[1] In 1601, Henry Clifton, a nobleman from Norfolk,[2] sued the Blackfriars company (headed by Gyles, Robinson, and Evans) for their abduction of his son Thomas, on 13 December 1600.

[3] Clifton obtained a warrant from Sir John Fortescue, who granted it using his authority as a member of the Privy Council due to his connections and high social status.

[4][5][6] The basis for the case was not that Thomas was forcibly impressed into the choir school (which was entirely legal) but that he was made to act in the plays of Children of the Chapel.

"[8] The Clifton case is one of the only surviving objection records to the common practice of forcibly impressing boys into (ecclesiastical) choir schools in medieval and early modern England.

[7] The prevalence is evidenced by documents such as an authorization for the Chapel Royal in 1420 and An Ordinance of the Lordes and Commons Assembled in Parliament, for the Apprehending and Bringing to Condigne Punishment, All Such Lewd Persons as Shall Steale, Sell, Buy, Inveigle, Purloune, Convey, or Receive Any Little Children (9 May 1644).