on small sums at Wroxhall, all of whom were named William. One appears to have been of better substance than the rest, William Shaxespere, he being assessed on the sum of 61.

A William Shakespere, as well as Richard, appears among the customary tenants late of the nuns of Wroxhall, in the 28th of Henry the Eighth, 1536-7: and a John Shackspere, then deceased, had held a tenement or messuage in Wroxhall, with an orchard and five crofts, which had been demised in the 24th of that reign to Alice Taylor of Hanwell, in the county of Oxford, spinster. A later John Shakespere was tenant of the lands at Hasseley or Haseler, which had been demised to Richard Shakespere and Richard Woodham, in the 15th of Henry the Eighth: but this John, in the 36th of Henry the Eighth, 1544-5, is spoken of as late tenant. In that year, the site of the monastery of Wroxhall, with the rectory, and much of its possessions, were granted by the crown to Robert Burgoine and John Scudamore, and so became the principal seat of the Burgoine family. From that time therefore we lose the benefit of any further public accounts of the Shakespeares who lived at Wroxhall.

Of all the Shakespeares of whom we can recover any notices, it appears to me that these Shakespeares of Wroxhall have the best claim to be considered the progenitors of the Shakespeares of Stratford upon Avon. The father of the poet, who was born before the general institution of parish-registers, and was the first of the name settled at Stratford, has hitherto eluded all attempts at affiliation, and it is to be feared that anything beyond a high probability is not now to be attained. I state, not as meaning by any means that it should be implied that I regard the evidence to be otherwise than that of a probability more or less cogent, that the poet's father, John Shakespeare, of Strat

ford, was son of a William of Wroxhall, and grandson of the Richard Shakespeare who was the tenant of the nuns of Wroxhall, and at the time of the dissolution the bailiff of their estates.

I state this only as being what appears to me the most reasonable presumption, after some attention to the faint traces of their path in life, which the Shakespeares of those generations have left behind them in the country, which however we do certainly know, by the testimony of the Heralds, to have been the seat of the ancestors of the poet.

If I may be allowed to point the attention of the Warwickshire antiquaries to a possible source of further information on this subject, I would suggest the Court Rolls, if such exist, of the manor of Wroxhall, and generally the evidences respecting Wroxhall and its vicinity, which originated after the grant to the Burgoines, and which may still remain in the hands of the family. The original position of John Shakespeare, of Stratford, his early claim to the distinction of coat-armour, and his marriage in that neighbourhood to the daughter of Robert Arden, a gentleman of worship, all indicate that he was sprung of persons who were of some consideration, and yet of all the Shakespeares in that neighbourhood of whom we can obtain any account, those of Wroxhall appear to have been the only family who were a little elevated above the ordinary level. Nor in this uncertainty is there any thing peculiar. Where wills are not existing, when parish registers were not, where there are no monumental inscriptions, if our inquiries relate to families with whose affairs the escheators did not intermeddle, we must often be content with probabilities only, which can but by some fortunate chance, on which the re is no previous calculation, be converted into certainties. I add, as strengthening the

probability, that John Shakespeare, of Stratford, gave the two Wroxhall names of Richard and William to two of his children.

We find Shakespeares remaining at Wroxhall in the time of Elizabeth and James the First, who appear to have been reduced. John Shaksper, of Wroxhall "laborer," whose will is dated December 17, 1574, desires to be buried in the churchyard of Wroxhall, gives his son Edward half of his goods, to his sister Alice a lamb, to his brother William Shakspere a horse-cloth of medley, and his best shirt. He names his cousin Laurence Shaxper, of Halsall or Balsall, his brother Woodam's children, and his wife Isabel, whom he makes executor. Again, a William Shaxspeare, of Wroxhall, husbandman, made his will April 17, 1609, leaving every thing to one Joan Shrive, except groats to each of his brothers' and sisters' children.

