Shakespeare's family
occasion on which he returned to England. His cousin, Thackeray, in the
'Roundabout Papers' (Letts's Diary), paid a tribute to his chivalry and
liberality. He married Marian Sophia Thompson in 1844, and died at
Indore, October 28, 1861, leaving a family of three sons and six
daughters."[354] A memorial-stone is raised in memory of him in the
cloister walls of Charterhouse Chapel.[355] Thackeray drew the portrait
of Colonel Newcome from his elder brother, Colonel John Dowdeswell
Shakespeare. His eldest son, Richmond Shakespear, Captain H.M. 36th
Regiment N.I., died in India, August 12, 1865. His daughter, Selina,
married, in 1868, Lieutenant Ninian Lowis, Bengal Staff Corps.
Mr. John Talbot Shakespear had also four daughters--Emily, Augusta,
Charlotte, Marianne.
2. The second son of John Shakespear and Mary Davenport, William Oliver
Shakespear, was Judge of the Provincial Court of Appeal in the Madras
Presidency. He married Charlotte Maxton, and had five sons and two
daughters, (1_b_) William, who died young; (2_b_) Henry, a Lieutenant in
the Royal Navy, who was shipwrecked in a frigate in the Indian Seas,
1833; (3_b_) Charles Maxton Shakespear, Lieutenant-Colonel in the Madras
Army; (4_b_) Arthur Robert, who died in 1844; (5_b_) George Frederick
Shakespear, Lieutenant-Colonel Madras Staff Corps, who was married, and
had a son born in 1865.[356]
3. The third son, Henry Davenport Shakespear, was member of the Supreme
Court of India. He married Louisa Muerson, and had three sons and seven
daughters. (1_c_) Henry John Childe Shakespear, Commandant of the
Nagpore Irregular Horse; (2_c_) Alexander Shakespear, a Judge in India;
(3_c_) William Ross Shakespear, Madras Cavalry, who married Fanny
Isabella, daughter of Sir Robert North Collie Hamilton, of Alveston, co.
Warwick, 1854, and had two sons, William and Robert; he died in 1862.
The daughters of Henry Davenport Shakespear were Louisa, Harriet,
Augusta, Jane, Agnes, Mary, Henrietta. He died in 1838.
4. The fourth son of John Shakespear and Mary Davenport, Arthur
Shakespear, was Captain in the 10th Hussars, served as aide-de-camp to
Lord Combermore during the Peninsular War, and was Brigade-Major of the
Hussars at Waterloo. He married, April 19, 1818, Harriet Sophia,
daughter of Thomas Skip Dyott Bucknall, of Hampton Court. He died in
1845, leaving six sons and two daughters, (1_d_) George Bucknall
Shakespear, Colonel Royal Artillery, who married Henrietta Panet. His
eldest son was Arthur Bucknall Shakespear. (2_d_) William Powlett
Shakespear[357] was a Lieutenant in the 2nd Bombay Fusiliers, and lost
his life at Samanghur in trying to save a wounded sepoy. (3_d_) Colonel
John Talbot Shakespear, who married Emma Waterfield, and had a son,
Leslie, born 1865. (4_d_) Lieutenant-Colonel John Davenport Shakespear,
served in the Crimean War. He married, in 1855, Louisa Caroline,
daughter of Robert Sayer, of Sibton Park, co. Suffolk, and had a son,
Arthur Franklin Charles Shakespear, 1864, and a daughter, Ida Nea. He
claimed descent from the poet's family in 1864.[358] (5_d_) Rev. Wyndham
Arthur Shakespear, fifth son of Arthur Shakespear, of Boxwell, co.
Gloucester, Arm. Exeter College, matriculated May 29, 1855, aged
nineteen, B.A. from Litton Hall, 1860, and M.A. He has held various
curacies.[359] (6_d_) Robert Henry Shakespear, who married, in 1858,
Octavia, daughter of Charles Fenwick, Consul-General for Denmark. He has
a son, Lionel Fairfax Shakespear. His elder daughter, Harriet Blanche,
married, 1868, Lieutenant-Colonel James Edward Mayne, Deputy-Judge,
Madras; the younger, Rosaline, married William Sim Murray, M.D.,
surgeon, 66th Foot, 1867.
