Shakespeare's family
[287] _Notes and Queries_, Seventh Series, vi. 344. See "Liber Actorum,"
Bodleian Library.
[288] Somerset House, 88 Bruce, proved July 1, 1664.
[289] The Hearth Tax for Isleworth, 1666, 252/32, notes "Ralph
Shakespeare 2 hearths, Widow Shakespeare 1 hearth."
[290] Elizabeth Shakspere, of St. Werbergs, Derby, made her will 1558.
Pegge's "Collection for the History of Derbyshire" contains a sheet of
printed verses "on the death of the Rev. Mr. Shakespear" (Nichols's
"Col. Top. and Gen.," iii. 244).
[291] Wills of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury.
[292] See _Genealogical Magazine_, January, 1898.
[293] _Notes and Queries_, Fourth Series, iv. 275.
[294] Hampshire Marriage Licences.
[295] _Gentleman's Magazine_, vol. lxxvii., p. 280.
[296] Aubrey's "Natural History of Wiltshire," 1680.
[297] Manning and Bray's "Surrey," vol. ii.
[298] "Misc. Gen. et Herald.," Second Series, vol. ii. Register of
Toddington, co. Beds.
[299] See "The Shakespeares of Essex." by Augustus Charles Veley,
Registrar of the Archdeaconry of Essex, _Essex Archaeological Society's
Magazine_, vol. iii., p. 70, 1865.
[300] See my article in the _Athenaeum_, April 23, 1892, entitled
"Pre-Shakespearean London Shakespeares."
[301] 40 Chayney.
[302] Auditors' Patent Books, vol. vi., 1538-1553. Thomas Shakespeare,
formerly minister of Colebray, in the parish of St. Mildred's, in the
ward of Bread Street, London, on September 1, 2 Ed. VI., received a
patent for 100 shillings per annum. There is no absolute proof, but
every probability, that this is the same Sir Thomas Schaftespeyr
mentioned in the will of Joan Jons of Bristol, and other Bristol Wills.
See the abstract contained in the "Great Orphan Book," and Book of Wills
in Council House at Bristol, 1886, by the Rev. J. P. Wadley, Rector of
Naunton Beauchamp.
[303] Admin. Vicar-General's Books, No. 268, 1574-1583.
[304] Lay Subsidies, Essex, 111/575.
[305] Lay Subsidies, Essex, Rochford, 112/602, 112/634, 112/642.
[306] Subsidy Rolls, Chelmsford, Essex, 112/707, do. 112/708.
[307] Subsidy Rolls of several Hundreds in Essex, a paper book, 246/19.
[308] _Notes and Queries_, Third Series, vi. 324, and French,
"Shakespeareana Genealogica," p. 541.
[309] _Notes and Queries_, Third Series, vi. 324, and French,
"Shakespeareana Genealogica," p. 541. Mr. C. G. Dickenson tells me his
will is at Canterbury, v. 52, f. 36.
[310] Registers of Sutton Valence, Kent, kindly sent by a correspondent.
[311] "Misc. Gen. et Herald," New Series, i. 143.
CHAPTER XIV
LONDON SHAKESPEARES
By far the most interesting search can be made in London, that great
centre where congregate representatives of all the families and counties
of the kingdom.
It is strange that a William was one of the earliest recorded burials in
the registers of St. Margaret's, Westminster. "William Shakespeare was
buried April 30, 1539." A comparatively modern hand has written against
this the foolish scribble, "Query if this be the poet or not?" He may
have been in the service of the Court, but there are no signs that he
was a man of wealth. In the churchwardens' account[312] he was only
charged 2d. for the candles at his funeral, a common charge, but not for
great people. He may have been the son of the fifteenth-century William,
or of Peter of Southwark, and father or brother of Roger the royal
yeoman.
