ABSTRACT
THE EXCHEQUER
Further research into pre-Elizabethan records may reveal why some payments to musicians were made directly at the Exchequer, while most were delegated to the Treasurer of the Chamber. Certainly there is some confusion concerning all payments to musicians at the end of Queen Mary's reign when many, which were routinely the responsibility of the Treasurer of the Chamber, were made at the Exchequer. Generally it seems that the Exchequer may have picked up the bill for musicians who, for one reason or another, were reckoned to be outside the main establishment, or who had been granted pensions as favours, or for loyal service. At the beginning of Elizabeth's reign the following musicians had previously received their fees direct from the Exchequer:
(1) the Bassano brothers: Alinxus, John, Anthony, Jasper and Baptist; (2) the Master of the Children of the Chapel; (3) the drummers and fife; (4) payments of £38 a year to William Troches and William du Vait (in
addition to their fees among the flutes paid by the Treasurer of the Chamber);
(5) pensions to former singers (granted by Henry VIII): Thomas Byrd, Richard Bower and Robert Perry;
(6) pensions to Thomas Kent and John Temple (if, as seems likely, these are the singers);
(7) Hugh Green, a minstrel; perhaps a pension.
