Shakespeare's family
[333] The Registers of St. Thomas Apostle, London.
[334] State Papers, Dom. Ser., Car. I., lxxvi. 41.
[335] Somerset House, 249, Aston.
[336] Lic. Fac. Office, Harl. Publ.
[337] Reg. of St. George's, Hanover Square.
[338] Marriage Licenses, Bishop of London, Harl. Publ.
[339] Bishop of London's Licenses, Harl. Publ.
[340] Foster's "Alumni Oxonienses."
[341] Bishop of London's Mar. Lic., Harl. Publ.
[342] Somerset House, 248, Aston.
[343] _Notes and Queries_, Third Series, vii. 175.
[344] "Book of Apprentices," 1666-1736, f. 756
[345] His son stated that he was seventy-seven at the time of his death,
in 1689, but his marriage certificate makes him younger. "Publications
and Marriages, 1654: John Shakespear, of Ratcliffe Highway, ropemaker,
aged thirty-five, and Martha Seeley, of Wapping Wall, mayde, nineteen
years. Married before John Waterton, Esquire, on ye 14th June. Richard
Mathews, Robert Connolly, witnesses" (French, 547). He might have been a
son of John, son of Thomas of Snitterfield, b. 1582.
[346] _Notes and Queries_ Second Series, x. 188, 402; Third Series, vii.
498.
[347] State Papers, Dom. Ser., 1656-57, Commonwealth, cliii., Nos. 55,
56.
[348] "Misc. Gen. et Herald.," Second Series, v., 371, and Merchant
Tailors' "Book of Apprentices."
[349] Bishop of London's Marriage Licenses, Harl. Publ.
[350] Herbert's "Twelve Livery Companies."
[351] _Gentleman's Magazine_, 1805.
[352] _Ibid._, 1818.
[353] French, 551, and _Times_, April, 1867.
[354] "Dict. Nat. Biog."
[355] Register of Charterhouse Chapel.
[356] French, p. 556.
[357] A writer in _Notes and Queries_, Sixth Series, i. 494, speaks of a
"large silver salver bearing a lion passant and a leopard's head
crowned. In the centre are the arms and crest of Shakespeare, and on an
escutcheon of pretence three stags' heads caboshed. It bears the
inscription, 'William Powlett Powlett, Esq., D.D. William Powlett
Shakspear, 1821.' There is a legend this was made from plate owned by
the poet. What is the date of the salver?"
[358] _Times_, June 13, 1864, and _Notes and Queries_, Third Series,
vii. 498.
[359] Foster's "Alumni Oxonienses."
[360] "Misc. Gen. et Herald.," New Series, i., p. 143.
[361] Register of St. Bartholomew the Less.
[362] _Gentleman's Magazine_, vol. lxix., p. 83.
[363] Manning and Bray's "Surrey," vol. ii., under Walton-upon-Thames,
mentions the tomb of Matthew Shakespear and of George, aged fifteen,
August 8, 1775; John Shakespear, of Weybridge, January 3, 1775, aged
sixty-seven; William, January 23, 1783, aged seventy-seven; also of
George Shakespear of Oxford Street, London, late of this parish,
architect, who died March 29, 1797, in the seventy-fourth year of his
age.
[364] _Notes and Queries_, Seventh Series, viii. 89.
[365] _Ibid._, Sixth Series, ii. 53.
[366] _Ibid._, Third Series, ix. 346, 398.
[367] British Museum Catalogues.
_PART II_
CHAPTER I
THE PARK HALL ARDENS
"No Saint George was born in England:
He was but an Eastern saint;
And the Dragon never vexed him,
As the later legends paint.
"But our Saint was born in Berkshire,
And to Warwick linked his name;
'Twas _Saint Guy_ who killed the Dragon--
Quenched the Giant Colbrand's fame."--C. C. S.
