Shakespeare's family
cross-crosslets fitchee and a chief or. See Drummond, p. 5.
[382] Whalley's "Northampton," p. 464; Baker's "Northampton";
"Parliamentary Roll of Arms," 862. "Sire ... Ilm de Arderne ... de
ermyne a une fesse chekere dor e de aszure" (_Genealogist_, New Series,
xiii.). I do not know which William this refers to.
[383] He married Isabella, daughter of Sir Roger Mortimer of Chirk. She
afterwards married John Fitzalan (Berry's "Essex Genealogies").
[384] Dugdale's "Warwickshire," p. 927.
[385] "This lady seems to have married for a third time. Robert de
Wyckham sued Thomas Wake and Nicholaa, his wife, and Giles de Arderne
for the next presentation to the church of Swalclyve. Robert, father of
plaintiff, had given the advowson to John de Arderne, and John had
enfeoffed Robert de Wyckham and Elizabeth his wife. Nicholaa had been
married to Robert de Arderne" (_Genealogist_, New Series, ix.).
[386] See Visitation, 1619.
[387] Dugdale's "Warwickshire," p. 928; Harleian MS., 1992, f. 121, "The
Ancient Family of Arderne." Ralph died 8 Henry V.
[388] 17 Blamyr.
[389] Walter Arden's son-in-law.
[390] The decision of the residence of this Thomas would solve a knotty
question.
[391] Leland's "Itinerary," vi. 20. See also admin. of goods, granted to
his sister Alice Buklond and his nephew John, son of Sir John.
[392] Patent 17 Henry VII., February 22, second part, mem. 30.
[393] Same series, September 9, mem. 35.
[394] Patents 23 Henry VIII., September 24, first part, mem. 12.
[395] Pat. Henry VIII., p. 1, m. 16.
[396] Letters and Papers, Henry VIII., Gairdner.
[397] Bedfordshire Visitation, 1566. (See Glover.) There was in Edward
VI.'s reign a William Arderne, Clerk of the Market of Struton
Oskellyswade, Bedford (Est. of Office, Edward VI. to Elizabeth). And in
the accounts of the Treasurer of the Chamber there are mentioned among
the "Extraordinary Yeomen of the Guard, 1570," "William Arden and his
son Robert Arden."
[398] Somerset House, 8 Porch.
[399] The name Collins appears in connection with the Ardens in
Wiltshire also.
[400] See Visitation of Worcester, 1569: "Richard Muklowe of Hodon,
Worcestershire, married Katherine, daughter of John Arden." The
Gloucester Visitation records that Richard Cotton of Sedenton, married
Agnes, daughter of Sir John Arden of Park Hall, sister of Thomas.
[401] Commissary Wills, Somerset House, 31^a Clyffe.
[402] Dugdale's "Warwickshire."
[403] "Stratford-on-Avon Miscell. Papers," see p. 410, _Genealogical
Magazine_, 1897. He was also trustee in a settlement made by Sir John
Arden of Park Hall, in association with Sir Richard Empson and others.
See Petition of Simon Arden, p. 184.
[404] It is curious that in a will of Sir William Trussel of Cublesdon,
1379, there is a bequest mentioned as having been made to him by his
"cousin Sir Thomas d'Ardene" (Sir N. H. Nicolas, "Testamenta Vetusta,"
i. 107).
[405] Glover's "Heraldry," vol. ii., ed. 1780.
[406] Fuller's "Worthies."
[407] 7 Alen. Inquis. P.M. at Warwick, June 27, 37 Henry VIII., Edward,
son and heir, aged twelve.
[408] See Close Roll, 32 Henry VI., m. 11. Saltley came into the family
with Elizabeth Clodshalle (who married Robert Arden in the time of Henry
VI.), and remained in it till the death of Robert Arden, 1643, when it
fell to the share of his sister Anne.
[409] By some family arrangement, the old family seat of Pedmore seems
to have been settled on him, as he was always styled Francis Arden of
Pedmore.
