mentioned in that instrument, but who, I find from other documents, was a dyer. For their better maintenance and support, all the lands and possessions of the gild of the Holy Cross (an amicable and charitable fraternity, which had subsisted at least from the time of Edward the Third [1327], and had been dissolved in the first year of the reign of Edward the Sixth, excepting only a single house called the Mansion House of the Guild), were granted to the aldermen and burgesses, expressly, however, on condition that they should continue and maintain the almshouse, for twenty-four decayed inhabitants of the town, and the grammar school for the education of youth, as they had been maintained by the late guild; and that they should pay the master of the school a stipend of twenty pounds a-year. All the tithes of hay and corn in Old Stratford, Welcome, and Bishopton, which had belonged to the lately dissolved college of Stratford, being likewise granted by this charter, the aldermen and burgesses were very properly required to pay the vicar an annual salary, which at that time was no more than twenty pounds, and forty shillings to enable him to pay his tenths and first

lippes, Thomas Wynfeeld, John Jefferies, Thomas Dixon, George Whatley, Henry Biddle, William Whatley, Robert Mors, Robert Pratt, and Adrian Quiney.

The original burgesses are not named in the charter; but from another instrument in the archives of Stratford, I find that about two years afterwards (April 20, 1555), the burgesses were, then, John Burbadge, William Mynsker, Daniel Phillips, Robert Perrot, Laurence Peynton, Roger Sadler, Humphry Plymley, Richard Harrington, William Smith, corvizar, Francis Harbadge, George Turnor, Richard Symmonds, John Wheler, and Lewis ap Williams.

fruits. In addition to the grant of a common seal, a weekly market, and two annual fairs, the bailiff was invested with the powers of escheator, coroner, almoner, and clerk of the market, and authorized to hold a court of record, every fortnight, for the trial of all causes within the jurisdiction of the borough, in which the debt and damages did not amount to thirty pounds. The whole revenues of the guild of the Holy Cross, which were granted by this charter, produced at that time only forty-six pounds, three shillings, and two-pence halfpenny. In addition to which his Majesty gave the borough, by the same charter, the tithes of all the lands which had belonged to the late dissolved college, which were let for 341. per annum.

SECTION IV.

John Shakspeare, wherever he may have been born, settled in Stratford not very long after the year 1550;

5 Pat. 7 Ed. VI. p. 13.

6 Antecedent to this grant, the revenues of the borough of Stratford appear to have been extremely small: for in the earliest rent-roll of the borough, which I have found, after the grant of this charter, that for the year 1563, their whole revenue, exclusive of the tithes of the late college, amounted only to 521. Os. 7d.

The personal property of the guild, about seventy years before its dissolution, is ascertained by the curious inventory, which, being too long for this place, may be found in the Appendix. The guild, it should be observed, was governed by eight aldermen, chosen annually out of their own body, and a master, who was also elected annually, by the aldermen. The master, together with two proctors, elected by him and the aldermen, had the entire management of the lands and revenues of the guild. The famous lawyer, Littleton, was admitted a member of this fraternity in 1479, 19 Ed. IV. Registr. Gild. fol. 110, b.

VOL. II.

E

for in the middle of the year 1555 a suit was instituted against him, in the bailiff's court, which, for another purpose, I shall hereafter have more particular occasion to mention. He was, as I conjecture, born in or before the year 15307. From Mr. Arden's will, made in Dec. 1556, there is ground to believe that his daughter Mary was then single. She must have married our poet's father in the following year; for in Sept. 1558, she brought him a daughter, named Joan, who died in her infancy.

In consequence of misinformation obtained at Stratford, as it should seem, by Mr. Betterton, in the early part of the last century, and communicated by him to Mr. Rowe, originating probably in too hasty an inspection of the register of that parish, we have been told,—and the tale, together with the few other facts recorded by the same writer, has been transmitted from book to book,that our poet's father "had so large a

7 He was chosen a burgess of Stratford about the same time as John Tayler, a shearman or cloth-worker of that town, and served with him the office of chamberlain in the year 1562. It is not unreasonable, therefore, to suppose them to have been nearly of the same age.

