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SHAKESPEARE'S FAMILY

[Illustration]

[Illustration: William Shakespeare from the Drocshout painting now in
the Shakespeare Memorial Gallery at Stratford-on-Avon.]




SHAKESPEARE'S FAMILY


BEING


A Record of the Ancestors and Descendants
of William Shakespeare


WITH

_SOME ACCOUNT OF THE ARDENS_


BY

MRS. C. C. STOPES

AUTHOR OF
"THE BACON-SHAKESPEARE QUESTION ANSWERED," "SHAKESPEARE'S WARWICKSHIRE
CONTEMPORARIES," "BRITISH FREEWOMEN," ETC.


LONDON
ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.
NEW YORK
JAMES POTT & COMPANY
1901


Transcriber's note: Minor typos have been corrected. Footnotes have been
moved to the end of the chapter. Letters that are preceeded by a caret
(^) are superscripted in the text.




PREFACE


When I was invited to reprint in book-form the articles which had
appeared in the _Genealogical Magazine_ under the titles of
"Shakespeare's Family" and the "Warwickshire Ardens," I carefully
corrected them, and expanded them where expansion could be made
interesting. Thus to the bald entries of Shakespeare's birth and burial
I added a short life. Perhaps never before has anyone attempted to write
a life of the poet with so little allusion to his plays and poems. My
reason is clear; it is only the genealogical details of certain
Warwickshire families of which I now treat, and it is only as an
interesting Warwickshire gentleman that the poet is here included.

Much of the chaotic nonsense that has of late years been written to
disparage his character and contest his claims to our reverence and
respect are based on the assumption that he was a man of low origin and
of mean occupation. I deny any relevance to arguments based on such an
assumption, for genius is restricted to no class, and we have a Burns as
well as a Chaucer, a Keats as well as a Gower, yet I am glad that the
result of my studies tends to prove that it is but an unfounded
assumption. By the Spear-side his family was at least respectable, and
by the Spindle-side his pedigree can be traced straight back to Guy of
Warwick and the good King Alfred. There is something in fallen fortune
that lends a subtler romance to the consciousness of a noble ancestry,
and we may be sure this played no small part in the making of the poet.

All that bear his name gain a certain interest through him, and
therefore I have collected every notice I can find of the Shakespeares,
though we are all aware none can be his descendants, and that the family
of his sister can alone now enter into the poet's pedigree with any
degree of certainty.

The time for romancing has gone by, and nothing more can be done
concerning the poet's life except through careful study and through
patient research. All students must regret that their labours have such
comparatively meagre results. Though sharing in this regret, I have been
able, besides adding minor details, to find at last a definite link of
association between the Park Hall and the Wilmcote Ardens; and I have
located a John Shakespeare in St. Clement's Danes, Strand, London, who
is probably the poet's cousin. I have also somewhat cleared the ground
by checking errors, such as those made by Halliwell-Phillipps,
concerning John Shakespeare, of Ingon, and Gilbert Shakespeare,
Haberdasher, of London (see page 226). I hope that every contribution to
our store of real knowledge may bring forward new suggestions and
additional facts.

In regard to his mother's family, I thought it important to clear the
earlier connections. But it must not be forgotten that until modern
times no Shakespeare but himself was connected with the Ardens. Yet,
having commenced with the family, I may be pardoned for adding to their
history before the sixteenth century the few notes I have gleaned
concerning the later branches.

The order I have preferred has been chronological, limited by the
advisability of completing the notices of a family in special
localities.

Disputed questions I have placed in chapters apart, as they would bulk
too largely in a short biography to be proportionate. Hence the Coat of
Arms and the Arden Connections are treated as family matters, apart from
John Shakespeare's special biography. I have done what I could to avoid
mistakes, and neither time nor trouble has been spared. I owe thanks to
many who have helped me in my long-continued and careful researches, to
the officials of the British Museum and the Public Record Office, to the
Town Council of Stratford-on-Avon and Mr. Savage, Secretary of the
Shakespeare Trust, to the Worshipful Company of the Haberdashers, for
allowing me to study their records; to the late Earl of Warwick, for
admission to his Shakespeare Library, and to many clergymen who have
permitted me to search their registers.

                    CHARLOTTE CARMICHAEL STOPES.




CONTENTS

                       PART I

CHAPTER                                                 PAGE

   I. THE NAME OF SHAKESPEARE                              1

  II. THE LOCALITIES OF EARLY SHAKESPEARES                 4

 III. LATER SHAKESPEARES BEFORE THE POET'S TIME           10

  IV. THE SHAKESPEARE COAT OF ARMS                        17

   V. THE IMPALEMENT OF THE ARDEN ARMS                    24

  VI. THE ARDENS OF WILMECOTE                             35

 VII. JOHN SHAKESPEARE                                    50

VIII. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE                                 61

