| Renters' Shares |
£4 |
External |
Mr. Franco |
Presumably a payment to Francis or Jacob Franco, each of whom had been renters and executors of Raphael Franco. The latter had himself been a renter and had owned, or had a financial interest in, some part of Willoughby Lacy's former moiety of the Drury Lane theatrical property. (See the MS "Observations on the Title to the Ben Johnsons head. 24th July 1812 Copy sent to Mr Burgess", London Metropolitan Archive, E/BER/CG/E/08/09/006). On 1 November 1790 Drury Lane paid Jacob and Francis "to withdraw their Chancery Suit", but three payments across the 1799-1801 seasons attest to continuing (or new?) legal trouble with a Mr Franco, and a Mr Franco was paid £50 once in 1798-99"s Old Debt column, then numerous sums ranging from £4 to £20 throughout the 1799-1800 season, for no specified reason. It is here presumed that the large out-of-court settlement had related to the broader ownership of the theatrical property, whereas the later, smaller payments related to renters' shares. However, it may not have been the same Franco (or his executors) involved each time. There is also an alternative possibility: a Mr Franco was paid for "Horse hire" on 31 October 1797, and it may have been he who was paid the £50 and/or the smaller sums throughout 1799-1800, or who took legal action against the theatre at the end of the 1790s (though surely not on 1 November 1790). |