JOHN SHAKESPEARE
Richard Shakespeare was in tenure of the property at Snitterfield, which
Robert Arden settled on his wife and daughters July 17, 4 Edward VI.,
Adam Palmer and Hugh Porter being trustees. On November 26, 1557, he,
along with the executors of Robert Arden and Thomas Stringer, was
returned as indebted to the late Hugh Porter of Snitterfield. On
September 13 he prised the goods of Richard Maydes, and on June 1, 1560,
of Henry Cole, of Snitterfield. He is believed to have been the father
of John, Henry, and possibly of Thomas Shakespeare.
John Shakespeare must have come to Stratford-on-Avon, probably from
Snitterfield, some time before 1552, for in that year he is described as
a resident in Henley Street, and fined for a breach of the municipal
sanitary regulations, along with Humphrey Reynolds and Adrian Quyney,
twelvepence a piece.[120] This relatively large sum implies that he must
have been even then a _substantial_ householder. The determination of
the house he then dwelt in becomes interesting in its bearing on the
tradition as to the poet's birthplace. Nothing is recorded of John for
the next few years, but he seems to have prospered in business, trading
in farmers' produce. In a law-suit of 1556, with Thomas Siche of Arscot,
Worcester, he was styled a "glover." In that year he bought from George
Turner a freehold tenement in Greenhill Street, with garden and croft,
which is not mentioned in any of his later transactions, and from Edward
West a freehold tenement and garden in Henley Street, the eastern half
of the birthplace messuage. Each of these was held by the payment of
sixpence a year to the lord of the manor and suit of court. Whether he
had previously lived in this eastern tenement, or in the western half,
as a tenant has not been absolutely decided.
He was summoned on the Court of Record Jury this year, and was party to
several small suits, in all of which he was successful. In 1557 he was
elected ale-taster, and curiously enough he was amerced for not keeping
his gutters clean, in company with Francis Harbage, Chief Bailiff,
Adrian Quyney, Mr. Hall, and Mr. Clopton. He is believed to have married
Mary Arden in 1557. The registers of Aston Cantlow, where it is likely
that Mary was married, do not begin so early. She was single at the time
of her father's death in 1556, and on September 15, 1558, "Jone[121]
Shakespeare, daughter to John Shakespeare, was christened at Stratford
by Roger Divos, minister." In 1558 John Shakespeare was elected one of
the four Constables of the town,[122] and, in 1559, one of the affeerors
or officers appointed to determine the imposition of small arbitrary
fines. In 1561 he was elected one of the Chamberlains, as well as one of
the affeerors. He remained Chamberlain for two years, and apparently so
well did he discharge his financial duties in that office that he was
called on to assist later Chamberlains in making up their accounts. It
is generally supposed that he could not write, because in attesting
documents he made his mark. But I am not sure that this habit is a
certain sign of his ignorance of the art. Camden himself chose a _mark_
as a signature based on his horoscope. (See his letter to Ortelius,
Sept. 14, 1577.)
In 1561 Richard Shakespeare of Snitterfield died, and his goods were
administered by his son, "John Shakespeare, _Agricola_, of
Snitterfield," Feb. 10, 1561-62.[123] Many doubt that, even if he had
any interest in Richard's property, such a description would have been
given of the Chamberlain of Stratford-on-Avon. It must not be forgotten
that there had been a John Shakespeare presented and fined twelvepence
on October 1, 1561, in Snitterfield Court, but he may have been the
Stratford John. In the description of a neighbouring property in 1570,
we learn that there was a "John Shakespeare of Ingon," a farm in the
neighbourhood of Snitterfield; and John Shakespeare of Ingon was buried
September 25, 1589, according to Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps.[124] Hence
arose reasonable doubts of the identity of John of Stratford with John,
the heir of Richard Shakespeare of Snitterfield. Still, the evidence is
much stronger in support of his identity than against it.
On December 2, 1562, the Stratford baptismal register records the
christening of "Margaret, daughter of John Shakspere." At the making up
of the Chamberlain's accounts for 1562-63 in January, 1563-64, the
Chamber was found in debt to John Shakespeare 25s. 8d., as if he had
been the finance Chamberlain of the two. Both of his daughters were dead
when, on April 26, he christened his firstborn son William. That summer
the plague raged in Stratford; the Council meetings were held in the
garden, to avoid infection, and collections were made among the
burgesses for the relief of the poor, to each of which John Shakespeare
contributed.
