is the honorary post of organist, and
on the 22nd [v.04 p.0897] of January 1575 the two composers obtained a
licence for twenty-one years from Elizabeth to print music and music-paper,
a monopoly which does not seem to have been at all remunerative. In 1575
Byrd and Tallis published a collection of Latin motets for five and six
voices, printed by Thomas Vautrollier. In 1578 Byrd and his family were
living at Harlington, Middlesex. As early as 1581 his name occurs among
lists of recusants, and though he retained his post in the Chapel Royal he
was throughout his life a Catholic. About 1579 he set a three-part song in
Thomas Legge's Latin play _Ricardus Tertius_. In 1588 he published
_Psalmes, Sonets and Songs of Sadnes and Pietie, _and in the same year
contributed two madrigals to Nicolas Yonge's _Musica Transalpina_. In 1589
appeared _Songs of Sundrie Natures_, a second edition of which was issued
in 1610. In the same year he published _Liber Primus Sacrarum Cantionum_, a
second series of which was brought out in 1591. In 1590 two madrigals by
Byrd were included in Thomas Watson's _First Sett of Italian Madrigalls
Englished_; one of these seems to have been sung before Queen Elizabeth on
her visit to Lord Hertford at Elvetham in 1591. In April 1592 Byrd was
still living at Harlington, but about 1593 he became possessed of the
remainder of a lease of Stondon Place, Essex, a farm of some 200 acres,
belonging to William Shelley, who was shortly afterwards convicted of high
treason. The property was sequestrated, and on the 15th of July 1595 Byrd
obtained a crown lease of it for the lives of his eldest son Christopher
and his daughters Elizabeth and Rachel. On the death of Shelley his son
bought back his estates (in 1604), whereupon his widow attempted to oust
Byrd from Stondon Place, on the ground that it formed part of her jointure.
Byrd was upheld in his possession of the property by James I. (_Calendar of
State Papers, Dom. Series_, James I. add. series, vol. xxxvi.), but Mrs
Shelley persevered in her suit, apparently until her death in 1609. In the
following year the matter was settled for a time by Byrd's buying Stondon
Place in the names of John and Thomas Petre, part of the property being
charged with a payment to Byrd of L20 for his life, with remainder to his
second son Thomas. Throughout this long suit Byrd, though in possession of
property which had been confiscated from a recusant and actually taking
part as a mem