ABSTRACT
It is possible that Byrd had links with Clerkenwell shortly after his return from Lincoln, though there is no reason to suppose that he was related to other people named Byrd who lived there. A letter from Lord Herbert, probably written in 1573, the year of the Clerkenwell letter, is about a song he had sent to Paget. Whether or not Byrd ever lodged in Clerkenwell, it is likely that he had lodgings close to the Chapel Royal not long after the Clerkenwell letter was written. A William Byrd was the father of children baptized at St Margaret's church, Westminster. Besides accommodation at Westminster Byrd must have had need of temporary lodgings elsewhere. The frequency with which the court might move during a royal progress, or when the Queen felt restless, is well illustrated by Sir Francis Walsingham's diary for May 1578.
