Chapter XXX: Sixteenth Century Women Students 295 (2)

At the end of the term John Perkes was to yield up the land sown with all manner of corn and grain at his own charge, so that the said Robert and Mary should have it for their own use after the six years. In witness whereof both parties set their hands and seals in the presence of Thomas Nicholson, Edward Cornewell, and Thomas Pittes (Misc. Doc., ii, 14). On the same day, and before the same witnesses, Robert Webbe signed a covenant, on his marriage with Mary, daughter of John Perkes, to hold a messuage in Snitterfield to the use of himself for life, with remainder to Mary for life, with remainder to the right heirs.

It is evident that grim economy was necessary to Robert Webbe, after his efforts to buy up the other shares, and sit free on his grandfathers property. This was intensified by the unknown dangers and expenses of the Chancery suit hanging over him. John Perkes had done what he could to help him.

Still one other purchase, at least, had Robert Webbe to make. Halliwell-Phillipps, “Outlines,” ii, 173, says: “How Robert Arden’s other two daughters, Elizabeth Scarlett and Mary Shakespeare, became entitled to portions, is not known; but that this was the case can be shown by the conveyances to Robert Webbe.” Elizabeth Scarlett is referred to neither in Robert Arden’s will nor in the settlement of 1550. It may be she was an elder daughter who had received her portion at her marriage. She might still share by common law in the inheritance of sisters who died. Halliwell-Phillipps suggests that she had married John Scarlett; but both the John Scarlett of Henry VIII and the John of Elizabeth had wives named Joan. Halliwell-Phillipps enters Elizabeth’s death in the Ardens’ pedigree table as in 1588, giving no authority. But John would not have been heir to his mother in 1582 if she had been alive. The Birthplace Deed 433 shows that

John Skarlett of Newnham in the Parish of Aston Cantlow, husbandman, son and heir of Elizabeth Skarlett, one of the daughters and coheirs of Robert Arden of Wilmecote, in consideration of 20 marks paid him by Robert Webbe of Snitterfield, agreed that all his part and interest in two messuages and their appurtenances

in Snitterfield should be delivered for ever to Robert Webbe, 18th March 24 Eliz. (1581-2); witnesses John Dafferne, John Butler, Edward Cornwell, and Edmund Lamberde.

On the same day was sealed a bond for 40 marks, for the completion of the sale between Robert Webbe and John Scarlett of “all the part, purparte, title, and interest, in two messuages in Snitterfield in the tenure of Robert Webbe, of which John Skarlett and Joane his now wiefe, or one of them, be lawful owners in fee simple”; the deed of release to cover all rents due, that of the chief lord excepted. The above-named John Scarlett and the said Joane his wife to hand over all deeds and evidences (Misc. Doc., ii, 74).

I came on this deed first (evidently unknown to Halliwell-Phillipps), and naturally thought the inheritance lay in Joane the wife; but in the light of the previous deed it is clear that it came through his mother to John, and Joane’s name was used only to bar dower. John Scarlett received very much less than the Shakespeares did, which strengthens my belief that Mary inherited a share of one dead sister’s portion, but was left the whole portion of another sister by some form of will. I find no mention of the Scarletts’ sale among the Feet of Fines.

The most painstaking research among records, wills, and registers has given me no clue to further information; indeed, rather clouds what we already have. It is known that the Aston Cantlow registers do not begin early (1560). Among the burials appear Joane, “wyff of John Scarlett,” 9th December 1580; and on 9th December 1581, John Scarlett. The will of John Scarlett of Newnam is dated 10th December 1581; in this he mentions his brother William, and John, the son of Adam Scarlett. The date given is _the day after his burial_; and the deed is drawn up three months after both. This seems to prove that it was _another_ John Scarlett. Adam Scarlett, the richest yeoman[6] in the parish, had a brother John, who might, by common law, as the _second_ son, have been heir to his mother, and who survived some time after this. But no such explanation comes as to the “now wife Joan,” who had died a year and more before the agreement was made in which she is concerned. I have been unable, as yet, to trace the cause of the discrepancies.

Robert Webbe had now got into his own hands all which had been owned by his aunts and his mother. But the Chancery proceedings were dragging their slow length along. He could, however, have little fear, further than the waste of time and money, as he would hold among his evidences the two early papers which I have brought forward for the first time. A paper in Misc. Doc., i, 89, gives the list of “Witnesses to be examined for Robert Webbe.” Among these is “Hary Shexspere.” Another (Misc. Doc., ii, 85) is the subpœna of John Shakspere, John Wager, Adam Palmer, and others, in the case of Mayowe _versus_ Robert Webbe, to appear before a special commission appointed by Chancery, Sir Fulke Greville, Sir Thomas Lucy, Humphrey Peto, and William Clopton, 24 Eliz.

No one has hitherto taken any further trouble about this Chancery suit, but, knowing that it might lead to unexpected revelations, I made a diligent search at the Record Office, and was rewarded to a limited extent; that is, I found some information, but not so much as I had hoped.

I found that a commission had been granted to hear the case of Mayowe con. Cornwell and others, in the Quindene of Trinity, to Sir Fulke Greville and Sir Thomas Lucy, Knights, Humphrey Peto, Esq., and Thomas Clopton, Arm., or any two of them, to hear the witnesses on the plaintiffs’ side; record their answers, and give the defendants a fortnight to reply, 12th June 23 Eliz. (1581).

