Part 7

one William Rownde of Allesley, co. Warr., husbandman, standing bound to John Blythe jointly with Henry Shakespeare in the said sum of 6_l._ 13_s._ 4_d._ for the said oxen, and understanding that Henry Shakespeare was under arest at Stratford-upon-Avon, and there detayned in pryson for debt, and fearing lest he, the said William Rownde, should be compelled to paie the sum of 6_l._ 13_s._ 4_d._ to the said John Blythe for the debt of Henry Shakespeare, he, the said Rownde, did fetch the said two oxen from the said Henry Shakespeare and delivered them to the said John Blythe of Allesley in discharge of the same debt.

Meades denied that he had gone in the night time and taken away Henry Shakespeare’s goods, that he had detained anything to his own use, or that John Blythe had asked him to pay the £6 13_s._ 4_d._ as surety. This is signed by Bartholomew Hales, William Jeffreys, William Cookes, and Ambrose Cowper, the Commissioners, the first being lord of the manor.

The replication of John Blythe to William Meades, 23rd June 41 Eliz., 1599, upholds his former complaint, which he is willing to prove. But the name of Henry Shakespeare does not appear in it. There is no trace of further action, or of any decision. But we have the tragic picture of Henry Shakespeare’s haunted death-bed. John Shakespeare, only four miles off, must have felt inclined, when he heard of it, to say what Macduff did: “And I must be from hence!”

Even more touching is the picture of the widow of two hours being worried about her husband’s debts. Bereaved and childless, she was left alone in the dismantled house, where the wheels of life stood still, for a short time (only six weeks), and then in Snitterfield “Margaret Sakspere, being tymes the wyff of Henry Sakspere, was buried, ix Feb., 1596/7.”

_“Athenæum,” 21st May 1910._

FOOTNOTES:

[14] Act Book IX, Diocesan Registry, Worcester.

[15] The “Dictionary of National Biography” describes him as “a prosperous farmer.”

IX

“MRS. SHAXSPERE” IN THE LAW COURTS

It is well known that William Shakespeare, his family, and his friends were frequently connected with lawsuits in Stratford-on-Avon; but it has not yet been noted that his mother also appeared, in one case at least, under conditions not quite clear.

Among the Miscellaneous Documents, Stratford-on-Avon, Vol. VI, is a narrow strip of paper numbered 168. It begins:

Jurie between Robert Reed, plaintiff, and John Sadler, defendant, in a pley of trespas committed.

List of Jury: Phyllyp Grene; Ralph Lourd; Valentyne Taunt, Jur.; Robert Byddell, Jur.; Rychard Dyxson; William Wyat, Jur.; Rychard Boyse; Hough Piggon, Jur.; Edmund Watt; Rychard Taylor, Jur.; Nycholas James, Jur.; George Perey; Thomas Sharpe, Jur.; Humphrey Wheeler; Thomas Brydges; Jullyan Shawe, Jur.; Robert Wylson; John Knyght; William Tetherton; Rychard Pinck; George Mase, Jur.; Wylliam Slater, Jur.; George Rose, Jur.; Thomas More, Jur.

This seems to be the case described in the same volume of Miscellaneous Documents, VI, No. 176. Robert Reade was a surgeon. John Gibbes was dangerously wounded 10th June 37 Eliz. John Sadler, his intimate friend and neighbour, summoned Robert Reade, and promised him £10 if he should cure Gibbes. This sum Sadler refused to pay after the cure had been effected.

At the foot of the page, apparently unconnected with the above, is another entry:

Capiat Rychard Jumpe at the suit of Johne Coocke in assumpsione for cecurytie for iiiˡⁱ viˢ viiiᵈ to paye at Stratford fayre next.

Endorsed upside down, and hence on the back of the later entry, appears

Maria Shaxspere, Jur. Jone Reade. Jane Baker, Jur.

Now can it be taken that these women were also on the jury, or were they only sworn witnesses? One of these they must have been. Of the three women’s names, one was apparently ruled out, Jone Reade, probably related to Robert Reed, plaintiff. The case is undated, and one gathers no clues from the calendar. I have looked up the dates of all the names mentioned in the Stratford Registers, and find that it cannot have been heard later than 1597, as Robert Bydell was buried 28th December 1597. Of the others, Thomas Sharpe was buried 18th August 1608, and “Marye Shaxspere, Wydowe,” on 9th September: “Jane, daughter of Richard Baker, Shoemaker, 23rd Sept., 1613,” though the entry might really refer to Jone, wife of Daniel Baker, who was buried 16th May 1600.

