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 14s. 4d. 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.