ABSTRACT
D. could have first met him at Lincolns Inn, where R. W. had already been for a year, having been admitted on 21 Jan. 1591, but he may have been, as was normal, to university first: D. may have met him preceding his younger brother Thomas at Trinity College, Cambridge, for which records are incomplete, or even earlier in their native city. Rowland Woodward was christened in St Mary le Bow, London, on 23 Aug. 1573, and had died by 1636. Woodward placed Derby between two erotically phrased verse-letters to his brother Thomas, WoodwardTHaste, and WoodwardTPregnant. As in WoodwardTOnce, the triplets are separated in most sources, and final couplet indented in all. Nevertheless, much of Ferdinandos time was spent away from London, and it was his brother William who was known as Lord of Derby even before he succeeded his brother Ferdinando as 6th earl on 16 April 1594, four months later joining D. and Woodward at Lincolns Inn.