It seems almost certain that this Maria was the wife of John Shakespeare and the mother of William. There is not another of the name in the Stratford Register; and had she been one of the Rowington Shakespeares, her place of residence would naturally have been mentioned as a distinction. It is therefore possible that the poet learnt some of his knowledge of law terms even from the experience of his mother.

_“Athenæum,” 13th May 1909._

X

“HONORIFICABILITUDINITATIBUS” IN WARWICKSHIRE

PILLERTON REGISTERS

Through the kindness of the Rev. Neville Hill I have been allowed to see the Pillerton Hersey registers, which date from 1539. They have not been very badly preserved, that is, they are not mouldy nor worm-eaten, nor much frayed. But the earliest volume, at least, is the most carelessly _kept_ that I have ever seen, in the sense of having entries (now undecipherable) scribbled all over the covers, outside and inside; in having long gaps without any records; and in having those of later date wedged into spaces among the earlier ones, so that, for instance, eighteenth-century entries in some places immediately follow those of 1579.

On the inner sides of the covers are various scribblings that can only be roughly dated by the study of the handwriting. A superficial set of marks shows the scribbles of a child. Yet the first scribe left his work exceptionally well done. He was evidently proud of his beautiful penmanship, and took great care in producing his records, especially in his earlier years. What relation he bore to the parish is uncertain. Dugdale says that the sixteenth-century incumbents were “Ric. Moore, Cler., Nov. 11th, 1562; and v.p.m. Ric. Moore,[16] Rob. Hall,[17] Feb. 23rd, 1590.” Of the first I can find no further record; of the second we may premise that he was the Robert Hale who matriculated 1580, 28th April, Glouc. pleb. f., 17 Broadgates H. (see Boase, Reg. Univ. Oxford, vol. II, ii).

But the person who wrote the earlier pages leaves us in no doubt as to his name being William Palmer. I can find no reference to him in Boase, unless he appears in the list of students: “Mr. William Palmer, 1565, Christ Church, Student.” There were many Palmers in the neighbourhood, some even in the parish. He may have been an incumbent between the two known vicars; he may have been a scribe employed to do the work; he may have been a gentleman doing it for pleasure. But the work he did was to transcribe the earlier paper registers into parchment, as required by Act of Parliament. He did it well and clearly, on several occasions stating that there had been no entries during a certain number of years, or that they had been put out of chronological order. It is not quite clear when he reached contemporary dates; but the last trace of his handwriting is in 1598, when a sprawling script commences, and “Ro: Hale” signs the pages for a long period, down, at least, till 1653. When William Palmer commenced the little volume (about folio size from top to bottom, little more than half in breadth) he wrote in the inside of the upper cover two lines:

Hac jacet in Tumba Rosamundi non Rosamunda Non redolet, sed olet, quæ redolere solet.

A translation is given below by a later writer, but Palmer in a more careless hand (yet evidently his own) states further

An easie good brings easie gaines, But thinges of price are bought with paines.

Apparently to try his pen and his handwriting on parchment, he turned to the last page, laid the volume at right angles, and wrote, in his best and earliest style, near the margin, “Honorificabilitudinitatibus, Constantinopolis.”

This fact might hardly have been thought worth recording, but that some peculiar people, who base arguments upon half-truths, have founded an oft-repeated argument on the assertion that the only known use in literature of this long word is in “Love’s Labour’s Lost” and “The Northumberland Manuscript.” The fact has already been recorded in “Notes and Queries” (9 S. ix, 494) that the first known use in this country was in “The Complaint of Scotland,” published in St. Andrews, 1548-9, where the author (Sir John Inglis or Robert Wedderburn) classes it among the “_long-tailed_ words” which had been used in other books. It is shown that Nash used it in his “Lenten Stuff” in 1599, but this might have been quoted from “Love’s Labour’s Lost,” and there are many later examples (“Notes and Queries,” 9 S. ix, 371).

Here, however, is a case of its use in Warwickshire, under exactly the same conditions as those of the Northumberland MS. at a date earlier than that on which it had been scribbled there, and in a locality where the book and the writer were quite accessible to Shakespeare.

At the top of the same page on which the long-tailed word was inscribed, there is recorded

Collected at Pillerton Hersey towards the reliefe of Marlborough the some of eight shillinges and two pence, Aug. the 24th, 1653. Ro: Hale, Minister. Allyn Smith, John Reeve, Churchwardens.