II. John Shakespeare's first wife, Mary Davenport, died in 1793; and he
married, secondly, Charlotte, the daughter of ---- Fletcher, Esq., by
whom he had a son--
5. Owen, who died unmarried, and two daughters, Georgiana and Henrietta
Matilda. His second wife, Charlotte, died in 1815, and he died January
16, 1825, and was buried at Lacock Abbey.
III. The alderman's third son, David, settled in Jamaica, and left a
family, whose descendants still exist there. In 1867 the Hon. John
Shakespear, grandson of David, was a member of the Legislature and
proprietor of Hodges-Penn, St. Elizabeth's parish.
IV. I have been unable to find particulars of Samuel, the fourth son.
V. Colin, the fifth son of the alderman, was in the East India Company's
Civil Service, as collector at Saharapore. He married Harriet Dawson,
and his daughter Harriet married William Woodcock, Esq.
The alderman's eldest daughter Sarah married Joseph Sage; his second
daughter, Anne, John Blagrove, of Cardiff Hall, Jamaica; his third,
Martha, the Rev. John William Lloyd, of Aston Hall, co. Salop; his
fourth, Mary, Laver Oliver, Esq., to whose children the rope-factory
descended.
Whatever may have been the fortunes of the other branches, it is very
clear that the chief modern Shakespeares have descended from the
Shadwell stock. John Shakespear, the second son of the Alderman, left a
memorandum declaring his belief that the family was derived from the
poet's grandfather. There has as yet, however, been found no proof of
any such connection, though it is perfectly possible that it existed. If
Richard, of Snitterfield, was the father of John, Henry, and Thomas,
there were two possible lines of descent. Henry may have had children
christened at other places than Snitterfield, whose descent no one has
traced. Thomas had a son John, born in 1581-82, clearly too old to have
been the first John of Shadwell. He _may_ have had a son of the proper
age; but, as I have stated above, I have found no John of the right age,
except John, son of Thomas.
A Hannah[360] Shakespeare, born 1777, is mentioned in the pedigree of
Esterby and Sootheran.
Henry Shakespear, of London, was a broker Loriner, 1775, connected with
Hertford (see p. 137).
On June 29, 1794, was baptized Joshua,[361] son of Thomas and Ann
Shakespeare.
A warm eulogy of the charity and virtues of William Shakespeare, Esq.,
of Hart Street, Bloomsbury, who died in January, 1799, aged
seventy-three, is given in the _Gentleman's Magazine_[362] of that date;
and in May of the same year the death is noticed, in Paddington, of
George Shakespeare, Esq., son of the late George Shakespeare, Esq., of
Walton-upon-Thames, and Pimlico, Middlesex.[363]
M. L. Jeny, in _L'Intermediaire_, March 25, 1889, states that "he had
read in _L'Abeille du Cher_ of Friday, November 18, 1836, that a poor
old man of seventy-seven, named George Shakspeare, was found dying with
cold and hunger in the middle of the frightful night of Wednesday
preceding, in Clarence Street, London, and was taken to the Hospital,
and died there. He was one of the poet's descendants."[364]
So late as November, 1880, there was a Mrs. Anne Shakespeare who died at
Brighton, aged 102.[365]
There are several American branches of Shakespeares, some of them
literary, and two of the name are settled in Vancouver's Island.[366]
Among the list of authors[367] we find the names of Alexander
Shakespear, on the "North-West Provinces of India," 1848; Edward
Shakespear, "A Book of Divinity," 1740; and Sophia Shakespear, 1753, a
biography; Henry Shakespear, "Province of Bengal," 1824, and "Wild
Sports of India," 1860; H. W. Shakespear's "Refutation of Mr. Tryon,"
1847; John Shakespear's Hindustani books; Emily Shakespeare's "Tennyson
Birthday Book," 1877; and Mrs. O. Shakespear, a novel, in 1895. Edward
O. Shakespeare, of Washington, U.S.A., has a medical work on
"Inflammation."