Thomas Mayowe claimed to be the son of Roger, and that Roger was the son and heir of William, on whom Richard his father had entailed the property. Apparently William had granted it to John, son and heir of Richard. This John would be William’s brother. The interrogatories to be put on behalf of Mayowe were necessarily long, but they may be summarized. Do you know the tenement in question, “lying between the house which was sometime the house of William Palmer on the one side, and a lane called Merrel Lane on the other, and doth abut on the High Street”; and if one John Mayowe did sometime dwell in it? Do you know that one Richard Mayowe deceased, father of William Mayowe, likewise deceased, was seised in this domain as of fee of inheritance, and did entail it on the said William and the heirs of his body? Do you know that William was grandfather of the complainant, that his son and heir was Roger, and that Thomas was the son and heir of Roger? Chancery is proverbially slow. The depositions were taken at Warwick 13th June, 24 Eliz. (1582), before Sir Foulk Greville, Sir Thomas Lucy, and Humfrey Peto, Esq. (Chanc. Dep. M. VIII, 22). The question of entail is not cleared.

Richard Welmore of Norton Curlew, of the age of 60 years or thereabouts, did know the tenement, but could not answer the other queries. He had heard Roger Mayowe say he was the eldest son of William. He knew that Thomas was the son and heir of Roger.

Robert Nichols of Lillington, aged 67 years, knew the plaintiff, the defendants, and the tenement, and “that it abuts itself against the High Street.” He had heard by credible report that John Mayowe did sometime dwell there. He had also heard that Richard was seised in the demesne as of fee of inheritance; that William was the son of Richard, that Roger was the son of William, and Thomas was son of Roger.

Thomas Lyncycome of Yardeley in the county of Worcester, tilemaker, 58 years of age, only knew that Thomas was eldest son and heir of Roger.

The depositions were signed by Fulke Greville and Humphrey Peto. Rather an unsatisfactory plea against possession for nigh eighty years! Doubtless the two deeds were in court--the grant of William Mayowe to John, son of Richard; and the sale by John Mayowe to Thomas Arden.

Then follow “Interrogatories to be ministered on the part and behalf of Edward Cornell, Robert Webbe, Edmund Lambert, and Joane his wife.” These also must be contracted, How many tenements are there in controversy? How many inhabited them? How long have you known them? Whose inheritance was it accounted? Was it the inheritance of Arden? What was the name of Arden? Have you ever known the ancestors of Mayowe occupy the premises? How long since they did so? Do you know if Robert Arderne of Wilmecote was seised in fee simple of said premises? Do you know if said Robert made any conveyance, and to what uses? Do you know if the persons to whom the grant was made peaceably succeeded on his death? Did Agnes Arderne, wife of the said Robert, occupy the premises or receive rent for it? The replies were clear.

1. Adam Palmer of Aston Cantlow, yeoman, of the age of 60 or thereabout, said that he knew both plaintiff and defendant, that he has known the messuage in controversy forty years and upwards, and that he was one of the feoffees about thirty-six years ago. He knew one Richard Shaxpere did occupy the same messuage as tenant to Robert Arderne als Arden, and also Saunder Webbe and his wife, one Cornwell, and now Robert Webbe, son to Saunder. He hath known the said messuage and land to have been in the quiet possession of Robert Arden and his wife Agnes, as his own inheritance, and after his decease, of Saunder Webbe, who married the daughter of Arden, and now of Robert Webbe, who is in possession as heir to Saunder Webbe. He never knew any of the ancestors of the complainant dwell in the premises. Robert Arden was seised in fee simple, and did in his lifetime make a conveyance to Joan Lambert, Katherine Edkins, and Joyce Edkins, his daughters and coheirs by the feoffment. The wife of Robert Arderne quietly enjoyed the premises till of late, within this two or three years, this complainant did make some title thereto. To his remembrance Robert Arderne died twenty-eight years since or thereabout. He knew that Agnes, the wife of Robert Ardern, received the rents and profits of the said messuage, 40_s._ by the yeare, and since it hath been improved to £4 by the year, and that she died about two years since.

2. The next witness called was John Henley of Snitterfield, husbandman, of the age of eighty years or thereabout. He knew both complainant and defendant, had known the messuage for about sixty-six years, that it had been in the quiet possession of Thomas Arderne alias Arden, father to Robert Arderne; and concerning Robert Arden, he said all that Adam Palmer said. He knew the inheritance to be in the possession of Thomas Arderne, and afterward of Robert Arden; he was witness to the possession-taking, but cannot remember the time of the death of Arden.

3. Next was called John Wager of Snitterfield, husbandman, of the age of 60 or thereabout. He knew both complainant, defendants, and property. He knew one Rushby and one Richard Shaxpere, one Alexander Webbe and his wife, Cornwell and his wife, and Robert Webbe, son to Alexander, to occupy the property. He hath known it to be in the Ardens for fifty years, and that Robert was seised in fee simple. He said the same as Adam Palmer, though he was neither a feoffee nor was at the delivery of seisin.

I had hoped to be able to turn the page and read details of John Shakespeare’s age and status, and what he had to say concerning Arden’s inheritance and his father’s tenure. But the paper abruptly ends, without further witness, and without signatures. No decree or order has been preserved. Either the Court considered the Ardens’ case too strong to need further proof, or John too interested for a witness, or the page was lost that bore his testimony, as so much is lost concerning his family. The evidence of continued possession shows what the decision of the Court was.

There is only one perplexing statement of Adam Palmer’s further to note. We have the deeds, and we know that this, formerly Mayowe’s property, when in the tenure of Richard Shakespeare was settled by Robert Arden on his daughters Agnes Stringer, Joane Lambert, and Katherine Edkins; while Palmer names them as Joan Lambert, Katherine Edkins, and Joyce Edkins. It was easy at the end of thirty-six years to forget which of the daughters had her share in this messuage, seeing they all really treated their shares, not as the third part of one, but as the sixth part of the two properties. Agnes Stringer had died long before, and her family lived in Shropshire.