In another handwriting below this is written:

William Cunninghame is my name And for to wryt I thinke no shame.

He may or may not have introduced some lines irregularly written below this:

Earth upon earth bould house and bowrs, Earth upon earth sayes all is ours. Earth upon earth when all is wroght, Earth upon earth sayes all is for nought.

In a somewhat similar hand, at the foot of this page, written in prose order, and with few capitals, run the lines

I hade both money and a frend as nether thoght nor store I lent my money to my frend and tooke his word therefore. I aste my money from my frend and noght but words I gott I lost my money and my frend for sheu him I colde not. At lenth with money came my frend which plest me wondrous welle. I got my money, bot my frend Away quite from me fell. Had I my money and my frend as I have had before I wolde kepe my money from my frend and playe the foole no more.

A few more scribbles are sufficient to cover the long narrow page.

As no one has transcribed, or even read, this register, I may select a few entries, though of little direct Shakspearean interest:

_Baptisms_

1561. Marie, daughter of John Palmer, was baptized 14th August.

1566. John, son of John Palmer, was baptized 7th Maye.

1567. Anker, the sonne of Anker Brent, was baptized 19th day of June.

John, the son of John Elton, baptized by the midwife; died the 29th day of April, 1568.

1568. Mercall, the daughter of John Franklin, was baptized 15th day of Maye.

1568. Anker, the son of John Reeve, was baptized the 20th daye of Maye.

1570. Alice, daughter of John Palmer, was baptized 1st September.

1575. Marke, the son of Richard Graunt, was baptized 24th April.

1584. John, son of Thomas Palmer, was baptized 13th October.

1585. Katharine, the daughter of Mrs. Hill, was baptized 12th November.

1599. Eme Hemmings, daughter of John Hemmings,[18] was baptized 17th December.

1600. Israell, the daughter of Rowland Robins, was baptized 4th Maye.

1603. Katharine, the daughter of John Heywood, was baptized 14th January.

---- Israell, the daughter of Gabriell Gillet, was baptized 20th January.

1607. Cornelius, daughter of John Smith, junior, and Anne his wife, was baptized the 14th daye of Maye.

1612. Penelope, the daughter of Allan Smith, gent., and Frances his wiefe, was borne the 13th Apperill, and baptized the 19th daye of the said Apperill, the witnesses Robert Hale mynister, Margaret Palmer, Marie Reeve.

Further on, stuck in at the side of the register, appears:

Hester, ye daugh: of Humanities Jackson, nat: fuere primo die Augusti, 1655.

Among the marriages are:

1553. Richard Manners was married to Margerie Rawlins the 23rd day of October.

1611. Thomas Davis and Israel Reeve were married 22nd Oct.

1622. John Parlbe, of St. Leonards in Shoreditch, and Christian Stickly were married together the 8 day of July.

1626. William Pargiter, of Sulgrave in the countie of Northampton, gent., and Frances Smith, gent., were married together the 30 day of Januarie.

1642. Humanitas Jacson, of Asherne, and Anne Smith, of Pillarton Hersey, were married together the 21 day of June.

Among the burials are:

1552. Margerie Quittles, buried the 28th day of May.

1596. Mary Horsekeeper was buried the 27 of November.

Many deaths took place among the Jacksons closely together:

1681. Anne, ye daughter of Humanitas Jackson, junior, was buried August 9th.

1682. Humanitas Jackson, junior, was buried Jan. 10th.

1682. William Jackson, buried Feb. 2.

1682. Mary, ye daughter of Humanitas Jackson, was buried Dec. 31.

1683. Humanitas Jackson, senior, buried Oct. 4th.

It is recorded shortly after this

“Anno Salvatoris 1703/4, Annæque Angliæ Reginæ Beatissimæ Regni Secundo. Collected to a Breef for the relief of our persecuted Protestant Brethren of the principality of Orange the sum of five and thirty shillings and eight pence.”

Among family names in this early book are Wing, Jude, Prophet, Makepeace, Nason, Sambache, Vinsen, Leah, Fredwell.