In 1565 he was chosen alderman, and not only rendered the Chamberlain's
accounts, but seems to have borne their financial liabilities, as in the
accounts for the year is noted, "Item, payd to Shakspeyr for a rest of
old det £3, 2, 7-1/2," the sum which was really entered as a debt in
favour of the acting Chamberlains. The following year he again made up
the accounts for the Chamberlains, and the Chamber was found to be in
debt to him 6s. 8d., a sum that was not repaid until January, 1568.
From the number of petty actions for debt in which he appeared, either
as plaintiff or defendant, one would believe that the business men of
Stratford did not care to pay up until they were obliged to do so. In
1566 there occurs an interesting suit, which shows that John Shakespeare
was even then acquainted with the Hathaways. In two actions against
Richard Hathaway--one for £8, and one for £11--John Shakespeare had been
security, and his name was substituted in the later proceedings for that
of the defendant.
On October 13, 1566, his son Gilbert was christened.
In 1567 he was assessed on goods to the value of £4[125] for the subsidy
3s. 4d.; and in another entry on £3, 2s. 6d. This was not at all a small
entry for a tradesman of the time. Everyone tried to make his estimate
as small as possible, as men do to-day, when taxes depend on it. He was
nominated that year, though not elected, to the post of High Bailiff, to
which office, however, he was elected on September 4, 1568. In the
precepts that he issued he is styled "Justice of the peace and Bailiff
of the Town."[126] In the Chamberlain's accounts of January 26, 1568-69,
there is mentioned, "Item to Mr. Balyf that now is 14/-," a sum not
explained or accounted for; and in 1570 the Chamberlains "praye
allowance of money delivered to Mr. Shaxpere at sundry times £6," during
their year 1569-70, as if he had been doing work for the town.[127] On
April 15, 1569, another daughter Joan was christened; and on September
28, 1571, his daughter Anna. After his year of office, John Shakespeare
was always called "Master," a point to be remembered in determining the
meaning of various little records in a town where others of the name
came to reside. In 1571 he was elected Chief Alderman, and in 1572 he
attained what may really be considered as his chief honour. "At this
Hall yt is agreed by the asent and consent of the Aldermen and burgeses
aforesaid, that Mr. Adrian Queney now bailif and Mr. John Shakespeare,
shall at Hilary term next ensuing deale in the affairs concerninge the
commen wealthe of the Borroughe according to their discrecions." This
was an important consideration to devolve on the shoulders of a man if
he could not read or write, and it very probably involved a visit to
London.[128] In 1574, March 11, his son Richard was born; and in 1575 we
find the locality of his house in Henley Street determined by William
Wedgewood's sale, September 20, to Edward Willis for £44, of his two
tenements "betwyne the tenement of Richard Hornbee on the east part, and
the tenement of 'John Shakesper yeoman' on the weste part"--the street
on the south, and the waste ground called Gilpittes on the north. This
shows, therefore, that the east tenement of the birthplace was then in
his occupation, and that somehow he was entitled yeoman. But in October
he himself also bought two houses for £40 from Edmund and Emma Hall, the
locality not specified. One of these has been supposed by some to have
been the birthplace, or perhaps both, seeing that later entries make
John Shakespeare responsible to the lord of the manor for 13d. for his
western tenement, and the garden or toft to the west of it, as against
the 6d. due for his eastern tenement.
[Illustration: PRESENT VIEW OF SHAKESPEARE'S BIRTHPLACE.
_To face p. 55._]
We must then face the question, either John Shakespeare owned the
birthplace in 1552, and resided in it until he added the wool-shop in
1556; or he rented the wool-shop in 1552, which he purchased in 1556; or
he rented the birthplace in 1552, which he purchased in 1575 from the
Halls. Under whatever circumstances he secured these, both remained free
to him during all his financial difficulties, and descended to his son.
But these uncertainties create the doubt that remains in the mind of
some, _Was the poet really born in the birthplace which tradition has
assigned to him, or not?_ To me it seems that the balance of all
considerations remains in favour of the birthplace. It is hard to
account for a purchase in 1575 (that evidently galled him) of any other
premises save those in which he resided. Little is known of John
Shakespeare or his family during 1576 and 1577, but in 1578 begin the
records of his temporary poverty, which I have noted under the account
of his relations to his wife's relatives. For the Town Council,
doubtless in consideration of his past services, excused him paying 3s.
4d., as his share of "the furniture of the pikemen," etc.; and, along
with Mr. Robert Bratt (the poorest member of the Corporation), he was
excused the 4d. a week imposed on the aldermen for relief of the poor.