But it is more puzzling to hear Palmer name “Joyce Edkins,” as it seems to imply that Joyce, as well as Katharine, had married an Edkins. I have made careful researches in every possible direction, but have been unable to trace a Joyce Edkins, except the sister of William Hill. I am inclined, therefore, to think that either Adam Palmer or the clerk slipped in giving the name of Edkins to Joyce, as well as to Katharine. She should have been Joyce Arden with her share in the other property. The fate of Joyce has yet to be discovered, if she was not buried, as I suggested was possible, in Pedmore, in 1557 (see my “Shakespeare’s Family,” p. 181).

Perhaps Adam Palmer’s responsibilities had worn him out, and he had begun to mix things up, though in other points his testimony was clear. It was well for Robert Webbe that he was then alive. He was buried at Aston Cantlow, 13th July 1584.

Though this Chancery case does not yield us much new matter, it makes real our somewhat hazy notions of the property settled on Shakespeare’s aunts. But the whole series of documents, taken together, teach us a great many important points regarding the poet’s family and surroundings. It lets us picture the house abutting on the High Street where John Shakespeare was doubtless born, the extent of the united properties, and the stretches of the common fields which the poet doubtless haunted in his youth to catch the conies, permitted to the freeholders. But, above all, it answers conclusively the question, so mockingly put by the Baconians, Where did the Stratford man learn his law? There are more legal documents concerning this Snitterfield property than were drawn up for any other family of the time in Warwickshire, as anyone may test who wades through the “Feet of Fines,” and as few of his relatives could write, it is possible they could not read. William Shakespeare may have had but little Latin, but he was very likely esteemed as the scholar of the family, and doubtless had all these deeds by heart, through reading them to his anxious and careful relatives when they were brought out of the “box of evidences,” to strengthen the case for the defendant against Thomas Mayowe. The law papers of the Ardens, and the litigation of his father, prepared him alike for his many later personal associations with the law, and for the conduct of the Chancery case which he hugged to his heart during ten years at least. I trust soon to follow this out.

_“Athenæum,” 24th July and 14th August 1909._

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The very first entry in the Bearley Register, now kept at Wootten Wawen, is that of the marriage of Agnes Hewens, widow, to Thomas Stringer, 15th October 1550. It may be noted that this was three months _after_ she was called “wife of Thomas Stringer” here.

[2] The Registers of Aston Cantlow parish church only begin in 1560.

[3] Endorsed with memoranda of assignment, by Robert Webbe, to Will Cookes of Snitterfield, yeoman, before the delivery of the deed of bargain and sale by Edward Cornwell, to the said Robert Webbe, in presence of John Dafferne, Hastings Aston, Thomas Chamberlain, Thomas Nicholson, and Henry Talbot.

[4] A writ was issued for Robert Webbe to appear before the Court of Exchequer for _alienation_ without licence of lands in Snitterfield, 12th November 21 Eliz. (1579), Misc. Doc., vii, 51.

[5] In this there was either a mistake in the Christian name or the original intention was to make the arrangement in the name of the grandfather instead of the father of Mary Perkes.

[6] After the will of John Scarlett of Newnam, 10th December 1581, is an inventory of goods valued at £23. The inventory of Adam Scarlett of Wilmecote, with the will proved 1st September 1591, was £117, a very large amount for the period.

III

SHAKESPEARE AND ASBIES

A NEW DETAIL IN JOHN’S LIFE

The story of Shakespeare’s lost inheritance is the clue to the shaping of the poet’s life, and therefore it is worth gleaning every scrap of information concerning it. What is commonly known is, that Robert Arden, of Snitterfield and Wilmecote, had made his will in 1556, leaving the first (or the reversion of it after his wife’s death) to be divided among six of his daughters.[7] Another daughter, Elizabeth Scarlet, seems to have been otherwise provided for, and the youngest daughter Mary, either because she was his favourite, or because of the old Saxon preference for the youngest child, was given the sole right in the freehold at Wilmecote called Asbies. There is no record of its purchase. My own opinion is that Thomas Arden, the father of this Robert, was the second son of Sir Walter Arden of Park Hall, who was to receive, by his father’s will in 1502, ten marks a year for life, his younger brothers receiving five marks a year. They all seem to have been provided for beyond this meagre allowance. At the date of the will Thomas was already resident in Wilmecote. How and why he went there is the question. Aston Cantlow had long been part of the inheritance of the Beauchamps, who intermarried with the Nevilles, and some connection of the Beauchamps with the Ardens can be proved by the family pedigree. Elizabeth Beauchamp was godmother to Elizabeth Arden, Thomas Arden’s sister (as French believes), and it is quite probable this little farm was given to, or bought for, the settlement of, Thomas Arden. What I wish to suggest is that Asbies was to the family the cherished heirloom, the visible link of connection between their branch and the historic family from which they sprang, and that some family jealousy may have arisen through its being absolutely left to the youngest child.

We know little about this Thomas, but much more about his younger brother Robert. He was yeoman of the King’s Chamber in Henry VII’s reign, and received many royal patents and grants during the reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII. Leland mentions him: “Arden of the Court, is younger brother to Sir John Arden of Park Hall” (“Itin.,” vi, 20). Among the Feet of Fines for Warwickshire, Trinity Term 18 Henry VIII, is an entry to the effect that Robert Arden, Arm., settled an annuity on Antonio Fitzherbert “from the Manor of Ward Barnes, formerly Wilmecote”; whether this refers to the uncle, “Robert, of the Court,” or the nephew, Robert of Wilmecote, it refers to the district.

