Shakespeare's Family

PART I. Chapter Page

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

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 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, 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 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: "Breakspear, Shakespeare, and the like, have bin surnames imposed upon the first bearers of them for valour and feates of armes;" and Camden also notes: "Some are named from that they carried, as Palmer ... Long-sword, Broadspear, and in some respects Shakespear."

In "The Polydoron" 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":

"And there, though last, not least is Aëtión; A gentler shepherd 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, and Richard Burbage," etc.

I know that Dr. Furnivall 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."

FOOTNOTES:

Notes and Queries, 2nd Series, ix. 459, x. 15, 86, 122; 7th Series, iv. 66; 8th Series, vii. 295; 5th Series, ii. 2.

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

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

Camden's "Remains," ed. 1605, p. 111.

Undated, but contemporary. Notes and Queries, 3rd Series, i. 266.

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

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

"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.

"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

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, 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, in the Hundred of Wauthorn, 7 Edward I. Between these two dates Mr. J. W. Rylands has found a Geoffrey Shakespeare on the jury in the Hundred of Brixton, co. Surrey, in 1268.

The next 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. 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, April, 21 Richard II., 1398.

In the "Records of the Borough of Nottingham," 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, felon, who had left his goods and fled.

Halliwell-Phillipps notes as his earliest entry of the name a Thomas Shakespere, of Youghal, 49 Edward III. (1375). A writer in Notes and Queries 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." John Shakespeare was imprisoned in Colchester gaol as a perturbator of the King's peace, March 3rd, 4 Richard II., 1381. At Pontefract, Robert Schaksper, Couper, and Emma his wife are mentioned as paying poll-tax, 2 Rich. II.

The Rev. Mr. Norris, 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.

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