In the same box is now preserved the earliest register of what was formerly a separate parish, Pillerton Priors. It lacks its outer cover, and apparently the earlier slip has vanished. It begins abruptly with “Criseninges, 1604,” though on later pages there are marriages and burials from 1594. Both parishes seem to have been in the same cure at this date. “Ro: Hale” signs both registers at the foot of each page. A few entries are of some philological or genealogical interest:

1609. Athalia, the daughter of William Smith and Luci his wife, was baptized the 25th day of March.

1610. Edythe, the daughter of Richard Griffyn and Jane his wief, was baptized the 22nd June.

1621. Moses, the son of Abraham Neale, baptized 11th Nov.

1630. Athalia, ye daughter of William Symkins and Susanna his wife, was baptized the 12th day of Dec.

1631. Harma, the daughter of Abraham Neale, baptized 13th Nov.

1633. Alva, the daughter of William Reading, baptized 19th May.

1639. Lucie, the sonn of William Sambache, gentleman, and Dorethie his wiefe, was baptized the 30 day of July, Anno Dni. 1639, Witnesses Sir Thomas Lucie, Knight, Sir Edward Underhill, Knight, and Piers Hobdy.

_Burials_

1599. Edward Clifford buried 19th November.

1600, George Clifford buried 7th April.

1600. Franciscus Underhill, Gent., was buried the 19th of May.

1611. Edward Underhill, Esquier, departed his lieff the 13th daye of June, 1611, before sonne rising in the morning, and was caried to Nether Ettington and buried the 14th day of the said month, early in the morning.

_Marriages_

1594. Symon Smith and Angell Palmer were married the 11th November.

1608. Thomas Horniold, gent., and Elizabeth Underhill, gent., were married the three and twentieth day of August.

On the last page is the entry, “Collected at Pillerton Priors towards the relief of Marlborough the somme of eight shillings and seven pence. Ro: Hale Minister 1653,” a curious parallel to the entry in Pillerton Hersey, and further witness to the long incumbency of Robert Hale. At the end is the inventory of the church goods. I thought the free use of names generally denoting the other sex was worth recording, as well as the few entries of well-known families.

I went to Nether Ettington to seek the tomb of Edward Underhill. This property has belonged to the Shirleys for a thousand years; but it was let to the Underhills for a long lease of ninety-nine years, and many of their tombs remain there still, among which is the reproduction of the tablet to the memory of Anthony Underhill with the notable verses. I could not find the tomb of this special Edward carried from Pillerton. But there is one “to the memory of Thomas Underhill of this town, Esq., and Elizabeth his wife, who lived married together in perfect amity above 65 years, ... and died in 1603.” As they had thirteen sons and seven daughters, it is not remarkable that their family should have spread to many neighbouring parishes.

_“Athenæum,” 19th September 1908._

FOOTNOTES:

[16] See Heath, f. 37 a.

[17] Reg. 32 and 62 b, Fletcher.

[18] I was told by the Vicar that the family of Hemmings claims to have been Parish Clerks for 500 years. The last one died in 1885.

XI

SHAKESPEARE AND THE WELCOMBE ENCLOSURES

A NEW DETAIL IN HIS LIFE

Among the many direct references to Shakespeare contained in the records of Stratford-on-Avon, perhaps none has been discussed more frequently than his relation to the enclosures which his high-handed neighbour William Combe wished to make at Welcombe. But the discussion has not always led to a study of all the papers concerning it. Those who try to belittle Shakespeare assert that he secured himself from loss by making conditions with Mainwaring and Replingham (who were acting for Combe), and then let the poor of Stratford bear the loss of their ancient common as they might. But there are a great many facts to be known concerning these enclosures which are not reckoned with by the general readers of Shakespeare’s so-called “Lives.” A few of these must now be noted to lead up to the point I wish to record.

On 7th September, 1544, Anthony Barker, steward of the dissolved College of Stratford-on-Avon, granted to William Barker, gent., certain messuages, lands, and tithes of Stratford, hitherto belonging to the College, for a period of ninety-two years. This may or may not have been legal, but the transfer has never been questioned. In time this grant was inherited by John Barker, who in 22 Eliz. sold the bulk of his estate to Sir John Huband, reserving to himself a yearly rent of £27 13_s._ 4_d._, with the condition that if any part of that rent were left unpaid for forty days, he could enter and retake possession of all until the end of his term.

The charter granted by Edward VI to the Corporation of Stratford-on-Avon settled on it the tithes for the support of the refounded school and almshouses, and I have not at present time to discuss the complex relations between the town and Barker’s lease. Dr. Ingleby is entirely wrong in his account of the tithes, which were not owned only by Shakespeare and Greene. They were sold by Sir John Huband in 1605, either directly or indirectly, to a large number of holders, among whom was Shakespeare, who was said to hold a “moietie”; but this by no means represented a half, as we might be inclined to read it, even of the tithes, and the “property” consisted, beyond the tithes, of houses, cottages, and fields. It may help the consideration of the question to note the chief holders.

