Abstract
In his will signed on 13 December 1630, John Donne bequeathed money to his two servants, Robert Christmas and Thomas Roper, to make themselves rings with Donne’s cross and anchor seal, in the style which he customarily gave to his ‘particular friends’. Only passing mention has ever been given to the two people who worked with Donne throughout his deanship at St Paul’s, and who were employed both in his household and in the cathedral. This essay lays out the documentary evidence we have concerning Roper and Christmas, traces clues to their identities, places them in the context of their working lives at the deanery and St Paul’s, and reveals their place in a network of lay people involved in the day-to-day running of the cathedral, not only during Donne’s deanship, but also up to the Civil War.
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Lund, M.A. (2021). Donne’s Faithful Servants: Thomas Roper and Robert Christmas at St Paul’s Cathedral. In: Altman, S., Buckner, J. (eds) Old St Paul’s and Culture. Early Modern Literature in History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77267-3_8
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