Oxford evidently participated in Accession Day tilts from 1578 to 1580. Indications of his expenditures on the tilts, held on 17 November, come from a formal complaint made on 21 May 1598 by Judith Ruswell, widow of William Ruswell (or Russell), tailor, seeking to recover monies never repaid by Oxford. Denying the claim, Oxford conceded that Ruswell was indeed his ‘sometime servant and taylor’, and that about 1580 he had provided Ruswell with a stock of cloth worth £700 or £800. The lawsuit reveals the identities of 13 deponents who confessed to having known Judith and William Ruswell, and Oxford, the defendant.

Five of the deponents were Oxford's servants (ages adjusted to 1578): 1) Nicholas Bleake, yeoman, 36 years, Oxford's servant and bookkeeper: admits having created a book of accounts for transactions between Oxford and Ruswell, and having signed the book; Oxford's final obligation to Ruswell was £809–3–2, of which he paid £300–6–0 by William Walter, leaving a debt of £508–17–2; 2) William Walter, gentleman, 29 years, Oxford's purse-keeper: admits knowledge of little or nothing; 3) Edward Hubbard, Esq., 37 years, then Oxford's officer; later one of the Six Clerks of Chancery:

4) Israel Amyce, 35 years, Oxford's servant subsequent to 1578:

5) John Lyly (or ‘Lilly’) Esq., 23 years:

This was of course John Lyly the Elizabethan man of letters. Born of a Kent family in 1554, Lyly matriculated at Oxford from Magdalen College in 1571. He received his BA on 27 April 1573 and his MA on 1 June 1575. He admits that he had known Ruswell, but nothing of consequence about Ruswell's finances.