[410] Anne married John Barnesley of Barnesley (see Visitation of
Worcester, 1569); Bridget, Hugh Massey; Barbara, Richard Neville, son of
the last Lord Latimer, and claimant of that title and the earldom of
Westmorland; Joyce, John Ladbrooke. Was this Jane Arden the lady of this
name who married into the Brownlow family about 1553? See Pedigree of
Brownlow.
[411] "Originalia et Memoranda." Lord Treasurer's side of the Exchequer,
Hilarii Recorda, 7 Elizabeth, Rot. 82.
[412] _Ibid._, Hilarii Recorda, 15 Elizabeth, Rot. 55.
[413] Coke's "Entries," f. 39_b_.
[414] In an account of the Grevilles, when the eldest son still resided
at Drayton, it is noted: "Though a great part of the Lands of Sir Giles
Arden came to Lewis Greville through his wife, yet there is one Arden at
this time in Warwickshire that is a man of three hundred marks land by
the yeare." Addit. MS., 5937, f. 88, British Museum.
[415] See "Liber Pacis," Eg. MS., 2345.
[416] Dugdale's "Warwickshire," 884, 927.
[417] See _Athenaeum_, Feb., 1896, p. 190, and my little volume on
"Shakespeare's Warwickshire Contemporaries" (Stratford-on-Avon Press),
p. 48.
[418] State Papers, Dom. Series, Elizabeth, clxiii., 21 _et seq._
[419] Accounts of Treasurer of the Chamber, 1583-84.
[420] Burke makes an extraordinary error in stating that Shakespeare's
mother was a daughter of Sir Edward Arden, of Park Hall ("Hist. Landed
Gentry," edition 1882, vol. i., p. 34). Now, Edward was never knighted,
and must have been born about the same year as Mary, daughter of Robert
Arden, who married John Shakespeare.
[421] The Accounts of the Wardens of the Tower mention Francis Arden's
board, up to June 24, 1585, and he sued shortly after for Pedmore, on
the death of Sir George Digby, to whom it had been granted (State
Papers, Dom. Series, Elizabeth, ccii., 40).
[422] State Papers, Dom. Series, Elizabeth, clxxi. 35; also Patents,
Elizabeth, 28, c. 10.
[423] Dugdale's "Warwickshire," 927. I find also several pensions
allowed by the Crown to a Robert Arden, early in James I. These may
refer to Robert of Park Hall (Book of Patents, xi. 212).
[424] Inventory of his property is at Lichfield, where also is that of
his wife, Lady Dorothy Arden, 1635-36, and will of his son, Robert
Arden.
[425] Ashmolean MSS., 36, f. 125: "Robert Arden, Colonel and Sheriff of
Warwickshire." An elegy upon his death in Oxford of small-pox, August
22, 1643: "Seeing these tapers and this solemn night," etc. Signed,
"Peter Halstead."
[426] She was a Lady of the Privy Chamber to the Queen-mother, and
survived her husband. See the burial of her daughter, Mrs. Henrietta
Maria Stanhope, October 23, 1674.
CHAPTER II
THE ARDENS OF LONGCROFT
This main line of Ardens having thus become extinct, we have to go back
some generations to find the younger branch that carried on the name.
Simon, the second son of the Thomas Arden who died in 1563, brother of
the William Arden who died 1546, and uncle of Edward Arden, who was
executed 1583, seems to have been an important man in his own day. He
was much trusted by his father and nephew, and was elected Sheriff of
Warwickshire in 1569, when he bore as arms three cross crosslets
fitchee, and a chief or.[427] His first wife was Margaret; his second
Christian,[428] widow of Thomas Bond, of Ward End. In a catalogue of all
the noblemen and gentlemen resident in Warwickshire, 1577-78, by Henry
Ferrers, of Baddesley, is mentioned Edward Arden, of Park Hall, and
Simon Arden, of Saltley, his uncle;[429] and in the Subsidy for
Warwickshire, 1581, he is mentioned as one of "those collecting, and not
assessed themselves."[430] During the first half of Elizabeth's reign he
purchased Longcroft, in the parish of Yoxall, Staffordshire, a property
that had previously been in the family. In 18 Elizabeth (1576) he found
one light horse for the royal service there, and paid to the Subsidy of
1590, 26s. 8d. for his lands at Yoxall, valued at L10.[431] He seems,
however, to have got into trouble in his old age. The draft of a
petition of his (_circa_ 1595-98) is preserved among the Longcroft
papers,[432] which is well worthy of being transcribed:
"_To the most honourable the Lord High Treasurer of
England._
"The most humble petition of Simon Arden, of the age of 100
years or thereabouts, praying your good Lordship's aid in
his owld age against the great wrongs and oppressions
offered by Edward Darcie, Esquire, one of the grooms of her
Majestie's Privy Chamber.
