Part 8

23rd Dec., 1614. A Hall. Letters wrytten, one to Mr. Manneryng, another to Mr. Shakspeare, with almost all the Companyes hands to either: I alsoe wrytte of myself to my Cosen Shakespeare the coppyes of all our oathes made then, also a note of the inconveniences wold grow by the Inclosure.

Both of the letters to Shakespeare have disappeared; that to Mainwaring has been preserved.

For the corporation did not take the proposal easily. Even in the present they would lose, and in the future, when Barker’s lease fell in, they would lose very much more, for the composition made with the leaseholders was personal, and would not descend to them. In the midst of the heavy losses caused by the recent fires, the danger assumed large proportions in the eyes of those who had sworn to do their best in trust for the town. They resisted it determinedly, and were finally successful. Thomas Greene, their clerk, proved a faithful and energetic official, yet he too was tempted. He did not seem to have been told at the time, but he records in his Diary:

9 Ja: [1614.] Mr. Replyngham 28th October, articled with Mr. Shakspeare, and then I was put in by T. Lucas,

who drew up the articles.

On Wednesday, being the 11th day [January.] At night Mr. Replingham supped with me, and Mr. W. Barnes was to beare him company, where he assured me before Mr. Barnes that I should be well dealt withall, confessyng former promisses by himself, Mr. Manyryng, and his agreement for me with my Cosen Shakspeare.

Yet during the whole of the struggle Thomas Greene honestly threw himself into the duties of defending the rights of the town which had reposed trust in him, “and was much excepted to for his opposition” by the other side. It is probable that Shakespeare was in the same position.

Now we come to the last entry of his name. It is known to all Shakespeareans that Dr. C. M. Ingleby was so interested in this that he had a photographic facsimile made of Greene’s Diary; had it transcribed by Dr. Edward Scott, wrote an Introduction and Appendix himself, and published these in a thin folio.

I referred to the copy at the British Museum to save going down to Stratford to check my former notes made at the Record Office there. After a great deal of time spent through an unexpected confusion I found in it, I was forced to make a careful comparison, line by line, between the facsimile and the transcript. At first this did not clear up my difficulty; but, on my going through a second time, referring to the dates alone, the cause of the confusion flashed on me: _one of the pages of Greene’s Diary had been placed out of order in the facsimile_, and Dr. Scott, who was supposed to have worked from the original, must have followed the facsimile. I went down to check the original last month, and to see if there was anything to account for the mistake. But there was nothing. The four leaves are written down one side and up another, making in all eight pages. It could only be the photographer’s blunder by misnumbering the pages. Page seven should be read as page six, and the dates then read consecutively. My difficulty had lain in the fact that the year 1615 was made to have had _two springs_. My re-arrangement, which has been noted and initialed by Mr. Barwick in the Museum copy, restores order. But this late correction does not put right the blunder based on it by Dr. Ingleby, who says (p. vi, Introduction) that this entry “records, five months after the death of Shakespeare, the statement of Shakespeare himself.” Now this statement was not recorded five months _after_, but seven months _before_, the poet’s death.

Two other important points must be noted concerning this entry: first, that though it was somewhat crowded in, it was intended to be read straight on; and second, that the memorandum of a man’s death was associated with it, and has some relation to it. As it is written, it should be read:

14 Aug. 1615. Mr. Barker [?] died.

Sept. W. Shakspeares tellyng J. Greene that I was not able to beare the encloseinge of Welcombe.

5 Sept. his sendyng James for the executours of Mr. Barker [?] to agree as ys said with them for Mr. Barker’s [?] interest.

The subject of the old and only discussion about this was, Did the “I” refer to Shakespeare or to Greene? It is unlike the other letters of the first person generally used by Greene, but he does occasionally use that form as a capital. It could not be a mistake for “he” in writing; but it might be so in thought and word, as Greene’s style is very elliptical and careless in the Diary. The argument put forward by Dr. Ingleby was, Why should Shakespeare tell one brother what another said, as he was likely to know it, and why think this fact important enough to be recorded, unless it was a report that Shakespeare could not bear the enclosing of Welcombe? This is perfectly reasonable, but it may have been that gossip had said that Thomas Greene served the corporation when he gave them advice and wrote their letters, but that he naturally was friendly with the enclosers, and likely to benefit by the enclosure. It might be but a note of pleased surprise of Thomas Greene’s to find that the poet had read his honest heart better than his more worldly-minded brother had done.

