Zachary Bethell (died 1635) was an English courtier, an usher, and administrator in the wardrobes of Anne of Denmark and Henrietta Maria.
Career He was a grandson of Richard Bethell, a mayor of Winchester. Zachary Bethell was a steward for the William Paulet, 4th Marquess of Winchester at Basing House in 1602. He became a gentleman usher, daily waiter usher and a gentlemen of the robes in the royal wardrobe. One list of the queen's household calls him the "surveyor of her majesties robes". He bought his place from a Mr Izard. Bethell kept an account book (which is not known to survive).HMC Salisbury Cecil, vol. 20 (London, 1968), p. 92: Household list, March 1616, TNA SP 14/86 f.180. In 1640 Katherine Lisle sought an old debt to her grandfather, Edward Barnes, a silkman who had supplied Anne of Denmark. William Juxon observed that a part of the sum claimed was recorded as paid in Mr Bethell's book of "Queen Anne's Robes".Thomas A. Mason, Serving God and Mammon: William Juxon, 1582-1663, Bishop of London (University of Delaware Press, 1985), p. 93.
Bethell, Richard Lazonby (master of the lime-hounds), and Christopher Hammond, as faithful royal servants, successfully petitioned for the forfeited property of Catholic recusants to augment their income in May 1605.HMC Salisbury Hatfield, Addenda, 23 (London, 1973), p. 190.
Elizabeth Sidney, Countess of Rutland, paid Bethell a contribution towards the cost of the masque Hymenaei in January 1606, and also contributed to the costs of her costume.HMC Rutland, 4 (London, 1905), 457–8: Martin Wiggins & Catherine Teresa Richardson, British Drama, 1533-1642: 1603-1608, vol. 5 (Oxford, 2015), 266. Bethell was involved in preparations for masques and entertainments, particularly at Greenwich Palace, and at Somerset House, where he prepared a space for Anne of Denmark to practice her dance for The Masque of Beauty.Ben Jonson Online: Masque of QueensD. Cook and F. P. Wilson, "Dramatic Records in the Declared Accounts of the Treasurer of the Chamber, 1558–1642", Malone Society Collections, 6 (London, 1961), p. 102. Bethell received money for the masque costumes.Herford & Simpson, Ben Jonson, 10 (Oxford, 1965), p. 458.
Bethell seems to have been a conduit for Anne of Denmark's patronage. A letter from Stephen Proctor to Bethell mentions his hopes for a meeting with the queen.HMC Salisbury Hatfield, 18 (London, 1940), pp. 432–33. Bethell became Keeper of Somerset House, which he called "Denmark House" in his will. An 1610 account for building work there mentions "Mr Bethell's lodginge".Howard Colvin, The History of the King's Works, 4:2 (London: HMSO, 1982), p. 256.
In November 1616, Bethell was paid for arranging a performance including an acrobat dancing on a rope in the council chamber at Greenwich.David Cook and F. P. Wilson, "Dramatic Records in the Declared Accounts of the Treasurer of the Chamber", Malone Society Collections, VI (London, 1962), p. 114. An account made in September 1616 includes a payment of £568 to Andrew Kerwyn made by Bethell for works at Somerset House. The financial transactions seem to have contributed to a controversy among the officials of the royal works, which, according to John Webb, involved Inigo Jones.Howard Colvin, The History of the King's Works, 1485–1660, 3 part 1 (HMSO, 1963), pp. 129–130.
After the death of Anne of Denmark, he walked in her funeral procession with the usher John Tunstall. Inventories note some items of her clothing and linen in his keeping.Janet Arnold, Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlocke'd (Maney, 1988), p. 246. He signed bills for the masque Chloridia, included payment for copper lace to two "maskinge suttes for Jefferye" (Jeffrey Hudson) supplied by Benjamin Henshawe.Cambridge Ben Jonson, Chloridia 9 By 1637 he was replaced as surveyor of the robes of Henrietta Maria by Mr White.John Bruce, Calendar State Papers Domestic, 1637 (London, 1868), p. 509.
Bethell had a house close to St Giles in the Fields and was a neighbour of the queen's silkwoman Dorothy Speckard.John Parton, Some Account of the Hospital and Parish of St. Giles in the Fields, Middlesex (London, 1822), p. 357.
He died in 1635 and was survived by his wife Susan, and his son William Bethell, whom he disowned as a spendthrift with a bequest of 20 shillings.
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