Few families in the country have a descent so nationally interesting as
that of the Ardens. Great Norman families who "came in with the
Conqueror" are numerous enough, but there are few that claim to be
"merely English," and have such a record to show. The fables that have
grown around the memory of the hero do not invalidate the pedigree.
Rohand was Earl of Warwick in the days of King Alfred and King Edward
the Elder, when the title was an official one, not necessarily
hereditary, save of the King's will. Rohand was a great warrior, and was
enriched with great possessions. He dwelt in the Royal Castle of
Warwick,[368] said by Rous to have been founded by the British King
Cymbeline, enlarged by his son Guiderius, and repaired by Ethelfleda,
daughter of King Alfred, the Lady of Mercia. Rohand had one fair
daughter and heir, Phillis, or Felicia, who demanded great proofs of
valour in her suitors. She at last consented to marry the famous hero
Guy, slayer of the Northern Dragon,[369] son of Siward, Baron of
Wallingford, whom the Welsh claim as British by descent. Dugdale[370]
says that in her right Guy became Earl of Warwick, though of course this
was only possible through the King's favour. Some difficulties are
brought forward by Mr. Pegge.[371] Some time after his marriage, says
the legend, Guy went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and on his
return, in the third year of King Athelstan, 926, he found the kingdom
in great peril from an invasion of the Danes. They were, however, secure
in their faith in their champion, Colbrand the Giant, willing to leave
the issue to the result of a single contest between him and any of the
King's knights. King Athelstan's chief warriors were either dead or
abroad, and he mourned in his spirit. A vision revealed to him that he
must welcome at the gate of Winchester an unknown pilgrim as the
defender of the country. The King obeyed the vision in faith,
unwittingly welcomed Guy, and laid on him the responsibility of becoming
the national champion.
Footsore, half-starved, and far from young, the pilgrim required rest
before he dared prudently attack the Danish opponent. At the end of
three weeks, however, he triumphantly encountered the giant, and the
Danes kept their promise and retired. The pilgrim, who refused to reveal
his name or receive any reward, also departed. He found that his son and
heir, Raynborn, had been stolen away, and that his faithful servant
Heraud was abroad in search of him. Affected by the strange religious
notions of the day, he returned to Warwick, not to gladden the heart of
his sorrowing spouse, but to receive charity at her hands among other
poor men for three days, and then to retire to a hermitage at a cliff
near Warwick, since called Guy's Cliff. There he remained till his death
in 929, in the seventieth year of his age.[372] He sent a herdsman with
his wedding-ring to tell his wife of his death, bidding her come to him
and bury him properly, and she should shortly afterwards follow him. She
fulfilled his wishes, set her house in order, left her paternal
inheritance to her son Raynborn, and within a fortnight was laid beside
her ascetic hero.
Heraud succeeded in finding young Raynborn in Russia, to whom, on his
return, the grateful King Athelstan gave his beautiful daughter Leonetta
in marriage. He, too, seems to have been of a wandering disposition. He
died abroad, and lies buried in an island near the city of Venice. He
left a brave son, Wegeat, or Wigatus, at home to succeed him, who was
noted for his liberality to the Church, in which virtue, however, his
son and successor, Huve,[373] or Uva,[374] seems to have exceeded him.
Huve died about the beginning of the reign of King Edward the Martyr,
and Wolgeat, his son, succeeded him. In early life[375] he enjoyed the
special favour of King Ethelred, but was deprived, at least for a time,
of his honours and possessions about 1006. It was probably during the
disorganized state of the earldom, in consequence of his "evil courses,"
that the Danes ravaged it so frequently. Wigod, or Wigotus, his son, a
potent man and a great warrior, succeeded to the earldom, and enjoyed it
during the latter part of the reign of King Ethelred, and through the
reigns of King Edmund and the Danish Kings. He married Ermenhild, the
sister of the famous Leofric, Earl of Coventry and Leicester in the time
of Edward the Confessor. His son, Ailwin, Earl of Warwick, was
contemporary with King Edward the Confessor and William the Conqueror.
