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Nicholas L'Estrange Manuscript and Neville Family Shakespeare Anecdotes

Mixed Draft evidence packet

Topic: Nicholas L'Estrange Manuscript and Neville Family Shakespeare Anecdotes

Folger Shakespeare Documented identifies a L'Estrange jest-book witness containing the Shakespeare / Ben Jonson "Latin spoons" anecdote.
Folger's catalogue identifies Merry passages and jeasts as a manuscript jestbook of Sir Nicholas L'Estrange and notes that the original manuscript is British Museum / British Library Harleian MS 6395.
Cambridge ArchiveSearch describes Merry Passages and Jeasts as a collection of more than 600 anecdotes, transcribed from British Library Harley MS 6395.
The existing book draft and Twitter research state that Nicholas L'Estrange married Anne Lewknor, granddaughter of Henry Neville through Neville's daughter Mary. That genealogy is central to the packet, but still needs a clean direct source before being treated as fully hardened.

Ken's First Folio Twitter material states that the famous Shakespeare/Jonson anecdote was collected by Henry Neville's granddaughter's husband.
The same Twitter material identifies the family route as: Neville's daughter Mary married Sir Edward Lewknor; their daughter Anne married Nicholas L'Estrange.
Ken states that L'Estrange's jestbook had jests sourced to Neville's wife and children, and that the same manuscript contains an anecdote about William Herbert told by Henry Neville's son William.
Ken also flags the figure "Mr Dunn" as probably one of John Donne's children. This should remain an interpretive lead unless supported by manuscript context or editorial scholarship.

"Nicholas L'Estrange married Anne Lewknor. Anne Lewknor's mother was Mary Neville -- one of Henry Neville's daughters."
"The manuscript also contains an anecdote told specifically by William Neville -- Henry's son -- about William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke"
"Mr Dunn" is treated as a possible Donne-family source in the local Twitter layer.

"Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and the 'Latin' spoons in L'Estrange's jest book." Shakespeare Documented, Folger Shakespeare Library, https://shakespearedocumented.folger.edu/resource/document/shakespeare-ben-jonson-and-latin-spoons-lestranges-jest-book.
L'Estrange, Nicholas. Merry passages and jeasts: a manuscript jestbook. Folger catalogue record, https://catalog.folger.edu/record/21354.
"Merry Passages and Jeasts." Cambridge University Library, ArchiveSearch, https://archivesearch.lib.cam.ac.uk/repositories/2/resources/5963.
Feinstein, Ken. Local Twitter material preserved in twitter_First_Folio.md and twitter_John_Donne.md.
TWITTER_BOOK_ADDITIONS.md, Finding 1.

This packet is strong enough to exist as its own topic because the manuscript and Shakespeare/Jonson anecdote are real witnesses, and the Neville-family transmission claim is central to the book's post-1615 argument.
The source-tier problem is genealogy and source attribution: the manuscript fact is verified, while the Neville-descendant transmission chain still needs direct genealogical and manuscript-source support.