Now, it is not a little remarkable that the Shakespeares’ little property had only “a local habitation and a name” of _Asbies_, during the life of Mary Arden and her immediate Arden relatives. It is not known before, it has not been known since. Either it changed its name, or was swamped in a larger estate. We cannot give its boundaries. Halliwell-Phillipps shows that it could not have been by the cottage _now_ called Mary Arden’s Cottage[8] at Wilmecote, for he had traced other owners back to 1561, but he seems to think that Robert Arden had lived in Asbies. Now it is quite clear from his will that his widow Agnes was to have his _copy-hold_ in Wilmecote, so that she allowed his daughter Alice quietly to enjoy half, and it seemed they had occupied that property. This copyhold was probably for three lives, as it lapsed at Agnes Arden’s death in 1581, _after_ the trouble at Asbies.

On Mary’s marriage an interest in Asbies would accrue to her husband, which by the courtesy of England he would retain for life. During Shakespeare’s youth it would be the basis of his father’s farming industries, and perhaps, after the common fashion of the time, the prospective source of support for the family, in a manner stigmatized by the Earl of Leicester as lazy, selfish, and without public spirit or family pride.[9] It is perfectly certain it was intended to be the inheritance of William Shakespeare, and that he was prepared to be a small farmer, for which reason he was not trained to any profession, nor apprenticed to any trade. (All “traditions” on this question are untrustworthy.)

John Shakespeare had purchased in 1556, the year of the settlement of Asbies, a house and garden in Greenhill Street, Stratford-upon-Avon, and another in Henley Street, where he had been living since 1552 (see View of Frankpledge, Borough of Stratford, P.R.O., Portfolio 207), so he had a town home to offer the heiress of Asbies when he married her the following year. He seemed, having been Bailiff and Chief Alderman, to go on in prosperity till October 1575, when he again purchased two houses in Stratford, one of them also in Henley Street. From that date his fortunes declined. Whether it was failure in the wool industry, or the misfortunes of his brother Henry at Ingon, or special losses of his own, John Shakespeare was in money trouble by 1578. Some have suggested it was through recusancy, because a much later State Paper list gives his name among recusants. I have elsewhere shown the John Shakespeare there mentioned was much more likely to have been the shoemaker who disappeared shortly after from the town. That the ex-Bailiff John’s difficulties were well known, and that his fellow aldermen sympathized with him, is shown in the Chamberlain’s accounts, where John is excused by his brethren from the burdens they put on themselves. He required money, and must have it somehow. His nephew Robert Webbe had been prospering in Snitterfield while he was declining, was, indeed, stimulated by the ambition and help of a prospective father-in-law, beginning to buy up the shares of his aunts in Snitterfield. Mary Arden had been left no share there, as Halliwell-Phillipps suggests, but apparently by this date, through the death of her two next youngest sisters, had become possessed of the share of the one by will, and of the share of the other, without a will, by partition.

It is nearly certain that John and Mary Shakespeare would have gone to Robert Webbe first for a loan on the security of Snitterfield, or even to sell it outright. But he had just bought in the share of the Stringers (see Feet of Fines, Easter, 21 Eliz.), and would be short of money. They turned to their brother-in-law Edmund Lambert, who had sufficient money, but he would not trust it with John Shakespeare in his depressed state on any lesser security than that of the family jewel, of Asbies. He drew up an indenture, purporting to be an absolute sale, for £40, with this condition, that if the money was repaid on Michaelmas Day 1580 at Barton-on-the-Heath the sale was to be void. But in the final concord, as preserved among the Feet of Fines for Warwickshire, Easter 1579, there is no allusion to this condition. Hence arose the trouble. When he had secured the money, John made a very complex arrangement. Asbies had evidently been leased to George Gibbes. He found Thomas Webbe and Humphrey Hooper willing to buy the lease from John and Mary Shakespeare and George Gibbes for twenty-one years from 1580, and to hand it back to George Gibbes. There must have been money paid down for that lease, as it was clinched by a fine in Feet of Fines, Hilary Term 1579 (230).

Though John had received the £40 from Lambert, plus the fine from Webbe and Hooper, he was evidently still in need, as we may learn from Roger Sadler’s will. Among the debts due to him were “Item of Edmonde Lamberte and ---- Cornish for the debte of Mʳ John Shaksper £5” (Prin. Prob. Reg. Som. House 1 Bakon. 17th January 1578-9). We have had no information concerning the events of the following two years. But it appears that John must have committed some indiscretion about that time, which must seriously have affected his fortunes. Many years ago I had discovered a fine against his name in the Coram Rege Rolls, but laid it aside until I had leisure to work up the case. Not long since, with the help and advice of Mr. Baildon, I spent some weeks investigating likely papers, but found no further facts than those first gleaned, two separate yet connected cases among the unnumbered pages of the “fines” at the end of Coram Rege Roll, Trinity 22 Eliz. (a few pages from the end, half way down “Anglia” on the right). There we are told that John Shakespeare of Stratford super Avon in Co. Warr., yeoman, because he had not appeared before the Lady the Queen in her court at Westminster, as summoned, to be bound over to keep the peace, at a day now past, was due to pay £20, and that his two sureties were to pay a fine of £10 each, for not having produced him. His sureties were John Awdley of the town of Nottingham, co. Notts, Hatmaker, and Thomas Colley of Stoke in co. Stafford, yeoman. This becomes more serious, because the next case is against John Awdelay Hatmaker of the town of Nottingham co. Notts. Because he did not appear before the Court of the Queen when summoned at a day now past, bringing sufficient security, to be bound over to keep the peace, he was to be fined £40. And John Shakespeare of Stratford on Avon yeoman, one of the two securities for John Awdelay, because he had not brought him before the Queen on the day appointed, was to pay £20, and Thomas Colley, another of the securities, was also to be fined £20.