The discovery that _Shakespeare_ lived in St. Helen's Parish,
Bishopsgate, has been claimed for an American, though Hunter mentioned
in his "Life of Shakespeare," 1845, that in the Subsidy Rolls of London
a William Shakespeare was assessed in 1597 in that district.[313]
The entry is: "Affid. William Shakespeare on v^li goods,[314] assessed
xiii iiii^d." The "affid." affixed to it shows that the Shakespeare
named tried to avoid payment on some grounds. It has surprised many, and
satisfied others as suitable, that the poet should have lived in this
neighbourhood, near so many of his theatrical friends. But I do not
think it is certainly proved that it was our Shakespeare at all. Two
references of Collier seem to locate him in Southwark in 1596, and in
1609, near the site of the Globe Theatre. Several of the name lived near
Bishopsgate before and after his death.
John Scatcliffe, of St. Botolph's, Aldersgate, cook, bachelor,
twenty-four, and Mary Shakespeare, of the same, spinster, twenty-four,
at St. Botolph's, December 20, 1637;[315] in later years, Nathaniel[316]
Shaxspere and Elizabeth ----, widow, married August 18, 1663, in St.
Botolph's, Bishopsgate; Henry Shakespeare, of St. Botolph's,
Bishopsgate, bachelor (twenty-five), and Elizabeth Hartwell, of same,
spinster (twenty), her parents dead, with consent of her grandmother,
Elizabeth Gaye, of same, at St. Botolph's, March 26, 1663; William[317]
Winch and Abigail Shaxpere, married September 30, 1680; Francis Hill and
Saray Saxspere, September 28, 1682; John Shakespeare and Edith Murry,
married at St. Botolph's, Bishopsgate, January 2, 1699; William
Shakespear and Anna Maria Carter, both of this parish, July 9, 1733.
There was a Matthew Shakespere who, on February 5, 1566-67, married
Isabel Peele in Christ Church,[318] Newgate Street. She was probably
daughter of James Peele, Clerk of Christ's Hospital from 1562 to 1585,
and sister of George Peele,[319] the dramatist, educated in the Grammar
School there. They seem to have had a large family.[320] On January 18,
1569, Johanne, daughter of Matthew Shakespere, was baptized, and buried
on February 11. On March --, 1574, Francis, son of Matthew Shakespere,
baptized; on August 27, 1578, Jane; on April 7, 1583, Thomas. There was
also a Humphrey entered as son of _Hugh_ Shakespeare, August 5, 1571.
But as among the burials there appears "Humphrey, son of Matthew
Shackspere, Aug. 30, 1571," it would seem to be an error. Johanne,
daughter of Matthew Shackespere, was buried December 26, 1572, the
second of the name; Jayne, on September 5, 1577, the first of the name.
Robert, son of Matthew Shackspeare, was buried May 5, 1580. Besides
these were buried Francis Shakespeare, October 7, 1571, and Robert
Shakespeare, May 24, 1577. These might be grandfather and uncle of the
family, which might have reckoned a William among its members.
There was a Thomas Shakespeare, royal messenger, in 1572, payments to
whom I have found in the State Papers.[321] And in "Archaeologia" there
is printed his request for payment, in 1577, for carrying letters from
the Privy Council to the Bishop of London at Fulham, the Bishop of York
at Tower Hill, the Bishop of Chichester at Westminster, the Bishop of
Durham in Aldersgate Street, and to the Bishop of Worcester in St.
Paul's Churchyard.[322]
Mr. Hunter and many others supposed that at the time of the poet there
was only _one_ other of the name in London--John of St.
Martin's-in-the-Fields.
In the churchwardens' accounts there were found notices of a John
Shakespeare about 1605. Mr. French thinks that he might be the John, son
of Thomas, of Snitterfield.[323] I have worked through these books and
the registers, and have gleaned a good many scraps about him. He appears
there too early. John of Snitterfield was born in 1581-82. John of St.
