Robert Daborne, a minor Jacobean play-wright and clergyman, is of interest today mainly because of his series of letters to theatrical entrepreneur Philip Henslowe, which show Henslowe's relations with the dramatists in his employ and which also shed light upon theatrical and dramatic practices of the Jacobean and, presumably, the Elizabethan periods. Daborne is of interest too because of his associations with a number of other dramatists of his time.

Robert Daborne was the son of Robert Daborne, citizen and haberdasher of London, and of his wife, Susanna (née Traves), who were licensed to wed on 20 November 1578. The exact date of his birth is unknown, but it may be roughly estimated to have been about 1580 since, as Peter Holloway has pointed out, Daborne matriculated sizar from King's College, Cambridge, in 1598, from which university he was presumably granted both B. A. and M. A. degrees (the title...