ABSTRACT
The debenture books comprise a series of signed receipts by some of the royal servants for their livery allowance, paid from the Great Wardrobe. Musicians’ liveries were due annually at St. Andrew and the series resumes in 1689. Quite often musicians asked that their allowances be collected by a friend and it was not unusual for them to use this procedure to pay off debts to creditors. Some notes survive, addressed to the Master or Clerk of the Great Wardrobe, in which musicians authorize such payments and these are printed in the main calendar. In those cases the signature of the deputy appears in the book in place of that of the musician concerned.
