In the latter days of Queen Elizabeth there was no merchant in England
better known or held in higher repute than Sir John Spencer, the
Rothschild or Rockefeller of his day, whose shrewdness and industry had
raised him to the Chief Magistrateship of the City of London.

From the day on which John Spencer fared from his country home to London
in quest of gold, Fortune seems to have smiled sweetly and consistently
on him. All his capital was robust health and a determination to
succeed; and so profitably did he turn it to account that within a few
years of emerging from his 'prentice days he was a master of men, with a
business of his own, and striding manfully towards his goal of wealth.
Everything he touched seemed to "turn to gold"; before he had reached
middle-age he was known far beyond the city-walls as "Rich Spencer"; and
by the time his Lord Mayoralty drew near he was able to instal himself
in a splendour more befitting a Prince than a citizen, in Crosby Hall,
which a century earlier Stow had described as "very large and
beautiful, and the highest at that time in London."

Indeed, Crosby Hall, ever since the worthy alderman, whose name it bore,
had raised its walls late in the fifteenth century, had been the most
stately mansion in the city, and had had a succession of famous tenants.
When Sir John Crosby left it for his splendid tomb in the Church of St
Helen's, it was for a time the palace of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, in
which, to quote Sir Thomas More, "he lodged himself, and little by
little all folks drew unto him, so that the Protector's Court was
crowded and King Henry's left desolate"; and it was in one of its
magnificent rooms that Richard was offered, and was pleased to accept,
the Crown of England.

Shakespeare, who lived in St Helen's in 1598, knew Crosby Hall well, and