  IX. SHAKESPEARE'S DESCENDANTS                           87

   X. COLLATERALS                                        110

  XI. COUSINS AND CONNECTIONS                            113

 XII. CONTEMPORARY WARWICKSHIRE SHAKESPEARES             118

XIII. SHAKESPEARES IN OTHER COUNTIES                     132

 XIV. LONDON SHAKESPEARES                                142


                     PART II

   I. THE PARK HALL ARDENS                               162

  II. THE ARDENS OF LONGCROFT                            183

 III. OTHER WARWICKSHIRE ARDENS                          188

  IV. THE ARDENS OF CHESHIRE                             196

   V. BRANCHES IN OTHER COUNTIES                         213

      TERMINAL NOTES                                     222

      INDEX                                              239




ILLUSTRATIONS


                                                        PAGE
PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE               _Frontispiece_

SHAKESPEARE'S ARMS                                        17

OLD HOUSE AT WILMECOTE, BY SOME SUPPOSED TO BE
    ROBERT ARDEN'S                             _To face_  35

PRESENT VIEW OF SHAKESPEARE'S BIRTHPLACE             "    55

THE GUILD CHAPEL, FROM THE SITE OF NEW PLACE         "    67

THE CHANCEL, TRINITY CHURCH                          "    83

SHAKESPEARE'S EPITAPH                                     84

ANNE HATHAWAY'S COTTAGE                        _To face_  88

ANNE SHAKESPEARE'S EPITAPH                                90

SNITTERFIELD CHURCH                            _To face_ 113

NORDEN'S MAP OF LONDON, 1593                         "   142

WARWICK CASTLE                                       "   162

SWAN THEATRE (BY DR. GAIDERTY)                       "   214

THE BEAR GARDEN AND HOPE THEATRE                     "   216

SWAN THEATRE                                         "   216


    When, from the midst of a people, there riseth a man
    Who voices the life of its life, the dreams of its soul,
    The Nation's Ideal takes shape, on Nature's old plan,
    Expressing, informing, impelling, the fashioning force of the whole.

    The Spirit of England, thus Shakespeare our Poet arose;
    For England made Shakespeare, as Shakespeare makes England anew.
    His people's ideals should clearly their kinship disclose,
    To England, themselves, the more true, in that they to their
        Shakespeare are true.




Shakespeare's Family




_PART I_

CHAPTER I

THE NAME OF SHAKESPEARE


The origin of the name of "Shakespeare" is hidden in the mists of
antiquity. Writers in _Notes and Queries_ have formed it from Sigisbert,
or from Jacques Pierre,[1] or from "Haste-vibrans." Whatever it was at
its initiation, it may safely be held to have been an intentionally
significant appellation in later years. That it referred to feats of
arms may be argued from analogy. Italian heraldry[2] illustrates a name
with an exactly similar meaning and use in the Italian language, that of
Crollalanza.

English authors use it as an example of their theories. Verstegan
says[3]: "Breakspear, Shakespeare, and the like, have bin surnames
imposed upon the first bearers of them for valour and feates of armes;"
and Camden[4] also notes: "Some are named from that they carried, as
Palmer... Long-sword, Broadspear, and in some respects Shakespear."

In "The Polydoron"[5] it is stated that "Names were first questionlesse
given for distinction, facultie, consanguinity, desert, quality... as
Armestrong, Shakespeare, of high quality."

That it was so understood by his contemporaries we may learn from
Spenser's allusion, evidently intended for him, seeing no other poet of
his time had an "heroic name"[6]:

    "And there, though last, not least is Aetion;
    A gentler shepherd[7] may nowhere be found,
    Whose Muse, full of high thought's invention,
    Doth like himself heroically sound."

If the parts of the name be significant, I take it that the correct
spelling at any period is that of the contemporary spelling of the
parts. Therefore, when spear was spelt "spere," the cognomen should be
spelt "Shakespere"; when spear was spelt "speare," as it was in the
sixteenth century, the name should be spelt "Shakespeare." Other methods
of spelling depended upon the taste or education of the writers, during
transition periods, when they seemed actually to _prefer_ varieties, as
one sometimes finds a proper name spelt in three different ways by the
same writer on the same page. "Shakespeare" was the contemporary form of
the name that the author himself passed in correcting the proofs of the
"first heirs of his invention" in 1593 and 1594; and "Shakespeare" was
the Court spelling of the period, as may be seen by the first official
record of the name. When Mary, Countess of Southampton, made out the
accounts of the Treasurer of the Chamber after the death of her second
husband, Sir Thomas Heneage, in 1594, she wrote: "To William Kempe,
William Shakespeare,[8] and Richard Burbage," etc.

I know that Dr. Furnivall[9] wrote anathemas against those who dared to
spell the name thus, while the poet wrote it otherwise. But a man's
spelling of his own name counted very little then. He might have held
romantically to the quainter spelling of the olden time as many others
did, such as "Duddeley," "Crumwell," "Elmer."

[Illustration]

FOOTNOTES:

[1] _Notes and Queries_, 2nd Series, ix. 459, x. 15, 86, 122; 7th
Series, iv. 66; 8th Series, vii. 295; 5th Series, ii. 2.

[2] See Works of Goffredo di Crollalanza, Segretario-Archivista dell'
Accademia Araldica Italiana, which were brought to my notice by Dr.
Richard Garnett.

[3] Verstegan's "Restitution of Decayed Intelligence," ed. 1605, p. 254.

[4] Camden's "Remains," ed. 1605, p. 111.

[5] Undated, but contemporary. _Notes and Queries_, 3rd Series, i. 266.

[6] Spenser's "Colin Clout's Come Home Again," 1595.

[7] It was a fashion of the day to call all poets "shepherds."

[8] "Declared Accounts of the Treasurer of the Chamber," Pipe Office,
542 (1594). See my English article, "The Earliest Official Record of
Shakespeare's Name."--"Shakespeare Jahrbuch," Berlin, 1896, reprinted in
pamphlet form.

[9] "On Shakespere's Signatures," by Dr. F.J. Furnivall, in the _Journal
of the Society of Archivists and Autograph Collectors_, No. I., June,
1895.




CHAPTER II

THE LOCALITIES OF EARLY SHAKESPEARES


We find the name occurs in widely scattered localities from very early
times. Perhaps a resembling name ought to be noted "in the hamlet of
Pruslbury, Gloucestershire,[10] where there were four tenants. This was
at one time an escheat of the King, who gave it to his valet, Simon
_Shakespeye_, who afterwards gave it to Constantia de Legh, who gave it
to William Solar, the defendant." If this represents a 1260
"Shakespere," as there is every reason to believe it does, this is the
earliest record of the name yet found. This belief is strengthened by
the discovery that a _Simon Sakesper_ was in the service of the Crown in
1278, as herderer of the Forest of Essex,[11] in the Hundred of
Wauthorn, 7 Edward I. Between these two dates Mr. J. W. Rylands[12] has
found a Geoffrey Shakespeare on the jury in the Hundred of Brixton, co.
Surrey, in 1268.[13]

The next[14] I have noted occurs in Kent in the thirteenth century,
where a John Shakespeare appears in a judicial case, 1278-79, at
Freyndon.

The fifth notice is in the north.[15] The Hospital of St. Nicholas,
Carlisle, had from its foundation been endowed with a thrave of corn
from every ploughland in Cumberland. These were withheld by the
landowners in the reign of Edward III., for some reason, and an inquiry
was instituted in 1357. The jury decided that the corn was due. It had
been withheld for eight years by various persons, among whom was "Henry
Shakespere, of the Parish of Kirkland," east of Penrith. This gives,
therefore, really an entry of this Shakespere's existence at that place
as early as 1349, and an examination of Court Records may prove an
earlier settlement of the family.

There was a transfer of lands in Penrith described as "next the land of
Allan Shakespeare," and amongst the witnesses was William
Shakespeare,[16] April, 21 Richard II., 1398.

In the "Records of the Borough of Nottingham,"[17] we find a John
Shakespere plaintiff against Richard de Cotgrave, spicer, for deceit in
sale of dye-wood on November 8, 31 Edward III. (1357); Richard, the
servant of Robert le Spondon, plaintiff against John Shakespere for
assault. John proves himself in the right, and receives damages, October
21, 1360.

The first appearance yet found of the name in Warwickshire is in 1359,
when Thomas Sheppey and Henry Dilcock, Bailiffs of Coventry, account for
the property of Thomas Shakespere,[18] felon, who had left his goods and
fled.

Halliwell-Phillipps[19] notes as his earliest entry of the name a Thomas
Shakespere, of Youghal, 49 Edward III. (1375). A writer in _Notes and
Queries_[20] gives a date two years later when "Thomas Shakespere and
Richard Portingale" were appointed Comptrollers of the Customs in
Youghal, 51 Edward III. (1377). This would imply that he was a highly
trustworthy man. Yet, by some turn of fortune's wheel, he may have been
the same man as the felon.

In Controlment Rolls, 2 Richard II. (June, 1377, to June, 1379), there
is an entry of "Walter Shakespere, formerly in gaol in Colchester
Castle."[21] John Shakespeare was imprisoned in Colchester gaol as a
perturbator of the King's peace, March 3rd, 4 Richard II., 1381.[22] At
Pontefract, Robert Schaksper, Couper, and Emma his wife are mentioned as
paying poll-tax, 2 Rich. II.[23]

The Rev. Mr. Norris,[24] working from original documents, notes that on
November 24 (13 Richard II.), 1389, Adam Shakespere, who is described as
son and heir of Adam of Oldediche, held lands within the manor of
Baddesley Clinton by military service, and probably had only just then
obtained them. Oldediche, or Woldich, now commonly called Old Ditch
Lane, lies within the parish of Temple Balsall, not far from the manor
of Baddesley.

This closes the notices of the family that I have collected during the
fourteenth century. The above-noted Adam Shakespere, the younger, died
in 1414, leaving a widow, Alice, and a son and heir, John, then under
age, who held lands until 20 Henry VI., 1441. It is not clear who
succeeded him, but probably two brothers, Ralph and Richard, who held
lands in Baddesley, called Great Chedwyns, adjoining Wroxall. Mr. Norris
says that no further mention of the name appears in Baddesley, but one
notice of the property is given later. Ralph