Then came the mortgage of Asbies in 1578-79.[129] The following year he
again left unpaid his share of the levy for armour--3s. 4d.; and he
began, probably through shamefacedness, not to show himself at the
Halls, though the State Papers still enter him among the gentlemen and
freeholders of Warwickshire. But another influence began to affect his
circumstances prejudicially about this time, and that is, the evil
fortunes of his brother Henry of Snitterfield. How his biographer, in
the "Dictionary of National Biography," could call this brother "_a
prosperous farmer_," I know not.
In 1574 there had been a free fight, wherein blood was drawn, between
him and Edward Cornwall, who afterwards became the second husband of his
brother's sister-in-law, Margaret Webbe, _née_ Arden. In the year 1580
there was an extra long series of actions against him for debt; threats
of excommunication for withholding tithes; fines for refusing to wear
the statute caps on Sunday; fines for not doing suit of court.
Altogether he seems to have been a high-spirited fellow, who brought on
himself, through lack of prudence, much of his ill-luck, and who had the
unfortunate knack of involving other people in his troubles.
In 1582 both brothers were summoned as witnesses in support of Robert
Webbe against the Mayowe appeal.
In November of that year John's eldest son William, of whom no earlier
direct mention had been preserved, added to his embarrassments by a
premature marriage, and in the following year John was made a
grandfather by the birth of Susanna Shakespeare. In 1584 the twins
Hamnet and Judith were added to his anxieties. About this time the
Stratford Records notice how a John Shakespeare was worried by suits
brought against him by John Brown, in whose favour a writ of distraint
was issued against Shakespeare in 1586. But the answer was returned that
"he had nothing whereon to distrain."
There are several reasons for believing that this John was not the
poet's father. The prefix Mr. is not used in the entries; it is certain
that he retained his freeholds in Henley Street all his life, and if he
had "no goods whereon to distrain," he could hardly have been received
as sufficient bail at Coventry, on July 19 of that year, for Michael
Price, tinker, of Stratford-on-Avon, or as security for his brother
Henry's debts. In 1586 he was removed from his office of alderman.[130]
Just in the year of the death of Edmund Lambert, when the possession of
money would have given him power to have renewed his efforts to regain
Asbies, Henry Shakespeare became a defaulter, and Nicholas Lane, by
Thomas Trussell, his attorney, sued John Shakespeare in his place, 1587.
William Court was his attorney in a weary case, which must have led both
sides into heavy costs, over the recovery of £22.[131]
On September 1, 1588, he paid a visit to John Lambert at
Barton-on-the-Heath, in the vain hope of inducing him to surrender
Asbies; instituted proceedings against those who owed him money in
Stratford, and, in 1589, against Lambert in the Queen's Bench at London,
probably acting in the latter case through William. From the inquisition
post-mortem of the Earl of Warwick, in 1590, we know Mr. John
Shakespeare still owned the two houses in Henley Street.
In 1592 Mr. John Shakespeare appraised the goods of two important
neighbours--of Ralph Shawe, wool-driver, July 23, and Henry Field,
tanner, August 21. Thomas Trussell, the attorney, drew up the inventory,
and denominated his associate as Mr. John Shaksper, _Senior_, for no
clear reason, but possibly to distinguish him from the shoemaker John.
The attestation is witnessed only by a cross. During this year Sir
Thomas Lucy and others were drawing up the lists of Warwickshire
recusants[132] that had been "heretofore presented." Among these they
included several members of the sorely-oppressed family of the Ardens of
Park Hall, and in Stratford-on-Avon "Mr. John Shackspere" and eight
others. Probably some friendly clerk, wishing to spare them fines,
added: "it is sayd that these last nine coom not to Churche for feare of
process for debte." But it is quite possible it might refer to John
Shakespeare the shoemaker, who, having been Master of the Shoemakers'
Company, _might_ have been called "Mr."[133] In the earlier undated
draught from which this was taken the Commissioners state: "wee suspect
theese nyne persons next ensuinge absent themselves for feare of
processes, Mr. John Wheeler, John his son, Mr. John Shackespeere," etc.
Away up in London in 1593 the tide was beginning to turn for the family
through the efforts of the poet and the affection of the Earl of
Southampton.
In this year Richard Tyler sued a John Shakespeare for a debt, but it is
not at all certain it was not one of the others of the name. In a case
brought by Adrian Quyney and Thomas Barker against Philip Green,
chandler, Henry Rogers, butcher, and John Shaxspere, in 1595, for a debt
of £5, the absence of a trade after Shakespeare's name has made Mr.
Halliwell-Phillipps suppose that he had retired by this date. A John
Shakespeare attested by a cross the marriage settlement of Robert
Fulwood and Elizabeth Hill in 1596, which represents probably the name
of the poet's father. In 1597 he sold, to oblige his neighbour, George
Badger, a narrow strip of land at the western side of his Henley Street
garden, 1-1/2 feet in breadth, but 86 feet in length. For this he
received £2 10s., and his ground-rent was reduced from 13d. to 12d., the
odd penny becoming Badger's responsibility. He also sold a plat, 17 feet
square, in the garden, behind the wool-shop, to oblige his neighbour on
the other side, Edward Willis.
The application made for coat-armour, initiated in 1596, ostensibly by
John Shakespeare, but really by William Shakespeare, as well as the
Lambert case, dragged on through the later years of the century.
That he had not lost credit with his fellow-townsmen may be seen by
John's latest recorded piece of work.
Early in 1601 an action was brought by Sir Edward Greville[134] against
the Corporation respecting the toll-corn; and John Shakespeare, with
Adrian Quyney and others, assisted to draw up suggestions for the use of
the counsel for the defendants. On September 8 of that year the funeral
of the old burgess took place at Stratford-on-Avon, but there is no
trace now left of any sepulchral monument or memorial of any kind. No
will or inventory, or even inquisition post-mortem, has come down to us.
It is quite possible that the Henley Street houses were entailed upon
his eldest son, or that he may have bought up all rights during his
father's lifetime to such an extent that "inheritance" could hardly be
talked of. He seems to have indeed supported all the family, as there is
no trace[135] of any of them, except Edmund the player, engaging in any
trade or profession. Whether his mother resided in Henley Street or at
New Place is not clear. There is nothing further known of her save the
register of her burial: "September 9th, 1608, Mayry Shaxspere Wydowe."
No sepulchre or memorial of her has come down to our time. We only know
that somewhere in the consecrated ground by Stratford Church lies the
dust of John Shakespeare and Mary Arden, the parents of the poet.
[Illustration: SHAKESPEARE'S BIRTH-HOUSE BEFORE THE RESTORATION IN
1857.]
FOOTNOTES:
[120] Stratford-on-Avon Chamberlain's Accounts, April 29, 6 Edward VI.
[121] Stratford-on-Avon Baptismal Register.
[122] All these references are from the Chamberlain's Accounts, and
accounts of the Halls at Stratford-on-Avon. Those who have not had
access to them may refer to Halliwell-Phillipps's "Outlines," i. 29; ii.
179 _et seq._
[123] Worcester administration bonds, 1561. _Notes and Queries_, 8th
Series, xii. 413.
[124] This statement is, however, evidently erroneous.
[125] Roll for Stratford, Longridge MS.
[126] Stratford Borough Records.
[127] The first notice of municipal employment of players appears during
his year of office, the Queen's Company and that of the Earl of
Worcester having performed before the council. A case was tried at the
Warwick assizes, Easter, 11 Elizabeth, concerning the tithes of
Rowington, and John Shakespeare, of Stratford-on-Avon, was on the
jury.--Ryland's "Records of Rowington."
[128] See Chamberlain's accounts for "the expenses of Mr. Queeney in
London," also for the expenses of the dinner given to Sir Thomas Lucy
and others, at which Quiney and Shakespeare presided.
[129] In 1579 he buried his daughter Anne "with the pall and the great
bell." On May 3, 1580, his youngest child Edmund was christened.
[130] "At this halle William Smythe and Richard Court are chosen
Aldermen in the places of John Wheler and John Shaxspere, for that Mr.
Wheler doth desire to be put out of the company, and Mr. Shaxspere doth
not come to the Halles when they be warned, nor hath not done of long
tyme."--Borough Reports. It is noteworthy that he was never fined for
absenting himself as others were.
[131] Controlment Rolls, 29 Elizabeth, Stratford-on-Avon.
[132] State Papers, Domestic Series, Elizabeth. It may be noted that
there was no Mrs. Shakespeare among the recusants. Other wives were
noted, as Mrs. Wheeler.
[133] It remains a fact that John Shakespeare, shoemaker, is heard of no
more in Stratford-on-Avon, and shortly afterwards his house was tenanted
by another man.
[134] Stratford Corporation Records.
[135] Halliwell-Phillips is in error in stating that Gilbert was a
London haberdasher.