John Brayne

He built the Red Lion playhouse, and financed, with his brother-in-law, James Burbage, the building of the Theatre in Shoreditch, in which he was to have had a half interest.

His widow, Margaret, backed financially by Miles, was involved in litigation with Burbage over Brayne's half interest in the Theatre until her own death in 1593.

On 14 January 1565 he married Margaret Stowers, by whom he had four children who were baptized at St Stephen Walbrook and died young: Robert (b.1565), Roger (b.1566), Rebecca (b.1568) and John (b.1573), and possibly a posthumous daughter, Katherine (d.1593).

[1] In 1567 Brayne hired two carpenters to build a playhouse in the yard of the Red Lion, a farmhouse east of Aldgate near Mile End.

Eight years later, on 13 April 1576, Burbage leased part of the grounds of the dissolved Holywell Priory in Shoreditch from Giles Allen for the purpose of building a playhouse.

[7] On 26 September 1579 Burbage borrowed £125 8s 11d from the London grocer John Hyde, in return for which he mortgaged the ground lease of the Theatre for a one-year term.

[1] In order to evade his creditors for debts incurred in connection with both the Theatre and the George Inn, Brayne signed various deeds of gift of his property.

[1] At the time of Brayne's death, the only legal documents that established that he had had any financial interest in the Theatre were the two bonds which he had managed to get Burbage to sign.

[17] In early 1587 Margaret Brayne, with financial backing from Robert Miles, sued James Burbage at common law in an attempt to either recover on the bonds or obtain a half interest in the ground lease and the profits of the Theatre.

[17] While these lawsuits were ongoing, both James Burbage and Margaret Brayne sought to obtain an assignment of the ground lease from Hyde.

On 16 November Margaret Brayne, Robert Miles and his son Ralph, and a friend, Nicholas Bishop, took a copy of the order to the Theatre to enforce its terms by taking half the profits from the gallery that day.

James Burbage, after initial argument through a window of the Theatre, came down into the yard and called Robert Miles a knave and a rascal, and the widow Brayne a "murdering whore".

[27] James Burbage died in February 1597, and two months later the ground lease on the Theatre expired, Giles Allen having refused to renew it.

[8][28] At this point Miles brought an action against Cuthbert Burbage in the Court of Requests, the outcome of which is not known as the relevant documents are no longer extant.