I looked through several terms before and after to see if there were any suit in the Coram Rege Rolls on which this may have been based, a difficult job, as I had no clue to the name of a plaintiff or a county to guide me. The only further reference was in the Exchequer accounts, where, under “Anglia,” “Warr.,” “Villa Notts,” and “Staff.” the same parties are entered for the same fines, Exchequer K. R. accounts 109/13, m. 22. d. Fines and Amerciaments Coram Regina Trinity Term 22 Eliz. Here, then, John had another £40 to pay, evidently unexpectedly, in association with two men who have not yet been connected with his biography. Whether he did not appear as defendant, or as witness in some case when summoned, or whether he had committed some trespass, or had a free fight with some one, as his brother Henry had with Edward Cornwall in 1587, I have not been able to prove. In searching the Controlment Rolls, Mich. 22 Eliz., I had a surprise. Among a number of names from various counties of persons who “indicati sunt de eo qud Corpes felonici interfecere et murderfare” was “John Shakespeare.” The very date. It was a relief to see that he was “late of Balsall, co. Warr.” I was allowed to get out some bundles of “ancient Indictments” which had not been searched, and found in No. 650 that the said John Shakespeare, by the instigation of the Devil, and his own malice, made a noose of rope fast to a beam in his house and hanged himself on 23rd July 21 Eliz. He had goods only to the value of £3 14_s._ 4_d._ which John Piers, the Bishop of Winchester, as chief almoner to the Queen, granted by way of alms to the widow, Matilda Shakespeare. (In the inventory of the goods are included some painted cloths.)

Though John of Stratford’s fortunes were nothing so tragic as those of John of Balsall, he was in a bad enough way. His fine was money entirely _lost_, through some folly; and he seems to have lost money otherwise. He had to sell both the Snitterfield shares to Robert Webbe outright, and he went down on Michaelmas 1580 to Barton-on-the-Heath with the redemption money of Asbies in his pocket. Edmund Lambert refused to receive it and release the mortgage until John paid him also other debts he owed him; but we know from later litigation that he had promised, when these other debts were paid, to take the £40 and release the mortgage at any time. And again John Shakespeare trusted his brother-in-law’s word.

The last implicit sign of the family possession of Asbies is preserved in a little book among the State Papers, April 1580 (which none of the Baconians appear to have noted). This is a list of “the Gentlemen and Freeholders of the County of Warwick.” Among these appear John Shakespeare of Stratford on Avon (the name spelt so) and Thomas Shakespeare of Rowington. In another list the contracted form of the name is used. But the freehold was slipping from him. He could not find sufficient money to pay _everything_ at once. There is no doubt that his son’s impulsive marriage would increase his money difficulties. So time passed on, and he was fighting from hand to mouth, until on 1st March 1587 Edmund Lambert died, still holding Asbies. Though John Lambert, the heir, seems to have been offered the money, he refused it, and took possession. He was not going to be bound by a mere verbal promise of his father, even if it had ever been made. There seem to have been family councils, friendly, logical, and legal pressure applied. John Lambert refused to give up the desirable family property. But a counter proposition was made to him, and under pressure, to secure peace, he seems to have agreed on 26th September 1587, at the house of Anthony Ingram, gent., at Walford Parva, to pay £20 extra by instalments, beginning on 18th November 1587, and again the Shakespeares trusted a Lambert’s word.

Now it cannot be too carefully considered, that it was the private discussions and decisions about the return of Asbies, that were the deciding factors in John and William Shakespeare’s life. Then they learnt that John Lambert was determined not to give up Asbies; they knew they could not go to Common Law, having for testimony only the word of a dead man. And William Shakespeare, already the father of three children, felt that he must make a career somewhere, and determined on trying London. Why not? Many of his friends had gone there and prospered. His father would have the £40 he was ready to pay for Asbies. He would have introductions enough, and he probably reckoned on the £20 that John Lambert was to pay to make up the sale-value of Asbies to a more just proportion as likely to come to himself. We know that he suffered disillusionment; we know that John Lambert did not pay that £20, denied even that he had promised it, and the next step taken was the commencement of proceedings against him for £20 at the Common Law. It is certain that, however it might be entered in his parents’ name, William Shakespeare, as the heir apparent, was associated formally with it, probably instructed the attorneys, and did all the personal duties of a “complainant.” And thus, by a peculiar combination of circumstances, the first time William Shakespeare’s name was written in London, the first time it was spoken in London, _was in the Law-Courts_![10] The case teaches us certain details, which have not yet been made the most of, but it seemed to die out, possibly from lack of funds among the complainants. Lambert did not pay. And the fierce fight with fate which Shakespeare made took place during the next few years.

