Robert Wilmot

Robert Wilmot (c. 1550 – by 1608) was a Church of England clergyman, known as a playwright. Life Wilmot entered the Inner Temple by 1567. He matriculated as a sizar, at Queens' College, Cambridge, in 1572, graduating B.A. in 1577. He was ordained deacon in 1578. On 28 November 1582 Wilmot was presented by Gabriel Poyntz to the rectory of North Ockendon, about six miles from Romford in Essex. then on 2 December 1585, by the dean and chapter of St Paul's Cathedral, to the vicarage of Horndon-on-the-Hill, a few miles away. He is described in 1585 as M.A. It does not appear when the vicarage at Horndon was vacated, but in 1608 the crown, by lapse of the patron's right, appointed to Okendon another Robert Wilmot, who died in 1619. Works Wilmot published, in 1591, The Tragedie of Tancred and Gismund,<ref>The Tragedie of Tancred and Gismund, compiled by the Gentlemen of the Inner Temple, and by them presented before her Majestie. Newly revived and polished according to the decorum of these daies. By R. W. London,’ 1591 (1592 in some copies)</ref> with a plot deriving from Boccaccio's Decameron. It is dedicated by to "Lady Marie Peter and the Lady Annie Graie", the latter being the wife of Henry Grey, esq., of Pirgo. After the dedication comes a letter to the author from William Webbe; before the play there are complimentary sonnets to the Queen's maids of honour.