page_title: Edward Alleyn
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: Edward Alleyn / Early life
caption_attribution_description: English: Edward Alleyn's gravestone, Dulwich Village (moved to this position outside church in 1925)
context_page_description: Edward "Ned" Alleyn was an English actor who was a major figure of the Elizabethan theatre and founder of the College of God's Gift in Dulwich.
context_section_description: Alleyn  was born on 1 September 1566 in Bishopsgate, London; or so it was recorded in the Biographia Britannica as a product of Alleyn's own writing. Alleyn does record his birth date in a diary several times but never distinctly identifies his birthplace as Bishopsgate. In the St. Botolph parish registers it is recorded that he was baptized on the day after his birth. He was born a younger son of Edward Alleyn with three brothers named John, William, and Edward. His father was an innkeeper and porter to Queen Elizabeth I and his mother, Margaret Townley, was the daughter of John Townley. His mother's link to the Lancashire Townley family is somewhat of a mystery. Alleyn said she was the daughter of John Townley of Townley but the claim does not easily fit with the available information on the Townley family tree. Regardless of this, the road that passes Alleyn's School was named after her in 1884.  He was baptized at St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate. He was known to contemporaries as "Ned"; his surname is alternatively spelled Allen or Alleyne.
caption: Edward Alleyn's gravestone, Dulwich Village (moved to this position outside church in 1925)
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