To the Right Honorable Syr [william] Roe Nowe Lord Major of London Abundance of All Blessings Be Multiplied to Godd's Clorie

This document is in Harley MSS. 6848, f. 7. It was written about the end of April, 1593, or early in May and is linked with the general petition sent to the magistrates. The writer is probably Francis Johnson, who also wrote the general petition and the plea to the Privy Council. Although the petition is brief, there are small touches that are characteristic of Johnson’s writings: “Beseeche, accounted, noble, vouchsafe, neglect, Her Grace, reverend judges, surely you ought, doubtles you should, godlie meane, prosperities, if it be His will.” Sir William Rowe was mayor of London from September— October, 1592, to 1593. According to Joseph Haydn, Book of Dignities (1851), Rowe was mayor in 1592. In the 1890 and 1894 editions the new editor, Horace Ockerby, has added a note stating that the year indicates the time that the incumbent served and that he was elected the year previously. In other words, Rowe was elected in 1591 and served most of his mayoralty in 1592. This is an error. The year indicates the election year and the subsequent year is the main period of service. Burrage evidently was misled by the 1890 edition and accepts 1591–1592 as the period for Mayor Rowe. He solves the problem by conjecturing that the Separatists in their troubles had forgotten that a new mayor had been elected. But the Separatists had lived five months during Rowe’s administration before their arrest, and there had been no new election in April-May, 1593. See Burrage, Early English Dissenters, II, 124. Rowe’s predecessor in office (1591–1592) was Sir William Web and his successors (1593–1594) were Sir Cuthbert Buckle (died in office 1594) and Sir Richard Martin (1594). Sir John Spencer follows, 1594–1595. In Robert Steele’s Tudor and Stuart Proclamations, 1485–1714 (Oxford, 1910), I, 95, there is a proclamation for April, 1593, with the name of William Rowe.