In the register of the proceedings of the corporation in the Council Chamber, 30 June, 34 Eliz. (1592), Mr. Tayler is called old John Tayler; and in the account of Henry Wilson, Chamberlain, made 24 January, 34 Eliz. (1593-4), he is denominated Father Tayler: "Receaved of Father Tayler for Michael Shakleton, iijs. iiijd." This was then, as now, in the country, a common appellation for old men. So, in another account made by George Badger for the year 1596: "Item, Receaved of Father Degge for his entrance into the Almshouse, vis. viiid." So also in the register of the parish of Stratford, I find among the burials in 1587, March 23, "Jone, wife to Father Bell of Bishopton."

family, ten children in all (according to Mr. Rowe's theory, he should have said eleven), that, though he was his eldest son, he could give him no better education than his own employment. The truth, however, is, that our poet's mother never appears to have borne to her husband more than eight children, five of whom only, namely, four sons and one daughter, attained to years of maturity; William, Gilbert, Richard, Edmond, and Joan (on each of whom I shall have occasion to speak hereafter); Margaret, Anne, and an elder Joan, having died in their infancy. Instead, therefore, of being charged with the maintenance of so numerous a family as ten children, the father of our poet had only half that number for any considerable period to support.

The principal cause of the confusion and error in which this subject has been involved, was the supposal that Ursula, Humphrey, and Philip Shakspeare, who were baptized at Stratford, between March, 1588-9, and Sept. 1591 (at the former of which periods, John and Mary Shakspeare had been more than thirty

8 Rowe's Life of Shakspeare.

9 Joan, the eldest daughter of John Shakspeare, was baptized at Stratford on September 15, 1558; and though her burial is not recorded in the register (perhaps from her dying in some other place), she probably died before April, 1569, under nine years of age; because another daughter was then baptized by the same name. Although parents sometimes gave the same Christian name to two children living at the same time, the other circumstances attending this child, render it improbable that should have been the case in this instance. Margaret Shakspeare was baptized Dec. 2, 1562, and was buried April 13, 1563; and Anne was baptized Sept. 28, 1571, and was buried April 4, 1579.

years married), were the children of our poet's father; whereas they were, in fact, the children of another person of the same Christian and surname, who then lived in that town, and was of the humble occupation of a shoemaker'. In consequence of this erroneous notion, our poet's father has been supposed to have

1 "Stratford

}

Ad aulam ibid. tent. xxix die Marcii, Ao. regni Burgus. dňæ nostræ Elizabethæ, &c. xxiv°. [1592]: "A Note of M'. Okers money, and to whom yt is lent; and the names of their sureties, and also of Bakers money.

"Bakers Money.

"Thomes Fourde, Shoemaker, vi. for 1'. and Henrie Rogers, butcher, and John Shaxspere, shuemaker, his suerties.

"Okers Money.

"Philippus Grene in x". for vi. Henrie Rogers, butcher, and John Shaxspere, shuemaker, his suerties.

"John Fisher, shuemaker, in x". for v". and Humphrey Wheler, and Humphrey Cowper, shoemakers, his suerties.

“Ad aulam ibid. tent. xxxo. die Junii, ao. 1592:

"At this Hall John Shackspere, Master of the companie of Shuemakers, paid to the same Henrie Wilson, the moitie of Richard Fletcher the sadler his freedome, xx. which saied xx". is due to the chamber, and so paied."

On the 6th day of Sept. 1586, "George Badger, Roger Welshe, John Shaxspere and Humphry Brace, were elected constables for the ensuing year, and John Shaxspere and Humphrey Brace were sworn.' These two persons again served the same office in the following year, together with Edward Bushell and David Jones. Humphrey Brace was a grocer and mercer at Stratford, and died possessed of a good property in the year 1591-2, as appears by his will, which is in the Prerogative Office. "Burgus At a Hall there holden the xvii. daie of FeStratford.bruarie, anno 1590°...... Thomas Okers money was delivered to the persons whose names are underwritten. "John Shaxspere v". his sureties Richard Sponer and Robert Yonge." Registr. Burg. Stratford. A.