john aubrey, in 1693, reported that shakespeare had been a country schoolmaster, a tale augmented in the 20th century with the theory that his employer might have been alexander hoghton of lancashire, a prominent catholic landowner who left money in his will to a certain "william shakeshafte", referencing theatrical costumes and paraphernalia. shakespeare's grandfather richard had also once used the name shakeshafte. peter ackroyd adds that examinations of the marginal notes in the hoghton family copy of edward hall's "chronicles", an important source for shakespeare's early histories, "indicate the probability that shakespeare and the annotator were the same man, but do not by any means prove it."