At the close of the reign of Henry the Eighth and in the reign of Edward the Sixth a Shakespeare lived at Packwood, in Warwickshire, whose name was Christopher. There was also at precisely the same period a Ralph Shakespere, and Bridget his wife, mother of Elizabeth Batty, who had lands. at Barston and Escott. In the 13th of Elizabeth a Ralph Shakespere, probably the same, was living at Berkswell. There was also a race of Shakespeares at Warwick, the heads of whom were all of the name of Thomas. They are found from the 35th of Henry the Eighth to the 11th of James the First, in which year Thomas Shakespere, 'gentleman,' was bailiff of the town. He was indeed alive as late as the 22d of that reign.

Mr. Malone, or the editor of his posthumous work, has made an important mistake respecting one of the Thomas Shakespeares of Warwick, a shoemaker there; he says, he

died possessed of the lordship of Balsall.'* This would have raised him above the ordinary level, and would have been a very singular circumstance, considering what was his occupation; but I have seen the will, from which Mr. Malone quotes, and instead of shewing that he possessed the lordship of Balsall, it shews only that he had lands in that lordship: My wife Agnes to have her free bench of my lands in the lordship of Balsall.' This will was made in 1577. He had a daughter Joan, who was married to Francis Ley, and three sons, William his eldest, who was no doubt the William Saxspere who was drowned in the Avon at Warwick in 1579, Thomas who continued at Warwick, and John who seems to have been the John Shakespeare the shoemaker of Stratford, contemporary with John Shakespeare, the poet's father, an identity of name among the inhabitants of Stratford, which contributes something to the uncertainty which rests upon the history of the poet's immediate ancestor.

There was another branch of the family of Shakespeare seated at Rowington, a village about three miles from Stratford. Of these Shakespeares Mr. Malone has collected and preserved many particulars. But they were at Rowington long before the period at which his notices of them commence, and the æra of the first known Shakespeare of Row

* Boswell's Malone, 8vo. 1821, vol. ii. p. 19.-This work lies under the disadvantage of being a posthumous publication, and the Life is no more than an unfinished piece. It is due to the memory of a man who devoted many years to the study and illustration of the Life and Writings of this great Poet, and who has done so much substantial service for him, to keep this fact before the public, for this is only one of several such oversights which might be pointed out. How much is due to Malone's industry and felicity in this department, may be seen by comparing with his, later accounts of the Life of Shakespeare. They are all rich in information in the parts which correspond to those of which Malone has written, as they are poor where Malone's narrative, if ever written, is not now to be found.

ington corresponds with that of Richard, the bailiff of the nuns of Wroxhall, and probably begins a little before it. This is certain, that in the 15th of Henry the Eighth, 1523-4, there were two John Shakespers living at Rowington, and as one of them is styled 'junior,' it seems that they stood in the relation of father and son. The son must have been grown up and a housekeeper, as he is assessed to the subsidy of that year on goods of the value of forty shillings, the goods of the elder John being valued at £6. In another similar document in the Exchequer, the date of which is lost, he is styled senior,' and his goods are estimated at £7. On the whole the birth of this person may be carried back to the reign of Edward the Fourth. In the 34th of Henry the Eighth, 1542-3, on a fall of timber in the lordship of Rowington, John Shaxspere bought 120 lopps, and Richard Shaxspere 15 lopps. Three years later there were four persons of the name of Shakespeare living at Rowington and chargeable to the subsidy. Their names were John, Thomas, Richard, and Laurence. These persons were all antecedent to the Shakespeares of Rowington of whom Mr. Malone speaks, and lived at the period most material in an inquiry into the descent of the poet.

There is even at Worcester an earlier will of a Shakespeare of Rowington than any of those consulted by Mr. Malone, and it shews the quality of this branch of the Shakespeare family perhaps better than any thing which he has told us. It is the will of Richard Shakyspere, of the parish of Rowington, weyver,' and bears date June 15, 1560. He desires to be buried in the churchyard of Rowington; he gives a 'weyving-loom' to his son William Shakyspere, 6s. 8d. to each of his daughters, and some trifle to his son Richard, then under twenty-three years of age. He makes his brothers-in-law John Reve and William Reve his executors, who