noted in his report of Marlowe's inquest, which it did not.[5]

On the other hand, two other pieces of evidence suggest that he may have nevertheless also been a coroner for Kent. The first is that it would have been illegal for him to have presided on his own over the Marlowe inquest, as he did, unless he was also a coroner for Kent, as Deptford was both in Kent and, at the time, within the verge.[6] The other is that Leslie Hotson said that he had found a William Danby in Woolwich (in Kent, four or five miles east of Deptford) at that time,[7] and, although Hotson gave no reference for this claim, William Urry was prepared to acknowledge it as quite likely.[8]

The Marlowe inquest

Had there been no doubts about Danby's report of the inquest jury's verdict on Marlowe's death, the name of William Danby would have probably disappeared by now. Some biographers still accept the story told at the inquest as a true account,[9] but the majority of the more recent ones find the verdict of a killing in self-defence difficult to accept, and think that it must have been a deliberate murder, even though there is no agreement as to who was behind it or just what their motive might have been for arranging it.[10] The Marlovian theory even argues that the most logical reason for those people to have been there at that time was to fake Marlowe's death, allowing him to escape almost certain trial and execution for his seditious atheism.

The date of Danby's death is unknown, but there is no record of his having presided over any other inquest after this date, so the last we hear of him is when he obeys the command to send a copy of the Marlowe inquisition to the Court of Chancery on 15 June 1593.

Notes

1. ^Discovered by William Urry ({{harvnb|Urry|1988|p=92}}) and supported by Charles Nicholl ({{harvnb|Nicholl|2002|p=20}}) and Park Honan ({{harvnb|Honan|2005|p=354}}).
2. ^The Records of the Honorable Society of Lincoln's Inn. The Black Books, Vol. I, 1422–1586 (London, 1897). A William Danby is also mentioned in the Black Books as having, on 8 May 1553, agreed with Thomas Hardwick "to be responsible for the debts of Miles Sticke, late Steward."
3. ^See [https://books.google.com/books?id=4awvAAAAIAAJ&pg=RA2-PA45-IA1&dq=M3yAR_eXKZnOtAOjjfy_Cw The Reports of Edward Coke, knt. (1572–1617)] Part.IV pp.45–47.
4. ^From the item above, "...an inquisition taken before R. Vale, then coroner of the Queen's houshold and one of the coroners com. Midd. (of the county of Middlesex)". Similarly, Michael Burgess, the holder of that position today, is also the coroner for Surrey, and his predecessor, Sir John Burton, was coroner for West London. See an [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/how-much-does-he-earn-no-21-dr-john-burton-coroner-for-west-london-1428814.html item] in The Independent newspaper of 13 March 1994.
5. ^See {{harvnb|Hotson|1925|pp=28–34}} and the extract from Sir Edward Coke cited above (p.47).
6. ^{{harvnb|Honan|2005|p=354}}
7. ^{{harvnb|Hotson|1925|p=38}}
8. ^{{harvnb|Urry|1988|p=92}}
9. ^For example {{Harvnb|Kuriyama|2002|p=140}} and {{Harvnb|Downie|2000|pp=26–7}}
10. ^See, for example, {{Harvnb|Breight|1996|p=114}}, {{Harvnb|Hammer|1996|pp=225–242}}, {{Harvnb|Trow|2001|p=250}}, {{Harvnb|Nicholl|2002|pp=415–7}}, {{Harvnb|Kendall|2003|pp=272–9}}, {{Harvnb|Haynes|2004|pp=119–120}}, {{Harvnb|Riggs|2004|p=334}} and {{Harvnb|Honan|2005|p=354}} – all of whom offer different explanations.

References

{{refbegin}}
  • {{Cite book

|chapter = Marlowe, facts and fictions
|last = Downie
|first = J.A.
|title = Constructing Christopher Marlowe
|editor1-last = Downie
|editor1-first = J.A.
|editor2-last = Parnell
|editor2-first = J.T.
|publisher = Cambridge University Press
|year = 2000
|pages = 26–7
|isbn =978-0-521-57255-2
|ref = harv
}}
  • {{Cite book

|title = Surveillance, Militarism and Drama in the Elizabethan Era
|last = Breight
|first = Curtis C.
|publisher =
|location =
|year = 1996
|ref = harv
}}
  • {{Cite journal

|title = A Reckoning Reframed: the "Murder" of Christopher Marlowe Revisited
|last = Hammer
|first = Paul E.J.
|journal = English Literary Renaissance
|volume =
|issue =
|year = 1996
|pages = 225–242
|ref = harv
}}
  • {{Cite book

|title = The Elizabethan Secret Services
|last = Haynes
|first = Alan
|publisher = Sutton Publishing
|location =
|year = 2004
|isbn = 0-7509-4006-9
|ref = harv
}}
  • {{Cite book

|title = Christopher Marlowe: Poet & Spy
|last = Honan
|first = Park
|authorlink = Park Honan
|publisher = Oxford University Press
|location = Oxford
|year = 2005
|isbn = 978-0-19-818695-3
|ref = harv
}}
  • {{Cite book

|title = The Death of Christopher Marlowe
|last = Hotson
|first = Leslie
|authorlink = John Leslie Hotson
|publisher = Haskell House
|location = New York
|year = 1925
|ref = harv
}}
  • {{Cite book

|title = Christopher Marlowe and Richard Baines: Journeys through the Elizabethan Underground
|last = Kendall
|first = Roy
|publisher = Associated University Presses
|location = London
|year = 2003
|isbn = 0-8386-3974-7
|ref = harv
}}
  • {{Cite book

|title = Christopher Marlowe: A Renaissance Life
|last = Kuriyama
|first = Constance Brown
|publisher = Cornell University Press
|location = Ithaca
|year = 2002
|isbn = 0-8014-3978-7
|ref = harv
}}
  • {{Cite book

|title = The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe (2nd edition)
|last = Nicholl
|first = Charles
|publisher = Vintage
|location = London
|year = 2002
|isbn = 0-09-943747-3
|ref = harv
}}
  • {{Cite book

|title = Who Killed Kit Marlowe? A contract to murder in Elizabethan England
|last = Trow
|first = M.J.
|authorlink = M. J. Trow
|publisher = Sutton Publishing
|location =
|year = 2001
|isbn = 0-7509-2689-9
|ref = harv
}}
  • {{Cite book

|title = Christopher Marlowe and Canterbury
|last = Urry
|first = William
|publisher = Faber & Faber
|location = London
|year = 1988
|isbn = 0-571-14566-3
|ref = harv
}}{{Refend}}{{DEFAULTSORT:Dandby, William}}

3 : Date of death unknown|British coroners|Year of birth unknown

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