Richard Lane had a proportion worth £80 a year in the tithes of Old Stratford; Shakespeare’s share was worth £60 a year; Thomas Greene’s, £3, and 20 marks in the tithes of Drayton; Sir Edward Greville’s, 40_s._; Sir Edward Conway’s, £30; Mary Combe, widow, an estate for six years to come, worth £10; John Lane, £8; Anthony Nash and William Combe, £5; Daniel Baker, £20; John Smith, £8; Francis Smith, £12; William Walford, 40_s._; William Court, £3; John Brown, £4; Thomas Jakeman, £10; Richard Kempson and Stephen Burman, £15; Thomas Burman, £3; “Thomas Horneby, an estate of the messuage in which he now dwelleth, of the yearely value of £3”; and eighteen others had similar shares, most of the smaller holdings being in land or houses, and the larger in tithes.

Shortly after the poet’s purchase, he discovered that, though he was careful to pay his share of Barker’s reserved rent of £27 13_s._ 4_d._ to Henry Barker, then lessee, many of the other tenants were not paying theirs, and he ran the risk of losing his property through the fault of others. So he co-operated with Richard Lane and his lawyer cousin Thomas Greene to file a complaint in Chancery against those other tenants who did not pay their due share of the reserved rent. The complainants acknowledged that some of the tenants were willing to pay, but refused for fear of the others; some made light of the claim; and the complainants, for the preservation of their estates from forfeiture, have had much loss and trouble. They prayed that subpœnas be sent to the chief defaulters to appear and make answer. The case was entered as “Lane, Greene, Shakespeare, and others, con. W. Combe and others.” See Misc. Doc., ii, 2. The suit appears to have been successful, or at least some settlement was come to, for the possession of the tithes was not lost by Shakespeare or his family. (Their shares were sold later by Dr. Hall.)[19] That is the story of the tithes.

The enclosures began in 1614, about the time of “the Great Fire.” There died in July that year John Combe the moneylender, who had bought the old College in 1596, and he left much of his property between his nephews William and Thomas Combe. William apparently went to live at the College, and shortly after took it into his head to enclose, not “the Common,” but the “Common Fields” of Welcombe, _i.e._, arable land, liable to tithes. His agents inquired who were likely to be most concerned. Probably for them Thomas Greene had drawn up the list of “Auncient freeholders in Old Stratford and Welcombe.” The poet heads the list:

Mr. Shakspeare, 4 yard land, noe common nor ground beyond Gospel Bush, noe ground in Sandfield, nor none in Slow Hillfield beyond Bishopton, nor none in the enclosure beyond Bishopton. Sept. 5th, 1614.

William Combe was well aware of the purchase made by Shakespeare, from his uncle and himself, of 107 acres of arable land and 20 acres of pasture, not long before, recorded in the Feet of Fines, P.R.O. It would only be through the tithes that Shakespeare might suffer, so he sent to him Mr. Mainwaring, steward of Lord Chancellor Ellesmere, and Mr. Replingham, who seem to have been acting both for Ellesmere and Combe, to guarantee that no one should lose by the enclosures, as he was willing to make up all losses, and was willing to make a deed in that respect, to protect Shakespeare and his heirs. The poet seems to have allowed them to do this, and one touch of his personal affection for Thomas Greene incidentally appears in his insisting that the security should include his cousin Greene. These “articles” were drawn up between William Shakespeare and William Replingham on 28 October 1614. It is one thing to allow any one to make an agreement that he should not lose by an arrangement if it should be settled, and quite another thing to approve of it, or to help it forward.

Thomas Greene, feeling that the question was now becoming important, commenced a series of “Mems. about the Inclosure,” still preserved at Stratford-on-Avon, which throw light on Shakespeare’s position. He took it easily, because he did not think anything would be done. Greene says:

Jovis 17 Nov. [1614.] My cosen Shakspeare commyng yesterday to towne, I went to see him howe he did; he told me that they assured him they ment to enclose noe further then to gospell bushe, and so upp straight (leavyng out part of the dyngles to the field) to the gate in Clopton Hedge and take in Salisbury’s peece; and that they meane in Aprill to servey the Land, and then to gyve satisfaction and not before, and he and Mr. Hall say they think there will be nothyng done at all.

This is one of the very rare examples of Shakespeare’s conversation having been preserved, even indirectly.

The next entry is also interesting. Greene, the Town Clerk, records: