Thomas Arden

Arden's house on Abbey Street, Faversham is still standing. It was built by Arden in c. 1538-1540 and uses parts of the former abbey gatehouse.^[1]

Thomas Arden (1508–1550) was Mayor of Faversham, Kent, England.

He was murdered by his wife, Alice, and her lover, Richard Moseby.^[2] This would inspire the Elizabethan play, Arden of Faversham, which in turn was the basis of the opera Arden Must Die (1967).

Between 1610 and 1638, a broadside ballad was additionally published about the murder.^[3]

References

1. Newman, John (1983). The Buildings of England: North Kent and East Kent. p. 322.
2. "The 1551 Murder of Thomas Arden - Faversham, Kent, UK. - Infamous Crime Scenes on Waymarking.com". www.waymarking.com. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
3. "[The] complaint and lamentation of Mistresse Arden of [Fev]ersham in Kent, who for the love of one Mosbie, hired certaine Ruffians [a]nd Villaines most cruelly to murder her Husband; with the fatall end of her and her Associats. To the tune of, Fortune my Foe". Retrieved 23 January 2024.

Further reading

• Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles