grandfather of William Shakespeare, was one of the tenants of Robert Arden. Malone, not having the information we now possess before him, was of opinion that Robert Arden, who married Agnes Webbe, and died in 1556, had only four daughters, but the fact undoubtedly is that he had at least seven. On the 7th and 17th July, 1550, he executed two deeds, by which he made over to Adam Palmer and Hugh Porter, in trust for some of his daughters, certain lands and tenements in Snitterfield'. * In these deeds he mentions six daughters by name, four of them married and two single; -viz. Agnes Stringer, (who had been twice married, first to John Hewyns) Joan Lambert, Katherine Etkins, Margaret Webbe, Jocose Arden, and Alicia Arden. Mary, his youngest daughter, was not included, and it is possible that he had either made some other provision for her, or that, by a separate and subsequent deed of trust, he gave to her an equivalent in Snitterfield for what he had made over to her sisters. It is quite certain, as will be seen hereafter, that Mary Arden brought property in Snitterfield, as part of her fortune, to her husband John Shakespeare. Although the Ardens were an ancient and considerable family in Warwickshire, which derived its name from the forest of Arden, or Ardern, in or near which they had possessions, Robert Arden, in the two deeds above referred to, which were of course prepared at his instance, is only called "husbandman :"-" Robertus Ardern de Wilmecote, in parochia de Aston Cantlowe, in comitatu Warwici, husbandman." Nevertheless, it is evident from his will (dated 24th November, and 9 They are thus described: "Totum illud messuagium meum, et tres quartronas terræ, cum pratis eisdem pertinentibus, cum suis pertinentiis, in Snytterfylde, quæ nunc sunt in tenura cujusdam Ricardi Henley, ac totum illud cottagium meum, cum gardino et pomario adjacentibus, cum suis pertinentiis, in Snytterfyld, quæ nunc sunt in tenura Hugonis Porter." Adam Palmer, the other trustee, does not seem to have occupied any part of the property. proved on the 17th December, 1556) that he was a man of good landed estate. He mentions his wife's "jointure in Snitterfield," payable, no doubt, out of some other property than that which, a few years before, he had conveyed to trustees for the benefit of six of his daughters; and his freehold and copyhold estates in the parish of Aston Cantlowe could not have been inconsiderable. Sir John Arden, the brother of his grandfather, had been esquire of the body to Henry 'VII., and his nephew had been page of the bedchamber to the same monarch, who had bountifully rewarded their services and fidelity. Sir John Arden died in 1526, and it was his nephew, Robert Arden, who purchased of Rushby and his wife the estate in Snitterfield in 1520. He was the father of the Robert Arden who died in 1556, and to whose seventh daughter, Mary, John Shakespeare was married. No registration of that marriage has been discovered, but we need not hesitate in deciding that the ceremony took place in 1557. Mary Arden and her sister Alicia were certainly unmarried, when they were appointed "executores" under their father's will, dated 24th Nov., 1556, and the probability seems to be that they were on that account chosen for the office, in preference to their five married sisters. Joan, the first child of John Shakespeare and his wife Mary, was baptized in the church of Stratford-upon-Avon on the 15th Sept., 155810, so that we may fix their union towards the close of 1557, about a year after the death of Robert Arden. What were the circumstances of John Shakespeare at the time of his marriage we can only conjecture. 10 The register of this event is in the following form, under the head "Baptismes, Anno. Dom. 1558." 66 Septēber 15. Jone Shakspere daughter to John Shakspere." It seems likely that the child was named after her aunt, Joan, married to Edward Lambert of Barton on the Heath. Edward Lambert was related to Edmund Lambert, afterwards mentioned. See also p. lxxii. It has been shown that two years before that event a claim of 81. was made upon him in the borough court of Stratford, and we must conclude, either that the money was not due and the demand unjust, or that he was unable to pay the debt, and was therefore proceeded against. The issue of the suit is not known; but in the next year he seems to have been established in business as a glover, a branch of trade much carried on in that part of the kingdom, and, as already mentioned, he certainly served upon the jury of a court-leet in 1556. Therefore, we are, perhaps, justified in thinking that his affairs were sufficiently prosperous to warrant his union with the youngest of seven co-heiresses, who brought him some independent property. Under her father's will she inherited 67. 13s. 4d. in money, and a small estate in fee, in the parish of Aston Cantlowe, called Asbyes, consisting of a messuage, fifty acres of arable land, six acres of meadow and pasture, and a right of common for all kinds of cattle'. Malone knew nothing of Mary Arden's property in Snitterfield, to which we have already referred, and, without it, he estimated that her fortune was equal to 1107. 13s. 4d., which seems to us rather an under calculation of its actual value'. He also speculated, that at the time of their marriage John Shakespeare was twenty-seven years old, and Mary Arden eighteen3; but the truth is that we have not a particle of direct evidence upon the point. Had she been so young, it seems very unlikely that her father would have appointed her one of his executors in the pre 1 Shakspeare, by Boswell, vol. ii. p. 25. 2 The terms of Robert Arden's bequest to his daughter Mary are these:-"Also I geve and bequeth to my youngste daughter, Marye, all my lande in Willmecote, called Asbyes, and the crop upon the ground, sowne and tyllede as hit is: and vjli. xiijs. iiijd. of money, to be payde over ere my goodes be devydede." Hence we are not to understand that he had no more land in Wilmecote than Asbyes, but that he gave his daughter Mary all his land in Wilmecote, which was known by the name of Asbyes. 3 Shakspeare, by Boswell, vol. ii. p. 39. ceding year, and we are inclined to think that she must have been of full age in Nov. 1556. It was probably in contemplation of his marriage that, on 2d October, 1556, John Shakespeare became the owner of two copy-hold houses in Stratford, the one in Greenhill-street, and the other in Henley-street, which were alienated to him by George Turnor and Edward West, respectively: the house in Greenhill-street had a garden and croft attached to it, and the house in Henley-street only a garden; and for each he was to pay to the lord of the manor an annual rent of sixpence1. In 1557 he was again sworn as a juryman upon the court-leet, and in the spring of the following year he was amerced in the sum of fourpence for not keeping clean the gutter in front of his dwelling: Francis Burbage, the then bailiff, Adrian Quiney, "Mr. Hall, and Mr. Clopton" (so their names stand in the instrument) were each of them at the same time fined a similar sum for the same neglect. It is a point of little importance, but it is highly probable that John Shakespeare was first admitted a member of the corporation of Stratford in 1557, when he was made one of the ale-tasters of the town; and in Sept., 1558, he was appointed one of the four constables, his name following those of Humphrey Plymley, Roger Sadler, and John Taylor". He continued constable in We copy the following descriptions from the original borough-record, only avoiding the abbreviations, which render it less intelligible : : Item, quod Georgius Turnor alienavit Johanni Shakespere, &c. unum tenementum, cum gardin et croft, cum pertinentibus, in Grenehyll strete, &c. Et quod Eduardus West alienavit predicto Johanni Shakespere unum tenementum, cum gardin adjacente, in Henley strete. 5 The original memorandum runs thus:- "Francis Berbage, Master Baly that now ys, Adreane Quyny, Mr. Hall, Mr. Clopton, for the gutter alonge the chappell in Chappell Lane, John Shakspeyr, for not kepynge of their gutters cleane, they stand amerced." The sum which they were so amerced, 4d., is placed above the names of each of the parties. 6 The following are the terms used :- "Item, ther trysty and welbelovyd Humfrey Plymley, Roger Sadler, John Taylor, and John Shakspeyr, constabulles." 1559, his associates then being John Taylor, William Tyler, and William Smith, and he was besides one of four persons, called affeerors, whose duty it was to impose fines upon their fellow-townsmen (such as he had himself paid in 1557) for offences against the byelaws of the borough. CHAPTER II. Death of John Shakespeare's eldest child, Joan. Two John Shakespeares in Stratford. Amercements of members of the corporation. death of John Shakespeare's second child, Margaret. Birth of William Shakespeare: his birth-day, and the house in which he was born. The plague in Stratford. Contributions to the sick and poor by John Shakespeare and others. John Shakespeare elected alderman, and subsequently bailiff. Gilbert Shakespeare born. Another daughter, baptized Joan, born. Proofs that John Shakespeare could not write. It was while John Shakespeare executed the duties of constable in 1558, that his eldest child, Joan, was born, having been baptized, as already stated, on the 15th September, of that year: she died in her infancy, and as her burial does not appear in the register of Stratford, she was, perhaps, interred at Snitterfield, where Richard Shakespeare, probably the father of John Shakespeare, still resided', as tenant to Agnes Arden, widow of Robert Arden, and mother of Mary Shakespeare. In respect to the registers of marriages, baptisms, and deaths at Stratford, some con 66 1 This fact appears from a lease, before noticed, granted on 21st May, 1560, by Mary Arden to Alexander Webbe, of two messuages, with a cottage, one of which is stated then to be in the occupation of Richard Shakespeare. We quote the terms of the original deed in the hands of the Shakespeare Society:Wytnesseth, that the said Agnes Arderne, for dyverse and sundry consyderations, hath demysed, graunted, &c. to the said Alexander Webbe, and to his assignes, all those her two messuages, with a cottage, with all and singular their appurtenances in Snytterfeild, and a yarde and a halfe of ayrable lande thereunto belonging, &c., being in the towne and fyldes of Snytterfeild afforsaid: all which now are in the occupation of Richarde Shakspere, John Henley, and John Hargreve." Of course this property formed part of the jointure of Agnes Arden, mentioned in the will of her husband. |