Turchil, son and heir[376] of Ailwin (Harleian MS., 853, says
"grandson"), was Earl at the Conquest. His first wife was the Countess
of Perche; his second, Leverunia, grand-daughter of Leofric. In the
Conqueror's Survey he is called _Vice-Comes_ rather than _Comes_, but
this seems to have arisen from the royal interest in the castle, and the
direct service he owed the King, though some authorities state that he
was under Leofric, Earl of Mercia. He fought with William against
Harold, and was ostensibly left in full possession of all his lands,
rights and privileges. He is called Turchil of Warwick by the Normans,
but Turchil of Eardene, or of the Woodland, by himself, being one of the
first to adopt the Norman habit of local names. In Domesday Book, begun
in the fourteenth year of the Conqueror, he is entered as in possession
of forty-nine manors in Warwickshire, among which were Curdworth,
Coughton, Rotley, Rodbourn, Compton (Winyate), Nuneaton. Warwick town
and castle were recorded as belonging to the King. He had but a
life-interest, however, his son, Siward, receiving none of them as his
heir, but by favour of the King.
The title of Earl of Warwick was given by William the Conqueror to Henry
de Novoborgo, or Newburgh, younger son of Roger de Bellomont, Earl of
Mellent, and William Rufus added to the gift the whole of Turchil's
lands, including even those given away by himself and his ancestors to
the Church. It was a hard lesson to friendly Saxon noblemen. A gloss of
justice, or at least of consideration, was shown in the marriage of
Henry de Novoborgo to Margaret, one of the daughters of Turchil, and
sister of Siward de Arderne.[377]
Turchil's sons were Siward de Ardena, Ralph of Hampton,[378] William,
and Peter the Monk of Thorney, by his first wife, and Osbert by his
second wife. Some of their lands were left to the Ardens by grace of the
Novoborgos, who became their overlords. These lands were gradually
diminished by devotion to the Church, by the increase of the family, and
division of the properties, though this was somewhat balanced by wealthy
marriages.
Siward by his wife Cecilia had a large family: Hugh de Rotley[379]
(dapifer or sewer to his kinsman William de Newburgh), Henry de Arden,
Joseph, Richard, Osbert, Galfridus, a monk of Coventry, Cecilia,
Felicia. Osbert, his stepbrother, was the father of Osbert, Philip,[380]
Peter de Arden, and Amicia, who became the wife of Peter de Bracebridge,
and the ancestress of the Bracebridges of Kingsbury, seat of the Mercian
Kings. Her brother Osbert had daughters only, Amabilia and Adeliza, who
left no children.
The main line was carried on by Henry de Arden, son of Siward, who
married Oliva, and whose eldest son and heir was Thomas de Arden, of
Curdworth (9 John). He had also William de Arden of Rodburn, Herbert,
and Letitia. Thomas de Arden married Eustachia, widow of Savaricius de
Malaleone, and had a son of his own name, Sir Thomas de Arden of Rotley
and Spratton, who took part with Simon de Montfort and the rebellious
Barons, 48 Henry III. This cost him dear. In 9 Edward I. he handed over,
either in sale, lease, or trust, his lands in Curdworth to Hugh de
Vienna; to the Knights Templars the interest he had in Riton; in 15
Edward I., to Nicholas de Eton the manor of Rotley, and to Thomas Arden
de Hanwell and Rose his wife, Pedimore, Curdworth, Norhull, Winworth,
Echenours, and Overton, and made a covenant with William de Beauchamp
and Maud, his wife, of all his fees throughout England.
It is not probable that Turchil, the last Saxon Earl of Warwick, bore
anything that might be strictly called armorial bearings. When the
heiress of the Novoborgos married into their family, the Beauchamps
added to their own the Newburgh arms. But they used them in a peculiar
way, as if they considered they were associated, not so much with the