The Mermaid Tavern

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William Johnson

“William Johnson was born about 1575; he was apprenticed in 1591
to the owner of the Mermaid Tavern in London
and became a freeman of the Company of Vintners in 1600.

A few years later, he purchased the Mermaid from his former master;
and thus Shakespeare’s trustee [for the purchase of the Blackfriars Gatehouse] William Johnson
proves to be none other than the host of the famous tavern where Ben Jonson, William Shakespeare, Francis Beaumont and other leading spirits of the capital’s literary and dramatic world gathered for their immortal discussions.

Under his management, business at the Mermaid prospered. Many prominent Catholics besides Ben Jonson frequented the Mermaid. Catesby, Winter and other Gunpowder Plot conspirators often dined there with their friends. It would be unjustified, however, to regard the Mermaid as a center of Catholic intrigue and to draw any definite conclusion from such an assumption as to the religion of the host; but the circumstances certainly do not suggest that William Johson was anything but friendly towards Catholics”


(Mutschmann and Wentersdorf 135, 136).

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