“There’s a divinity that shapes our ends.” Fortune turned in time. Shakespeare found work at the theatre, seems to have been liberally treated, though at first servitor or apprentice, and soon had a house in Bishopsgate Street, on which he was assessed higher than either of the Burbages. So it may reasonably be inferred he had his family by him at least by 1594, for a time. He never forgot Asbies. So when he did prosper he applied for arms for his father, bought the best house in Stratford for his wife and got his father and mother to have another fight for Asbies, this time in a court in which he thought he had a better chance of success. The Complaint on 24th November 1597 of John Shackespeare and Mary his wife and Answer have been printed among Special Proceedings in Chancery, Halliwell-Phillipps has them, and also the Decrees and Orders, but the details have not been worked out. Again John Shakespeare committed an indiscretion. Either his attorney mistook, or John, thinking that William was putting himself in power too much, had put forward a second complaint in _his own name only_. Of course, Lambert complained of this, and was supported. John had to withdraw one of his complaints and pay the expenses of both parties in it, and Lambert had permission to change his commissioners if he pleased. In Decrees and Orders, 18th May 1598, John Lambert’s Counsel said that John had exhibited a bill in the name of himself and his wife, and then a bill in his own name, had taken out his commission but examined no witnesses (D. and O. A. 1598, Trin. 706). On 27th June they had powers given to elect a commission to examine witnesses by the octaves of Michaelmas, directed to Richard Lane, John Combes, William Berry and John Warner. On 6th July 1598 (B. Book, 133), a new commission was appointed, and John Lambert changed his commissioners, probably finding those chosen first too much in favour of the Shakespeares. The new commission reads, Richard Lane, John Combes, Thomas Underhill, and Francis Woodward. The interesting part in such cases is the examination of witnesses. But the depositions have not been preserved; (I have sought for them very carefully both in Stratford and P.R.O.). That they had been taken, and had been in favour of the Shakespeares may be inferred by the entry,

“John Shakespeere and Mary his wife:--Yf the defendant shew no cause for stay of publication by this day sennight then publication is granted” (23rd October, Mich. 41 & 42 Eliz. D. and O. B. 1599).

This is the last word concerning the case, and we are left to surmise the sequel. Whether John Lambert, finding himself about to be beaten, put as a bar the Coram Rege case, and the Shakespeares’ offer to accept £20 in lieu of the property, and acknowledged his willingness to pay it _now_; or whether the waning fortunes of the Essex party withdrew what court influence might have come through the poet, we know not. But we know that there was never more a “Shakespeare of Asbies”; and that even on the death of his father in 1601 (curiously enough at the very time of the end of the twenty-one years lease he had drawn up from 1580), William instituted no further proceedings in his own name, and contented himself by purchasing other lands and leases of tithes.

One point I should have noticed is, that the final concord which Edward Lambert had drawn up in 1578, and had enrolled in 1579, was endorsed with the records of _fifteen proclamations_. The first could only have been at the Easter Assizes 1581, at Warwick, after the forfeiture of Michaelmas 1580; it was repeated every year, until the Shakespeares began to take proceedings in Chancery. It was stayed while the case was running, and never resumed, for John Lambert remained in possession at the now-vanished Asbies.

_“Athenæum,” 14th and 21st March, 1914._

FOOTNOTES:

[7] See the paper reprinted above, p. 17.

[8] The illustrations in my “Shakespeare’s Family,” including one of this cottage, were put in by Mr. Elliot Stock, without my knowledge, and against my will.

[9] See the Book of John Fisher of Warwick. “Every man is only careful for himself ... given to easy trades of life, providing for themselves, not having consideration for their posterity, which should not so be.”

[10] John Lambert had licence granted him till the Octaves of Michaelmas 1589 (Coram Rege Roll, 1311, f. 516, Mich. Term 31-32 Eliz. Westminster).

IV

MARY ARDEN’S ARMS

There has been much discussion concerning Shakespeare’s descent from the Ardens of Park Hall, and, through them, from the heroes of national legend. In some of the objections brought forward against his assumed pedigree, prejudice has been treated as proof, and opinion as reasoning. The critical strictures are best summed up in Nicholls’s “Herald and Genealogist,” 1863, vol. i, p. 510, and in “Notes and Queries,” 3rd Series, vol. v, p. 493: (1) That the relationship is imaginary and impossible, and those who assert it in error. (2) That the Ardens were connected with nobility, while Robert Arden was styled “husbandman.” (3) That the heralds knew the claim was unfounded when they scratched out the arms of Arden of Park Hall, and inserted the arms of Arden of Alvanley, in Cheshire. Though this was equally unjustifiable, the family being further off, there was less likelihood of complaint.

French, in his “Shakespeareana Genealogica,” p. 431 _et seq._, opposes these statements by others; and the interesting reproduction of the drafts and patents of Shakespeare’s arms, with the accompanying letterpress by Mr. Stephen Tucker, Somerset Herald, puts a student in a position to estimate them at their true worth. (See “Miscell. Geneal. et Herald.,” 1886, Ser. II, vol. i, p. 109.) I would now bring forward some arguments which may act as cumulative evidence to determine wavering opinion on the question.

Dugdale’s table shows that Walter Arden married Eleanor, daughter of John Hampden, of Hampden, in co. Bucks, and had, besides his eldest son and heir Sir John, esquire of the body to Henry VII, five sons, Martin, Thomas, Robert, Henry, William; Martin being placed as the second son, and Thomas as the third. But Thomas is given as second son and Martin as third, in Harl. MS. 1167, from which the visitation is published. (Compare Harl. 853, ff. 113-114; 1110, f. 24b; 1563, f. 5, f. 39; Harl. 2011, ff. 64b, 65, f. 75.)

The will of Walter Arden in 1502 (31 July, 17 Hen. VII) at Doctors’ Commons proves that at that date he had a son Thomas, named second in order. “Thomas Arden and John Charnells,[11] Squires,” attest the document. (See French, p. 452.)

I will that my sonne Thomas have dureing his lief x marcs whiche I have given to him. And that my sonne Martin have the Maner of Natfield dureing his lief according as I thereof made hym astate yf it canne be recorded, And yf not, thenne I will that the same Martyn and every of my other sonnes, Robᵗ, Henry, and William, have eche of them v marcs by yere duryng eche of ther lifes. And that my feoffees of my landes make eche of them a sufficient astate of landes and tenements to the yearely value of v marcs duryng eche of their lifes.