Martin's, on January 22, 1589, was married[324] to Dorothea Dodde,
daughter of the Vestry Clerk (her sister Jane had, the year before,
married a Christopher Wren) of that parish; and on December 23, 1593, it
is to be supposed he had a daughter, "Maria Shakespeare," christened,
mentioned there, as is customary in that register, without the name of
her father.
In 1594 Mrs. Shakespeare's sister was staying with her, as among the
burials is entered, "Elizabeth Dod, from Shakespeares."
John[325] Shakespeare, "on the land side of the parish," in 1603,
contributed to the new casting of the bells five shillings, and in 1605
was one of the sidesmen. "Paid to John Shakespeare, one of the sidesmen,
that he laid out at the registers office for putting in the Recusants
Bills 3s. 4d." In 1609 "Dorithie Shakespeare" was buried, and her
expenses brought in to the churchwardens 32s. 2d., relatively a large
sum, as Sir Thomas Windebanck's funeral cost only 16s. In that same year
John contributed also ten shillings to the repair of the church. On June
20, 1613, the churchwardens "received from John Shakespeare, by the
hands of Edward Thickness, the sum of L10, given as a legacy by Mrs.
Dimbleby, deceased" (which suggests that he was her executor), and in
1617 they "gave to John Shakespeare's daughter 7s. 6d."--a curious
entry, which I cannot explain. She may have done some work for the
churchwardens, as they often employed women; it may have been a debt due
her father, a present on her marriage, or an aid in sudden poverty. The
death of a "John Shakespeare, a man," is noted in 1646, in apparent
poverty, as the funeral cost only 1s.--a different cost from that of
Mrs. Dorothy Shakespeare in 1608. I had thought it possible that this
sum represented only a fee for a burial in another parish, but I find
that theory is untenable. Whether the John of 1646 was the same as the
sidesman of 1605 or not, he was certainly buried in the parish. From the
vestry books I found many notices of John Shakespeare as contributing to
the expenses of the poor, first on the "waterside" of the parish, and
then on the "landside"; and I believed, reasoning from a State Paper
Bill, that he was referred to in the entry, "received for a pewe, from
the Princes' Bitmaker 30s., 1639-40." His name disappeared from the
books long before 1646; and I fancied he had gone farther east to the
parish of St. Clement's Danes, which joined that of St. Martin's at
several points. "Paid to William Wright for a stone engraved with
letters on it, which is sett in the wall of the Earl of Salisbury at his
house at Ivie Bridge to devide the two parishes of St. Martin's in the
Fields and St. Clement's Danes in that place." I gave up theorizing
until I could see the registers of St. Clement's Danes, and from various
causes three years passed before I had an opportunity of clearing up the
puzzle. These registers prove that in London, as in Stratford-on-Avon, I
had been confused by double entries, and that there was _another John
Shakespeare_. The St. Martin's John lost his wife Dorothy in 1608; the
St. Clement's John married his wife Mary in 1605. "3rd Feb. 1604-5,
Johne Shakspear and Mary Godtheridg." _He_ was the wealthy bitmaker to
the King, of whom I had discovered notices in the State Papers and wills
that turned my attention to St. Clement's Danes, a hitherto unsuspected
locality for Shakespeare finds. I thought at first that he might have
been John the shoemaker who vanished from Stratford. But it was hardly
likely that he should have changed his trade from shoemaking to
bitmaking, or that he would have been successful in it. The St.
Clement's John might have been a son of the St. Martin's John, but there
is no christening of a John in that parish, or in any other London
parish that I know. So here I thought I might justly theorize, and state
my opinion that he really was the John, son of Thomas, of Snitterfield,
born 1581-82, of whom is no record of further life or burial in his own
neighbourhood. He would be of a suitable age, and there was in his case
a _reason_ for Court success.
William Shakespeare the poet had by this time made his mark, not only in
literature and the drama, but in Court influence and financial
possibilities. His patron, the Earl of Southampton, was in favour with
the King. Supposing this John was Shakespeare's first cousin, as I
believe he was, what more likely than that the poet, who had lost his