"As by the enclosed may plainlie apeare:
{The Pedigree. John Arden had issue Thomas.
{Thomas had issue William, Simon, George, Edward, Thomas.
{William had issue Edward & Francis.
{Edward had issue _vivens_ Robert.
"The said John Arden did infeff John Kingsmel,
Sergeant-at-Lawe, Sir Richard Empson, Sir Richard Knightley,
Sir Robert Throgmorton,[433] Knights, and others, of the
manor of Crudworth, and other lands in the county of
Warwick, to divers uses; the said Thomas, being seized in
fee, granted to me, and his said other sons, dyvers several
annuities, being all the patrimony he provided for the same
his younger sons. The said Thomas did afterwards make other
assurances to the said William. The said annuities were paid
unto all the said younger sons during their lives, and unto
me till the attainder of Edward Arden. By which means the
premises came into the hands of her Majestie, in what time
that the same remained in her hands, by your Honor's order I
was paid mine annuitie, being 20 marks by the year. And
after that the same was granted to the said Edward Darcie,
your Lordship did likewise very honorably apporcion how much
thereof should be yearely paid unto me by the said Edward
Darcie, and how much otherwise, according to which
aporcionment the said Edward Darcy paid his part thereof
unto me foure or five yeares, and about six yeares sithence
denyd so to do, urging me with seutes in the Court of
Requests, and in the Honourable Court of Exchequer Chamber,
and at the Common Law. Also for the space of vi yeares now
together seeking by this countenance to oppress me. The said
Robert Arden payeth unto me the porcion of the said annuity
apointed by your Lordship's order, or rather more thereof
than he was charged with by your order, and I have desired
but ye residew of Mr. Darcie. I have had judgment against
him in the Common _Place_, he hath removed the record into
the King's Bench by writ of Error; so yt by injunction out
of the Court of the Exchequer Chamber to entertain time and
delay me til death hath wholy interred my ancient bodie
already more than half in grave, knowing, _Mors solvit
omnia_, by my death my cause wil be remeadiless.
"Be therefore so much, my good Lord, as to take my cause
into your own hands, and for God's sake to end it. I protest
mine adversary hath caused me to spend more then such an
annuity is worth to purchase. Age wold have ease, which is
expedicion in causes of suit and molestacion, and expedicion
in justice is the most Honour that may be; which is no small
part of your Honor's comendacion. Almighty God long preserve
you in all felicity, that this Realm of England may more and
more long take profit of your most wise and grave counsels."
Perhaps on his coming to Longcroft he found the old Arden arms there.
Before the grant to his grand-uncle Robert there had been Ardens in
Yoxall.[434] Certain it is that after that date they appear in Longcroft
Hall and in the parish church. The headship of the family fell to his
heirs in 1643. Simon's son[435] Ambrose[436] married Mary Wedgewood
1588, and died 1624. His son Humphrey[437] married Jane Rowbotham at
Marchington, December 1, 1630. Of his family, Henry married Catherine
Harper, but died without children, November 26, 1676; John, of Wisbeach,
married Anne, and died without heirs, April 2, 1709, aged 84;[438]
Humphrey, of Longcroft, who married the daughter of ---- Lassel, and
died January 31, 1705, aged 74. His daughters Elizabeth and Katharine