But the new point I wish to add is that on 14th August there is the record of the death of an inhabitant, and the note for 5th September clearly carries on Shakespeare as the subject, and shows that he it was who sent for the executors to agree with them for the interest of the defunct. I wish I could accept Dr. Scott’s rendering, and read it as “Mr. Barker,” for the meaning would then be straight and clear--that, seeing Shakespeare had had so much trouble over that reserved rent of Mr. Barker for £27 13_s._ 4_d._ on the lease of the tithes, etc., he was about to buy this up and set his estate free from any future danger. But alas! on referring to the Stratford Burial Register I find the entry on the day after, 15 August 1615: “Burial. Mr. Thomas Barbor, gent.” I have had the entry tested by an expert, who assures me there can be no mistake _there_.

I referred to the baptisms, and found there were two children born to “Thomas Barbor, gent., of Shottery,” within a year or two before; and that five days before the burial of Thomas Barbor was entered the “Burial of Joane, wife of Thomas Barbor, gent.” So I am driven back to the earlier pages of original, and there I find, on

7th April, 1615, being Goodfryday, Mr. Barber commyng to Colledge to Mr. T. Combe about a debt he stood surety for Mris Quyney, W. Combe willed his brother to shew Mr. Barber noe favour, and threatned him that he should be served upp to London within a fortnight (and so yt fell out).

This is also rendered in the transcript as “Barker,” but is clearly “Barber” in the original, and it seems to me that the action here recorded broke Mr. Barber’s fortunes and health, his wife died, and he followed, and that William Shakespeare, still willing to invest in “an odd yard land at Shottery,” sent for the executors, to do what he could for the deceased and his children as well as for Mrs. Quyney, whose unlucky debt was the cause of Mr. Barber’s distress and ruin. Coming back from the registers and miscellaneous documents of Stratford-on-Avon, we must therefore read the name as “Barber,” and not as “Barker,” however like it may be. Mr. Barber had done some important work for the corporation previously, and may have been an attorney.[20]

It had always been a matter of surprise to me that Thomas Greene, who mentioned the death of Mr. Barber, did not mention the death of Shakespeare. Perhaps there was no need for him to make a memorandum of an event so important to the town and himself. He goes on in his dates regularly till he comes to the spring of 1616. Then he notes:

At Warwick Assises in Lent 1615-1616 my Lord Chief Justice willed him [_i.e._, W. Combe] to sett his heart at rest he should neyther enclose nor lay downe any earrable, nor plowe any auncient greensward.

And the last words which fell on Shakespeare’s ears were the news that his judgment was right, and “that nothing should be done.”

The Diary leaps on then till 4th September 1616, and says little more of interest, but sufficient to show that Mr. W. Combe was determined to defy the Lord Chief Justice as well as the corporation, and go on with the enclosures after Shakespeare’s death. Indeed, the details[21] of the struggles during the next two years, as gleaned from the corporation records, give the romantic tale how Stratford then

The little tyrant of its fields withstood.

The Combes raged at the corporation, defied their arguments, and threatened them with dire consequences for defending the rights they had sworn to hand down to their successors; the aldermen complained in every Court, and went in their own persons, rather than risk sending messengers, to throw down the fences and fill up the ditches made by Combe’s servants, and some were wounded in the free fight which ensued. William Combe was High Sheriff of the county for one year during the struggle, and was Justice of the Peace during its course, though he seemed to hold himself above law and successive legal decisions.

Finally, however, he was summoned for contumacy before the Privy Council, and, after he was brought to his knees, was granted “absolution” in 1618-19, So Shakespeare’s legal acumen was proved when in 1614 he said “he thought nothing would be done”; but it took a long time to prove it.

