Barn Elms replaced the earlier one occupied by Sir Francis Walsingham, "Elizabeth's Spymaster". Queen Elizabeth I would visit Barn Elms to see her Spymaster. Barn Elms features in English literary history from the time the royalist poet Abraham Cowley moved to the house belonging to John Cartwright in 1663. In the 1660s Barn Elms became a fashionable destination for boating picnics. Samuel Pepys, who arranged many a Sunday afternoon or moonlit evening boating party to Barn Elms himself, recorded that on 26 May 1667: "I walked the length of the Elmes, and with great pleasure saw some gallant ladies and people come
Henry Vaux August 1584 Henry Vaux was mentioned in a report to Sir Francis Walsingham, the Queen’s spymaster, and from this time onwards his name appeared regularly in confessions and the reports of spies. (Henry Vaux unwittingly had two apostate priests in his employ). By May 1585, the government knew that Henry Vaux was serving as treasurer for the priest-smuggling network. At around that time he attended a large meeting of Jesuits, recusants, and secular clergy in Hoxton which established a fund for the support of the Catholic clergy and to which he promised one hundred marks. In May 1585 Anthony Babington