Sir Robert Drury, Neville's house, and Drury House

Camden Control for the 1601 Drury House Consultation

The first complete Latin Annales (1625, USTC 1028004) independently places Neville at one consultation in Drury House and reports Cuffe's persuasion that he should go there and hear what was discussed. Browne's earliest English Part II (1629, USTC 3014090) preserves the Drury House setting but omits Camden's parenthetical claim that he was present when Neville's confession was read.

This strengthens the 1601 Drury House route but does not change the separate 1600-house finding below. Camden's Drury House is the consultation site; Robert Drury's phrase “your house” in the May 1600 letter still grammatically refers to Neville's house or household. The two locations must not be merged. Facsimiles and parallel texts are in the dedicated Camden packet and comparative PDF.

Finding

Robert Drury's letter of 6 May 1600 says that Humphrey Flood had seen Southampton's letter to Drury “upon a table in your house.” The possessive refers to Henry Neville, to whom the surviving letter is addressed as ambassador in France. It does not refer to Robert Drury's London house.

The document does not state where Neville's house was. Paris is the strongest current reconstruction because Neville was then ambassador there and Drury had recently returned through his diplomatic operation. A London handling point, especially the Killigrew/Neville household at Lothbury, remains possible. The location must therefore stay unresolved.

Quoted Source Text

The original-resolution recto and address panel were inspected in this research pass. The controlling passage reads:

“Humphrey flood, who hath bin here wth ye commandeur of Diepe, assureth me yt he sawe my lord of Southamptons letter to me, Uppon a table in your howse, layd downe amongst many other letters.”

Drury then distinguishes a second missing letter, reportedly sent by the secretary through Neville's packet. He writes from London on 6 May 1600 and signs “R Drury.” The outer address names Sir Henry Neville as the queen's ambassador in France.

Ken Feinstein's published transcription, prepared with John O'Donnell, independently controls the central reading. The National Archives catalogue supplies the public repository identity.

What the letter establishes

• your howse is Neville's house or household.
• the lost letter was from the Earl of Southampton to Drury;
• Drury reports Flood's testimony, not a sighting he witnessed himself;
• the commander of Dieppe had recently been in England;
• the letter gives no location or date for Flood's reported sighting;
• the two missing letters may have used a similar route, but the manuscript proves a packet route only for the secretary's letter.

Why Paris is plausible but unproved

On 26 February 1600 Neville wrote from Paris that Sir Robert Drury's return provided an opportunity to convey intelligence to England. Other embassy letters refer to Neville's Paris house and packets. Neville also wrote in August 1599 that Charles Drury had been enticed away from “my House” during his absence at Blois; a separate Chamberlain notice identifies a Charles Drury killed at Nieuwpoort as Sir Robert's brother. Together these facts make a Paris household setting coherent.

But no checked source places Humphrey Flood in Paris or says Southampton's letter travelled in the same packet as the secretary's. Lothbury was a documented Neville family address, and an England-side packet-handling explanation remains mechanically possible. Paris should be presented as the leading inference, not the document's wording.

Drury House is a separate matter

Robert Drury's own Drury House near the Strand later became relevant to the Essex consultations. The official 1601 declaration says that a meeting was moved there because Essex and Essex House were watched, and that Sir Charles Danvers lodged there. Neville's confession records that he went to Drury House and found Southampton with Danvers.

This later history supplies important network context. It cannot turn Neville's “your house” in the May 1600 letter into Drury House, and it does not prove Robert Drury joined the rising.

Safe formulation

In May 1600 Sir Robert Drury complained to Henry Neville that Humphrey Flood had seen a letter from Southampton to Drury lying among other letters in “your house.” The grammar identifies the house as Neville's. Paris is the most plausible setting, but the letter does not locate the sighting, and an English handling point remains possible. Drury House enters the record separately during the Essex consultations of 1601.

Sources

• Robert Drury to Henry Neville, 6 May 1600, TNA PRO 30/50/2, fols. 97–98. National Archives catalogue.
• Ken Feinstein, “Shakespeare, Southampton, Humphrey Fludd and Henry Neville” (2019), including a modern transcription prepared with John O'Donnell. Public article.
• Ralph Winwood, Memorials of Affairs of State, vol. 1: Neville on Drury's return, p. 155; Charles Drury in Neville's house, p. 95; packet references, pp. 133 and 170.
• John Chamberlain, notice of Charles Drury's death, p. 85.
• A declaration of the practises and treasons attempted and committed by Robert late Earle of Essex (1601). EEBO-TCP.
• Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1601–1603, pp. 5–8, for Neville's confession. Internet Archive.
• REED Online, inventory and biography of Sir Robert Drury. Record.

Notes on Access

• The TNA catalogue provides the public identity for PRO 30/50/2, fols. 97–98; the project retains the inspected local recto and address-panel images as the transcription control.
• Winwood and the Calendar of State Papers supply public printed routes for Neville's Paris household and the separate Drury House consultation.
• Camden's 1625 Latin and Browne's 1629 English page images are catalogued in the linked Camden image register; they control the later Drury House episode, not the location of “your house” in the 1600 letter.

Round 9 fact/source audit — 8 August 2026

Two houses must remain separate. Robert Drury's letter uses the second-person phrase your house, establishing a house possessed or occupied by Neville in the situation Drury describes. Camden's Essex narrative independently places the political consultation at Drury House in London. Grammar and source chronology do not permit Drury House to become the antecedent of your house.

Paris is the leading contextual location for Neville's house because of the diplomatic setting and household network, but the letter itself does not write the place. The packet therefore preserves the positive possession wording, the separate Drury House fact, and the unresolved sighting/location problem. Winwood printed correspondence witness