_“Athenæum,” 27th September 1913._

FOOTNOTES:

[19] Yet I find in the Vestry Minutes: “15th Dec. 1648 Mʳˢ Elizabeth Nashe for Shottery Corn Tithes being yearly value £100.”

[20] “Charges of Mr. Barbor and Mr. Jeffrey” in riding to London 15th May, 1590, “for search in the Rolles for my Lord of Essex’s patent.”

[21] I gave the story of William Combe more fully in “The Stratford-on-Avon Herald,” 23rd August 1912. See Note XI.

XII

OTHER WILLIAM SHAKESPEARES

Among Shakespeare’s contemporaries there were a good many bearing both of his names, and the few facts known concerning them become interesting, even when clearly shown not to refer to the poet.

I found one curious entry in London, among the burials in the registers of St. Clement Danes: “Jane Shackspeer, daughter of Willm., 8 Aug. 1609.” This Jane _might have been_ the daughter of some country “William” temporarily in town--_might_ even have been a daughter of the poet. But I think it much more likely that the father’s name was written in error for “John.” The bitmaker of that name had settled in the parish, and had a large family. He had baptized a daughter “Jane” on 16th July 1608, of whom no further notice appears in the register, if this entry does not record her death. (See my “Shakespeare’s Family,” p. 148.)

The Warwickshire Shakespeares seem to have favoured the name of William. Christopher Shakespeare, of Packwood, mentions in his will (proved 15th August 1558) a son William, who may be the subject of other later references.[22] A William priced the goods of “Robert Shakesper, of Wroxall,” on 19th March 1565; and one of the same name did the same duty to the goods of John Pardu, of Snitterfield, 1569. John Shakespeare, of Wroxall, labourer, in his will, 15th December 1574, speaks of his brothers William and Nicholas. A William signed and sealed, as one of the witnesses, a feoffment of lands in Wroxall, 27th June 1592; and a William of Wroxall made his will on 17th November 1609 (see Ryland’s “Records of Wroxall”).

A youth, probably the son of Thomas Shakespeare, shoemaker, of Warwick, was buried at St. Nicholas’s in that town, when the poet was fifteen years old. The clerk thought the manner of his death worth recording: “1579. July Sexto die huius mensis sepultus fuit Gulielmus Shaxper, qui demersus fuit in Rivulo aquæ qui vel vocatur Avona.”[23]

Another William, of Coventry, shoemaker, made his will 18th March 1605-6.

I see no evidence that the William Shakespeare of the Worcester Register, who applied for a marriage licence on 27th November 1582 was a different man from the poet, who, the next day, had a licence granted to marry Anne Hathaway. I have given my reasons elsewhere for believing them to be one and the same, and so has Mr. J. W. Gray in his “Shakespeare’s Marriage.” I have never come upon any other Anne or Agnes recorded as the wife of a William Shakespeare.

There was a William, however, of Hatton or Haseley, who married, 6th January 1589, Barbara Stiffe, and who is entitled “gentleman” when, on 14th March 1596, he baptized _his daughter Susanna_! “Barbara, wife of Mr. William Shakespeare,” was buried in February 1610. One can hardly think this the same person who was associated with John Weale: “John Weale granted to Job Throgmorton the cottage in which William Shakespeare dwelt at Haseley 4th March 1597” (Hist. MSS. Com. Rep., App. II, Davenport MSS.).

In the Star Chamber proceedings there is the notice of a fine “inter Willielmum Shackspeare et Georgium Shackspeare, quer., et Thomam Spencer, arm., Christopherum Flecknoe, et Thomam Thompson, deforc., de octo acris pasturæ cum pertinentis in Claverdon alias Claredon, 12 Jac. I.”

Another William was in the habit of selling malt, lending money, and sometimes borrowing it. He might have been some of these others of the name, but he could not have been the poet, as some suppose, because his bills, preserved at Warwick Castle, continue until 1626.