This is an income too small for a younger brother to live on, even in those days, and we must imagine that the father had either placed them, married them well, or endowed them in some way during his life. He could not be expected to do much. His father Robert had spent his substance in the Wars of the Roses, and was brought to the block in 30 Hen. VI (1452). Park Hall would be forfeited to the Crown and its acres impoverished. When Walter Arden was restored by Edward IV he would probably be encumbered by debt, and his large family (for there were daughters also) further limited his powers. This may help to account for the smallness of the legacies. Thomas, being the second son, might have had something from his mother or her kin. This same Thomas was alive in 1526, for Sir John Arden then wills that his brothers “Thomas, Martin, and Robert should have their fees during their lives.” We may, therefore, suppose that Henry and William had meanwhile died. It is probable that William had gone to reside at Hawnes, in Bedfordshire, as one bearing his name and arms appeared in that place about his time.

Seeing that Sir John was esquire of the body to Henry VII, it is very likely that his younger brother Robert was the Robert Arden, yeoman of the chamber (indeed Leland says he was so), to whom Henry VII granted three patents; the first on 22nd February 17 Henry VII: “In consideration of good and true services of our beloved servant Robert Arden, a yeoman of our chamber, we appoint him Keeper of our Royal Park at Aldercar,” _i.e._, Altcar, co. Lanc., 17 Henry VII (second part, pat. m. 30). In the same series, m. 35, 9th September 17 Henry VII, he was granted the office of Bailiff of Codmore, co. Derby, and Keeper of the Royal Park there. The third is 24th September 23 Henry VII (first part, pat. m. 12), a grant of Yoxall, for life, or a lease of twenty-one years if it descended to heirs, all royal rights reserved, at a rental of £42 a year. (See Boswell-Malone’s “Shakespeare,” Appendix, vol. ii, 544, 545.)

It is not recorded that Martin received Natfield, and it would not seem that he did so, as he lived at Euston, co. Oxford (Harl. Visit.). He married Margery, daughter and coheir of Henry East, of the Hayes, in co. Worcester; and his daughter and heir Eleanor (elsewhere Elizabeth) married first William Rugeley, of Shenston, co. Stafford, and then Thomas Gibbons, of Ditchley, co. Oxford (Visit. Ox. Harl. Public.).

Where meanwhile was Thomas Arden? Dugdale does not mention him again. There is no record of any Thomas Arden, either in Warwickshire or elsewhere, save the Thomas who is found, the year before Walter Arden’s death, living at Wilmcote, in the parish of Aston Cantlowe, on soil formerly owned by the Beauchamps. On 16th May, 16 Henry VII, a deed was drawn up at Snitterfield, commencing:

Sciant presentes et futuri quod ego Johannes Mayowe de Snytterfeld dedi, concessi et hac presenti carta mea confirmavi Roberto Throkmerton Armigero, Thome Trussell de Billesley, Rogero Reynolds de Henley-in-Arden, Willelmo Wodde de Wodhouse, Thome Ardern de Wylmecote et Roberto Ardern filio ejusdem Thomæ Ardern, unum mesuagium cum suis pertinenciis in Snytterfield. (See Halliwell-Phillipps’s “Outlines,” vol. ii, p. 207.)

The deed is in the miscellaneous documents of Stratford-on-Avon (see Halliwell-Phillipps’s “Calendar of the Stratford Records,” p. 291, vol. ii, No. 83).

This list of trustees is worth noting. Thomas Trussel is identified by his residence being given. He became Sheriff for the county in 23 Henry VII, and was of an old and well-known family (see Harl. Visit. and Dugdale). No Robert Throckmorton in the county could have precedence of him, save Robert Throckmorton of Coughton, who six months later, in November of the same year, was knighted, “a noble and pious man,” says Dugdale. He made his will in 1518, before he set out for the Holy Land. This was proved in 1520. His son George succeeded him at Coughton. Edward Arden, of Park Hall, was brought up in his care, and married Mary, his son Robert’s daughter.

That a man of the same name, living at the same time, in the same county, retaining the same family friends, under circumstances suitable in every way to the second son of Walter Arden’s will, should be accepted as that son, seems perfectly natural and just, when _no other claimant has ever been brought forward_. But we _know_ that this Thomas and this Robert were Mary Arden’s grandfather and father; we _know_ that this property was that afterwards left in trust by this Robert Arden for his daughters; we _know_ that the Shakespeares claimed the relationship, and that the heralds allowed it. Men should be judged truthful until proved guilty of falsehood, and no proof has ever been laid down against their statement. I bring forward only as a faint sidelight[12] the fact that of Robert Arden’s seven daughters at Wilmcote, the four younger, Margaret, Joyce, Alice, Mary, bore Arden names. The first and third, Agnes and Katharine, had Throckmorton names; and Joane was the name of Thomas Trussel’s unknown wife.

Mr. Nicholls’s second objection to this unbelieved-in Thomas, that he could not be a son of the Ardens because he is styled “husbandman,” is of little weight. The word is an old English equivalent for “farmer,” and might be applied to any gentleman resident on his lands. In this sense it is often used in old wills; it is so used in Stratford-on-Avon records, and in the examination of John Somerville, who stated that he had received no visitors but “certain husbandmen, near neighbours” (S.P.D.S. Eliz., 1583). “The kingdom of heaven is like unto a husbondman that went out first bi the morowe to hire werkmen into his vineyard” (Matt. xx, 1, Wycliffe). Even Dryden, in “Threnodia Augustalis,” says “The Royal Husbandman appeared”; and Mr. French notes other uses of the word: “The Arden Husbandman of Wilmecote in 1523 and 1546 paid the same amount to the subsidy as the Arden Esquire of Yoxall, 1590” (French, “Shaks. Gen.,” p. 423). It is more than probable that this Thomas married an unambitious wife. There is even yet a chance of finding her name through some will or deed.

Mr. Nicholls’s third assertion, that the heralds scratched out the arms of Arden of Park Hall because they dare not quarter them with those of the Shakespeares, requires to be more fully dealt with.

Drummond, in his “Noble British Families,” exemplifies many varieties of the arms of Arden, and traces them back to their derivation. He notes that “none of the branches or sons of the Earls of Warwick bore their arms, but only the eldest son, who was earl”; and that “the elder branch of the Ardens took the arms of the old Earls of Warwick, the younger branches took the arms of Beauchamp with a difference.” Now it is quite true that the Ardens of Park Hall bore Ermine, a fesse chequy or and az., arms derived from the Earls of Warwick, and that this was the pattern scratched out in Shakespeare’s quartering. But no critic seems to have noted the reason. Mary Arden was heiress not in the eldest line, but _through a second son_. The true pattern for a second son was three cross crosslets fitchée, and a chief or. As such they were borne by the Ardens of Alvanley, with a crescent for a difference. They were borne without the crescent by Simon Arden[13] of Longcroft, the second son of Thomas, son of Sir John, and full cousin of Mary Arden’s father. It is true that among the tombs at Yoxall the fesse chequy appears; but that branch gained a right to this coat after the extinction of the elder line in 1643.

Glover’s “Ordinary of Arms” mentions among the “marks of cadency” a martlet. Martin Arden, of Euston, co. Oxford, was clearly in the wrong to assume as he did the arms of his elder brother. William Arden, of Hawnes, in co. Bedford, correctly bore the three cross crosslets and the martlet. The three cross crosslets fitchée were the correct arms, and the martlet the correct difference, for Thomas Arden, as the second son of an Arden who might bear Ermine, a fesse chequy or and az. Thus Glover enumerates (vol. ii, ed. 1780) among the arms of Warwickshire and Bedfordshire: “Arden or Arderne. Gu., three cross crosslets fitchée or; on a chief of the second, a martlet of the first. Crest, a plume of feathers charged with a martlet or.” It is strange that Mr. Nicholls omitted to consider this. Camden and the other heralds of the sixteenth century were only seeking correctness in the restitution of arms, which were impaled in John Shakespeare’s case on the right, as of the older and nobler origin.

A similar contention arose about Edmund Neville, Edward Arden’s nephew (S.P.D.S. Eliz. 185, 72):

Pedigree of Neville and statement that he may bear Latimer’s arms. Richard Lord Latimer’s eldest son was John, Lord Latimer; his second son, William Neville of Latimer. John’s son John, Lord Latimer, died without male issue, leaving four daughters, his heirs, who divided his lands, and may quarter his arms. William Neville’s son was Richard Neville, who married Barbara, sister of Edward Arden of Park Hall, and their son is Edmund. By the custom and usage of England, after the decease of John, Lord Latimer, without issue male, Richard Neville, his cousin german, may bear the arms of the family, _without distinction or difference_.

If heraldry, therefore, has anything to say to this dispute, it is to support the claim of Thomas to being a cadet of the family of the Park Hall Ardens.

Nothing is recorded to account for Shakespeare allowing the arms of his mother, impaled on his father’s shield, to lapse from his own. It may be that, on his father’s death in 1601, he thought of the old meaning of quartering, “that it may be known whom a man hath married”; it may be that, tender of his Anne’s feelings, who had no arms to quarter, he let his spear shine alone on his shield; or it may be that, having proved his pedigree, he felt that

Honours best thrive
When rather from our acts we them derive
Than our fore-goers.

--“All’s Well,” Act II, sc. iii.

_“Athenæum,” 10th August 1895._

FOOTNOTES:

[11] John Charnells of Snarston had married his daughter Joyce.

[12] A strong proof of the connection lies in the fact that this Sir Robert Throckmorton was intimately connected with the Ardens of Park Hall, and that Sir John Arden a few months later made him also trustee of property for his younger children. (See my “Shakespeare’s Family,” p. 184.)

[13] See Fuller’s “Worthies.” He was Sheriff of Warwickshire, 12 Eliz.

V

STRATFORD’S “BOOKLESS NEIGHBOURHOOD”

In writing his “Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare,” Halliwell-Phillipps determined not to give the reins to his imagination, and to accept nothing that he did not think he could _prove_. At times, however, his treatment of probabilities seems to suggest that he had made up his mind that Shakespeare had grown up under conditions which make it hard to understand the possibility of the development of the _poet_ in the _man_. Many of his statements have been pressed into the service of the peculiar people who deny Shakespeare to be a poet at all. One of these, given as a fact, is that Stratford was a “bookless neighbourhood.” It is always rash to use universal propositions when they are not built up from a thorough examination of all possible particulars, as it leaves them liable to be proved untrue by a very limited opposite. Very little would serve to prove Halliwell-Phillipps to be mistaken in his statement, and, with him, all the crowd of copyists who follow him in everything they please to select from his work and opinion. This may be done both generally and specially.

I. Generally.--We know that Becon, in dedicating “The Jewel of Joy” to the Princess Elizabeth in 1549, speaks of Warwickshire as the most intellectual of English counties. We know that Stratford, as a town, was intelligent enough to pay its schoolmaster far above the average. Indeed, the master of Stratford Grammar School received a salary _double_ that of the master of Eton. It is therefore more than probable that Stratford had the best masters going at the time. And good masters imply good books. From several sources we know the curriculum of the grammar schools of the day, and the classical books that were used. A master who could teach from such books would be sure to have, like Chaucer’s clerk,

Standing at his bed’s head,
Twenty books y-clad in black or red.