B4-XVI beforesixteen
by mercuriuspoliticus
I cannot do better than B4-XVI’s strapline to describe the best thing I’ve seen on Tumblr for a while:
Highlighting an invisible conversation between hip hop and art before the 16th century.
Hat-tip to Wyl Menmuir.
Mercurius Politicus 
How many wives did John Thurloe have – or did he have a mistress?
Most sources say two, but I suspect these all derive from the introduction Birch edition of the State Papers being “a lady of the Peyton family”- first name unknown (could be related to Sir Robert Peyton – of the Peyton Gang fame ?), then Ann Lytcott.
But Mark Noble’s “Memoirs of the Protectoral-House of Cromwell” (1787) gives a third – of the family of Cooke, from Chissel in Essex. I checked Wikipedia which lists a windmill at Great Chishill being owned around that time by “The Cooke family”. The Rev. Noble was been heavily criticised by his contemporaries for the inaccuracy of this work – although I not aware that this was a point at issue.
Now here’s the thing – John Thurloe died in 1668 and Ann died after 1674, and they were not divorced,(because there were only 2 divorces during the 17th century, so any third “marriage” would have been bigamous – if they were in fact married as such. Thurloe split his time between his family home in Great Milton (now Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons” and his law offices at Lincoln’s Inn/Chancery Lane. It would not be unusual for a man in his circumstances to have a secret “wifelet”.
Thurloe read everyone’s post during the Cromwell period, so it is hardly surprising that his personal correspondence is particularly sparse (we do not even have his first wife’s name nor their 2 sons dead in infancy)
Can anyone help out here
– Mark Francis