Mr. Russell French, from whose pages I have gleaned the bulk of the
facts concerning these modern Shakespeares, expatiates on the glories of
the later Shakespeare marriages. By the Currie alliance he traces back
descent to the royal Scottish families of the Bruces and the Stewarts;
by the Talbot alliance he traces back their pedigree to Edward I.; by
the Davenport alliance he again connects them with the Ardens, through
Sir Thomas Leighton and the eighth Lord Zouch, who married Joan,
daughter of Sir John Denham, by his wife Joan, daughter and heir of Sir
Richard Archer, who married Joan, the second daughter and coheir of
Giles de Arden, grandson of Sir Robert de Arden, the descendant of
Turchil; but these rather tend to glorify the modern branches than the
poet's name.
It were to be desired that there were more concerted study of registers
and other records concerning the name. Much more might thus be found,
and much of the energy now dissipated in futile searches might be
utilized in connecting the scattered links, because the study of
genealogy is the ancient form of the very modern inquiries into heredity
which interest so many followers of Mr. Francis Galton. It is after all
worth knowing who were the ancestors of William Shakespeare, what
heroic, chivalric, poetic, philosophic strains went to form the nature
of the perfect poet; and it is of mildly sentimental interest to us that
we should know whether any of his line is left on the earth. Of
sentimental interest, I say, for rarely, if ever, does genius repeat
itself, nor do different environing circumstances weld and mould genius
in the same way. Its nature is very easy to kill, or dwarf, or distort,
but it is our excuse for being concerned with those who bear the
honoured name.
In the unsatisfactory inquiries relating to Shakespeare's ancestors I
have exhausted all that I can find concerning his father's family; but
so much remains to be said concerning his mother's family, that in
consideration of the old proverb, "like mother, like son," it has seemed
to me worth incorporating into this volume some account of the Ardens.
FOOTNOTES:
[312] Churchwardens' Accounts of Thurston Amere and William Combes, from
June 8, 1538, to May 8, 1540, 48th week, 1st year.
[313] _Notes and Queries_, Seventh Series, vii. 483, June 22, 1889.
Compare Third Series, iii. 318; Third Series, viii. 418; Savage's
"Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers in New England," ii. 528;
John Timbs' "Curiosities of London," ed. 1855, p. 238, and ed. 1867, p.
297; "Annals of St. Helen's, Bishopsgate," 221, 322.
[314] Subsidy Rolls, London, Ward of Billingsgate and others, 39 Eliz.,
146/369, P.R.O.
[315] Marriage Licenses, Faculty Office, Harl. Publ.
[316] Bishop of London's Marriage Licenses, Harl. Publ.
[317] Register, St. James's, Clerkenwell.
[318] Registers of Christ Church, Newgate Street, Harl. Soc. Publ.
[319] He died 1598, and was at one time connected with the Theatre as
shareholder. _Notes and Queries_, Seventh Series, vii. 188.
[320] Registers of St. James's, Clerkenwell, Harl. Publ.
[321] Account of the Treasurer of the Chamber, 1572, _et seq._
[322] "Archaeologia," vol. xiii., appendix, p. 403.
[323] _Notes and Queries_, Seventh Series, ii. 247.
[324] Registers of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields.
[325] Churchwarden's Accounts, St. Martin's-in-the-Fields.
[326] Bishop of London's Licenses, Harl. Soc. Publ.
[327] Registers of the Church of St. Bride's.
[328] Registers of the Church of St. Bride's.
[329] Among the expenses of the Royal Household are entered: 1621--"To
John Shakespeare for one gilt bit for the sadle aforesayd L3 13s.
6d. To John Shakespeare for fourteen bittes, guilt silvered and
chased, at L5 10s. a peice. For one payre of bosses, richly enamelled,
52s. 6d_, L73 12s. 6d. For 7 bittes for the sadles aforesayd at
52s. 6d. each, L18 7s. 6d."--"Early Illustrations of
Shakespeare," published by the Shakespeare Society.
[330] State Papers, Dom. Ser., Car. I., ccclxxiv. 20, Docquet.
[331] State Papers, Irish, Dublin Castle, Vol. M., p. 338. _Notes and
Queries_, First Series, vi. 289, 495.
[332] Somerset House, 268, Aylett.