It is to be supposed that at this date it must have been John, and not William, who was designated “Mr. Shaxpere.” Imagination is left to play vainly round the nature of the book; but it is clear from these rough notes that he had coveted one special book in Jone Perat’s possession, that he had secured it, but that he had not yet paid for it. Mr. Barber also, it may be noted, held three books on the same doubtful tenure, between plaintiff and defendant. But at least four books were in the market in Stratford at that date which had been in the possession of the old grandmother.
“Athenæum,” 23rd January 1909.
VII
JOHN SHAKESPEARE, OF INGON, AND GILBERT, OF ST. BRIDGETS
When a long chain of arguments depend upon one fact, and that fact is disproved, the dependent arguments become invalid. It would be invidious to correct formally two trifling errors in Halliwell-Phillipps’s monumental work, if it had not happened that they were the support of other errors.
1. He states authoritatively in his “Outlines” (ii, 253) that the John Shakespeare of Ingon could not be the John of Henley Street, because the former was buried in 1589, and the latter in 1601. “Joannes Shakespeare of Yngon was buried the xxvth of September, 1589,” in the parish of Hampton-Lucy. Yet a careful consideration of the register shows that the entry was not “Joannes,” but “Jeames.” This Mr. Richard Savage is clear about. The “Jeames” may have been some elder untraced connection, but it is much more than likely he was the “Jeames, son of Henry Shakespeare, of Ingon,” whose baptism is recorded in the same register, 1585, as there is no further entry concerning this cousin of the poet’s. This error being cleared away, there is no fundamental objection to the opinion that John Shakespeare of Henley Street might be the same as John of Ingon, mentioned in the measurement of a neighbouring farm, 23 Elizabeth, “Ingon ... then or late in the tenure of John Shaxpere or his assignes.” The relation John held to his brother Henry makes it very likely indeed that Ingon was in his nominal tenure, and that Henry farmed it as his “assigne.”
If John of Henley Street may be considered the same as John of Ingon, he must also be considered the same as the John, Agricola, of Snitterfield, who, in conjunction with Nicols, was granted administration of his father Richard’s goods in 1561, under a bond for £100. Some have considered this uncertain, but they cannot have gone to authorities. The administration in Worcester Probate Registry, 10th February 1560-1, definitely states John of Snitterfield was the son of Richard. He had probably been born in Snitterfield, had some interest in the land there, was probably resident there at the time of his father’s illness and death, to look after affairs, and very probably described himself at the Registrar’s Office as having come direct from Snitterfield to wind up the affairs of his father’s farm, complicated by the lease granted by Mrs. Arden, to her brother Alexander Webbe. Though it might not be absolutely certain that John of Snitterfield was John of Stratford, it seems settled in 1581, when the Mayowes contested the claims of the Ardens, and Adam Palmer, the surviving feoffee, and John and Henry Shakespeare, his brother, were summoned as witnesses for the Ardens before the Commission appointed at Stratford.
2. The second is a more important error, for it seems to substantiate a hazy tradition that Shakespeare’s brother lived to a great age, and retailed to greedy ears gossip concerning the poet’s acting. Halliwell-Phillipps, “Outlines,” i, 35, states that “Gilbert entered into business in London as a Haberdasher, returning in the early part of the following century to his native town.” Among the notes there is given an indefinite entry to support this, without the term, the case, or the names of the parties being given (ii, 289): “In the Coram Rege Rolls, 1597, Gilbert Shackspere, who appears as one of the bail in the amount of £19 for a clockmaker of Stratford, is described as a Haberdasher of the Parish of St. Bridget.” He further considers the Stratford burial of 1612 to have been that of Gilbert’s son.
I had always thought it extremely improbable that at the time of John Shakespeare’s financial difficulties in Stratford-on-Avon he would have found himself able to place his second son as an apprentice in London to any member of that wealthy company. But lately I determined to test the truth of the statement. Through the courtesy of the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers I was allowed to go through their books at leisure. I found that not only was there an entire absence of the name of Shakespeare from the list of apprentices or freemen, but that during the whole of the sixteenth century there was only one “Gilbert,” and he was “Gilbert Shepheard,” who took up his freedom in 1579, when the poet’s brother would be thirteen years of age.
Through the kindness of the Vicar of St. Bridgets, or St. Brides, I was also allowed promptly to go through the registers, which commence only in 1587—early enough, however, for Gilbert Shakespeare. But there is no mention of the name, either among marriages, births, or deaths. Of course, this does not prove that he did not reside in the parish.
The subsidy rolls are also silent as to his residence there. But in both places occur the name of Gilbert Shepheard, Haberdasher. The discovery of Halliwell-Phillipps’s want of thoroughness in regard to this statement discouraged me in attempting to wade through the six volumes of closely-written contracted Latin cases that make up the Coram Rege Roll of 1597. I felt nearly certain that I would only find Gilbert Shepheard there also. For I have been driven to the conclusion that Halliwell-Phillipps misread “Shepheard” as “Shakespeare.” It sends us, therefore, back to the more likely neighbourhood of Stratford-on-Avon for further reference to the poet’s brother. He was known to be there in 1602, taking seisin of land in his brother’s name. The burial entry of 1611-12 is peculiarly worded, I confess, and gives some reason to suppose that he had a son born elsewhere, here buried as “Gilbertus Shakespeare, Adolescens.” But when we remember there is no other record of marriage or of birth, no other entry of a Gilbert’s death save this, it makes us reconsider the situation. We know that the poet’s brother Edmund died in 1607 in Southwark, and his brother Richard in 1612-13 in Stratford-on-Avon. In the poet’s will, written about four years later, there is no allusion to a brother or any of his connections or descendants. This brother would certainly have been mentioned in some of the wills of the Shakespeares had he been alive. We are aware that parish clerks were not always perfectly correct, and that, at the time, there was a general tendency to use pompous words, of which the meaning was not fully understood. Shakespeare’s plays show this. Dogberry would have borne out the clerk of Stratford-on-Avon in any rendering he chose to give. He would have been no worse than a Mrs. Malaprop if he intended “adolescens” to represent “deeply regretted,” and in the absence of further proof this need not be accepted as clear evidence that Gilbert Shakespeare lived to a great age. (See Note VII.)