The greatest number of Shakespeare entries in general, and of those concerning William in particular, are found in relation to Rowington. There had been residents of the name for a long time in the parish. The early registers are lost; but from the will of Richard Shakespeare, of Rowington, weaver, we know that he had a son William and a son Richard under twenty-three years of age on 15th June 1561. Another of the same name, called “Richard Shakspere of Rowington, the elder,” mentioned in his will, dated 6th September 1591, his sons John, Roger, Thomas, William; and a third Richard’s will, of 13th November 1613, show that he had four sons--William, Richard, Thomas, and John. The eldest, William, had at the date of the will a son John; the second, Richard, had four--Thomas, William, Richard, John; and after the registers commence, we find on 28th April 1619, William Shakespeare, son of John Shakespeare, was baptized; and on 13th August of the same year, “William, son of Thomas Shakespeare.”

The name of William Shakespeare appears in the list of the trained soldiers of Rowington taken by Sir Fulke Greville at Alcester on 23rd September 1605, probably the son of the second Richard, but erroneously, by some, supposed to have been the poet. Collier says that “we have intelligence regarding no other William Shakespeare at that date.”

The mark of a William Shakespere is found on a roll of the jurors at the Court of the Manor of Rowington in 1614, which is almost certainly that of William, son of the third Richard.

Mr. Ryland’s “Records of Rowington” show us that a lease was granted through feoffees to Richard Shakespeare, of Rowington, weaver, of the “Tyinges,” which may refer either to Richard the second or the third. The Customary rent of Rowington in 1605 mentions “Richard Shakespere, one messuage, half a yearde land (14 acres), 14_s._; John Shakespeare one cottage and one quarter yard land (9 acres), 6_s._ 8_d_,.; Thomas Shakesper, one close, 2_s._; one tofte and 16 acres, 13_s._ 4_d._; one messuage, 10_s._ 4_d._” It is not clear which “Thomas” it was. Richard and John are those referred to in the legal proceedings which give the story of their lives.

This Richard the third was evidently son of Richard the first, and, as he was under twenty-three in 1561, would be about seventy-six when he died in 1614. In consequence of his will and actions a protracted litigation commenced. The case somewhat resembles that of Jacob and Esau. The youngest son, in the absence of his eldest brother, prevailed on his father to disinherit him in his favour, and the dispossessed brother did not bear his loss with equanimity. Some of the facts were known to Malone, “Proleg.,” ii, 15, note 8; and Mr. Cecil Monro had included some of the references in his “Acta Cancellaria,” 1847. Mr. Knight discovered, and Mr. Bruce published, the Star Chamber Bill and answer in “Notes and Queries,” Third Series, xii, p. 81 (3rd August 1867); and a list of the official entries collected by Mr. Monro is given at p. 161 of the same volume.

The Catalogue which, within the last few years, has been drawn up of the Second Series of Chancery Proceedings has given us access to still another paper; and as so many minor illustrative details have turned up, it seems time to make a _résumé_ of the whole mass of material. The story illustrates the domestic and legal life of the times.

Richard Shakespeare was of Turner’s End, or Church End, Rowington, when he made his will on 13th November 1613. He did not trust to its being sufficient of itself to go against the Customary of the manor, and during his lifetime he surrendered his copyhold estate into the hands of the steward by his attorneys, Thomas Ley and George Whome, in order to “settle it upon himself and his wife Elizabeth for their lives, and the longer liver of them, and after their decease, upon his youngest son John and his heirs,” provided that John paid to his brother William £4 a year. This deed of settlement was completed, and the fine paid into Court, in March 1613-14. Richard died within a month, and his wife followed him almost immediately, repenting of her share in the arrangement. William thereupon applied to be put on the homage of the manor, as his father’s eldest son and heir, probably at the time he made his mark; and also contested his mother’s will at Worcester. (See MS. Episc. Reg. Worcester, “per Wilielmus Shakespere, filium naturalem Elizabeth Shakespere nuper de Rowenton.”)[24] But the combination against him had been too powerful. He had no remedy but to eat humble-pie and accept the first instalment of his yearly fee from his brother John at Michaelmas 1614. When John had claimed his inheritance at the Manorial Court, the steward had bidden him be cautious with that proviso, or he would forfeit it, as it devised it to be paid in two portions, at the two half-yearly feasts of Lady Day and Michaelmas, between the hours of ten in the morning and two of the afternoon, in the church porch of Rowington. At Lady Day 1615 difficulties arose. Each said the other did not keep the appointment. William was not paid at the time specified in the settlement, and, assuming that the premises were thereby forfeited, made an entry into his father’s house as his natural heir, and was forcibly resisted. He thereupon instituted a case in Common Law. John went above him, and filed a bill in Chancery against him. Mr. Cecil Monro collected the following entries of this case:

1. Bill in Chancery, filed 1st May 1616, John contra William Shakespeare.

2. 11th May 1616, L. C. Ellesmere’s order to stay proceedings of defendant in Court Baron of Rowington until heard in Chancery. Mr. Richard Moore to consider it (Reg. Lib. B, 1615, fol. 747).

3. 16th May, Master Moore’s report (_ibid._).

4. 8th June, a week given for plaintiff to reply (Reg. Lib. B, 1615, f. 824).

5. 10th June, Master Moore’s supplementary report, on a petition presented by defendant. Possession only established with plaintiff until the hearing of the case (Trinity Term Reports, 1616).

6. 11th November, Master of the Rolls allowed defendant to amend a clerical error in date (Lib. B, 1616, f. 146).

7. 31st January 1616-17, an order _nisi_ for publication (_ibid._, f. 140).

8. 3rd November 1617, William files a bill _against John_, but, in respect of his poverty, is permitted to sue _in forma pauperis_ (Reg. Lib., 1617, f. 132).

9. 18th November, Mr. Moore desired to consider the sufficiency of the answer of the defendants (_ibid._, f. 192).

10. Master Moore’s report in favour of plaintiff, Michaelmas Term, 1617 (Monro’s “Acta Cancellaria,” p. 222).

11. 22nd November 1619, an order for an injunction to restrain the defendant from putting plaintiff out of the possession of the premises at Rowington, and from suing plaintiff at Common Law upon a bond of £500, until defendant had answered plaintiff’s bill (Lib. B, 1619, f. 300).

12. 27th November 1619, an order for attachment against the defendant for not appearing.

Mr. Monro here omits the reply of William, filed on 6th May 1616, which should have come between 1 and 2. No. 4 refers to the reply to this, which should have appeared between 5 and 6; but it seems to have been lost.

Mr. Moore’s report of 16th May is favourable to John, whom he believes _willing_ to pay, and the supposed forfeiture, if any, incurred by his reposing trust in another brother. Plaintiff might be relieved (Monro’s “Acta Cancellaria,” p. 221). But in his supplementary report he explains the “relief” to be only until _decision_. From the later Star Chamber case we know that the appointment of the commission of inquiry in Warwick should come in between 6 and 7 (13th January 1616-17). Mr. Moore’s report in Michaelmas Term 1617 is favourable to William, who should have the premises, if annuity not paid; and he finds the answers of the defendants defective (Monro’s “Acta Cancellaria,” p. 222).

In this counter case of “William contra John,” Mr. Monro omits to mention another paper, lately found by Mr. J. W. Gray and by myself, “The further answer of John Shakespeare, Edmund Fowler, and Thomas Sadler, defendants, to the bill of complaint of William Shakespeare, complainant.” It is not dated in the draft, but written across the top is a note in another hand, “Sworn 27th Jan., 1617 Matthew Carew,” _i.e._, 1617-18 (Chanc. Proc., Ser. II, Bundle 291, S. No. 108).

In spite of Mr. Moore’s favourable report, the case was evidently decided against William, in Easter Term 1618, by Sir Julius Cæsar, on the sworn evidence of Thomas Shakespeare, Fowler, and Sadler. William filed a bill in the Star Chamber as to their perjury, 9th June 1618, which was replied to on 11th June. The result is not preserved.