Richard Connock and the Verse Epistle to Ben Jonson

Richard Connock and Ben Jonson

Source-control position

Daniel Starza Smith reports that Richard Connock's hand appears in a verse epistle to Ben Jonson dated 9 July 1610. The item was sent as a letter packet To the right Honorable my Lord North and survives in British Library Add. MS 27407, fols. 8r–9v. Later in the thesis Smith calls it Richard Connock's verse epistle to Jonson.

The date makes this especially relevant to the Convivium network. It is a documented manuscript connection between Jonson and a named diner at about the time of the dinner. The precise attribution still needs direct inspection: Smith identifies Connock's hand and treats the poem as his, while his note indicates that Gabriel Heaton was more cautious. Until the pages are inspected, the book should say that Smith reports and attributes the epistle to Connock—not that a signed Connock poem has been personally verified.

Source: Daniel Starza Smith, John Donne and the Conway Papers: A Biographical and Bibliographical Study of Poetry and Patronage in the Seventeenth Century (UCL doctoral thesis, 2011), pp. 156 and 212, open UCL record.

Full network context: JONSON CONVIVIUM FULL NETWORK RESEARCH 2026 09 01.

Quoted source passage

Connock's hand is also found in a verse epistle to Ben Jonson dated 9 July

1610.

This is Starza Smith's description, not a fresh transcription of the British Library manuscript.

Citations

• Smith, Daniel Starza. John Donne and the Conway Papers. UCL doctoral thesis,

2011, pp. 156, 212. UCL Discovery.

Notes on access

The open UCL thesis has been read. BL Add. MS 27407, fols. 8r–9v, has not yet been inspected directly.