In the petition of 1598 they state that the town had lost £12,000 by two very grievous fires, on which petition the Queen was graciously pleased to instruct the Attorney-General to give a book of discharge for the subsidy, 17th December 1598. They again petitioned to be relieved of their duties to the Queen and to the poor in 1601 (7th June). Again a dreadful fire took place in 1614, at the time of the death of John Combe, when eighty-five houses were burned down, besides many smaller edifices, and again petitions went up to the Queen for the remission of taxes, as they had 700 poor on their hands. Their distress and anxiety were intensified just at that time by William Combe’s determined efforts to start enclosures at Welcombe. They naturally saw in this a reduction of tithes, from which were endowed their school and almshouses, and in their many petitions against his high-handed action they always referred to their town as “being greatly ruinated by fire.” At last it seems to have struck some of the members of the Privy Council that they should inquire why Stratford should have more than its share of fires. Some one in Stratford found the cause in the thatched roofs of the period, and the Corporation forbade any more houses to be built with thatched roofs; indeed, ordered the thatch of old houses to be exchanged for the greater safety of tiles and slates. This would materially change the appearance of Stratford, not improving it in an artistic sense, but making it much safer. Now, there are papers in London which often fill out the information preserved among the valuable records of Stratford-on-Avon. I have come across some letters in the unpublished Register of the Privy Council, which may be added to the history of the town. They show that some one, or some party of inhabitants, had complained to the Privy Council against three men, who persisted in using thatch, and they tell their own story, so I give them in full.
16th March, 1618-19. To the Bayliffe, Chief Aldermen, and Towne Clarcke for the tyme being of Stratford-upon-Avon.
Wee sende you heere enclosed a petition exhibited unto us on the behalf of that Burrough of Stratford-upon-Haven, wherein is humbly represented unto us the greate and lamentable losse happened to that towne by casualty of Fyer, which of late years hath been very frequently occasioned by means of thatched cottages, stacks of straw, furze, and such-like combustible stuffe, which are suffered to be erected, and made confusedly in most of the principal parts of the town without restraint: and which being still continewed cannot but prove very dangerous and subject to the like inconveniences. And, therefore, wee have thought meete for the better safety and securing that towne from future dainger, hereby to authorize and require you to take order that from henceforward there be not any house or cottage that shall be erected by any owner of land or other, suffered to be thatched, nor any stacks or pyles of strawe or furzes made in any part of that towne, either upon the streetes or elsewhere, that may in any way endanger the same by fyer as formerly, but that all the houses and cottages to be hereafter built within the towne be covered with tyles or slates, and the foresayd stacks and pyles removed to fitt and convenient places without the towne. And for the houses and cottages already built and covered with strawe there, wee do likewise require you to cause the same to be altered and reformed according to theis directions with as much expedition as may stand with convenience, and as the safety and wellfare of that towne may any way require. Herein wee require you to take order accordingly, and in case of any opposition to theis our directions, whereby the performance of the same may be interrupted or stayed to make certificate unto us of the names of such as shall not conforme themselves accordingly that such further order may be taken therein as shall be expedient.
10th November, 1619. A warrant to John Foster, one of the messingers of his Majesties’ Chamber, to bring before their lordships, George Badger, William Shawe, and John Beesley alias Coxey, inhabitants in the Burrow of Stratford-upon-Avon, in the county of Warwick.
26th November, 1619. A letter to [no name added]. You shall understand that complaint was made unto us by a petitioner in the name of the Baliffe and Burgesses of the Town of Stratford-upon-Haven that whereas there was an order lately made at this Board restrayning the use of thatching of houses and cottages in the towne to prevent and avoyd the danger and great losse by fier that of late tyme hath often happened there by means of such thatched houses to the utter ruyne and overthrow of many of the inhabitants: Theis three parties, George Badger, William Shaw, and John Beesley, refusing to conforme themselves to our said order, had in contempt thereof erected certain thatched houses and cottages to the ill example of others, and the endangering of the towne by the like casualty of fire. Whereuppon they being convented before us, forasmuch as they do absolutely deny that they have shewed any such disobedience at all to our said order nor committed any manner of act contrary thereunto since the publication of the same in that towne. And that the partie that exhibited the complaint against them in the name of the towne did not appear to make good his informacion, wee have thought good to dismiss the said Badger, Shaw, and Beesley for the present, and withall to pray and require you to take due examynacion of the foresaid complaint, which you shall receive here enclosed, and upon full informacion of the truth thereof to make certificate unto us of what you find therein that such further order may be taken as shall be meete.
The complaint has not been preserved, but it would have been interesting to us to have known who sent it up, and what were the arguments used.
“Stratford-on-Avon Herald,” 12th April 1912.
Note to Article XIII
SHAKSPEARE’S BUST AT STRATFORD
ITS RESTORATION IN 1749
I had been searching for years for contemporary notices of the alteration, in every possible direction, but I only discovered what I wanted a few months ago, viz., the letters of those concerned in the restoration.
The figures are not so large, nor the details quite so full, as I had hoped they would be; but, such as they are, they ought to be laid before the public. They are taken from the Wheler Collection, Stratford-on-Avon, a number of copies from the MSS. of the Rev. Joseph Greene, Master of the Grammar School. The series begins with the account of the reasons for the movement towards restoration: