Richard Lane had a proportion worth £80 a year in the tithes of Old Stratford; Shakespeare’s share was worth £60 a year; Thomas Greene’s, £3, and 20 marks in the tithes of Drayton; Sir Edward Greville’s, 40s.; Sir Edward Conway’s, £30; Mary Combe, widow, an estate for six years to come, worth £10; John Lane, £8; Anthony Nash and William Combe, £5; Daniel Baker, £20; John Smith, £8; Francis Smith, £12; William Walford, 40s.; William Court, £3; John Brown, £4; Thomas Jakeman, £10; Richard Kempson and Stephen Burman, £15; Thomas Burman, £3; “Thomas Horneby, an estate of the messuage in which he now dwelleth, of the yearely value of £3”; and eighteen others had similar shares, most of the smaller holdings being in land or houses, and the larger in tithes.
Shortly after the poet’s purchase, he discovered that, though he was careful to pay his share of Barker’s reserved rent of £27 13s. 4d. to Henry Barker, then lessee, many of the other tenants were not paying theirs, and he ran the risk of losing his property through the fault of others. So he co-operated with Richard Lane and his lawyer cousin Thomas Greene to file a complaint in Chancery against those other tenants who did not pay their due share of the reserved rent. The complainants acknowledged that some of the tenants were willing to pay, but refused for fear of the others; some made light of the claim; and the complainants, for the preservation of their estates from forfeiture, have had much loss and trouble. They prayed that subpœnas be sent to the chief defaulters to appear and make answer. The case was entered as “Lane, Greene, Shakespeare, and others, con. W. Combe and others.” See Misc. Doc., ii, 2. The suit appears to have been successful, or at least some settlement was come to, for the possession of the tithes was not lost by Shakespeare or his family. (Their shares were sold later by Dr. Hall.)[19] That is the story of the tithes.
The enclosures began in 1614, about the time of “the Great Fire.” There died in July that year John Combe the moneylender, who had bought the old College in 1596, and he left much of his property between his nephews William and Thomas Combe. William apparently went to live at the College, and shortly after took it into his head to enclose, not “the Common,” but the “Common Fields” of Welcombe, i.e., arable land, liable to tithes. His agents inquired who were likely to be most concerned. Probably for them Thomas Greene had drawn up the list of “Auncient freeholders in Old Stratford and Welcombe.” The poet heads the list:
Mr. Shakspeare, 4 yard land, noe common nor ground beyond Gospel Bush, noe ground in Sandfield, nor none in Slow Hillfield beyond Bishopton, nor none in the enclosure beyond Bishopton. Sept. 5th, 1614.
William Combe was well aware of the purchase made by Shakespeare, from his uncle and himself, of 107 acres of arable land and 20 acres of pasture, not long before, recorded in the Feet of Fines, P.R.O. It would only be through the tithes that Shakespeare might suffer, so he sent to him Mr. Mainwaring, steward of Lord Chancellor Ellesmere, and Mr. Replingham, who seem to have been acting both for Ellesmere and Combe, to guarantee that no one should lose by the enclosures, as he was willing to make up all losses, and was willing to make a deed in that respect, to protect Shakespeare and his heirs. The poet seems to have allowed them to do this, and one touch of his personal affection for Thomas Greene incidentally appears in his insisting that the security should include his cousin Greene. These “articles” were drawn up between William Shakespeare and William Replingham on 28 October 1614. It is one thing to allow any one to make an agreement that he should not lose by an arrangement if it should be settled, and quite another thing to approve of it, or to help it forward.
Thomas Greene, feeling that the question was now becoming important, commenced a series of “Mems. about the Inclosure,” still preserved at Stratford-on-Avon, which throw light on Shakespeare’s position. He took it easily, because he did not think anything would be done. Greene says:
Jovis 17 Nov. [1614.] My cosen Shakspeare commyng yesterday to towne, I went to see him howe he did; he told me that they assured him they ment to enclose noe further then to gospell bushe, and so upp straight (leavyng out part of the dyngles to the field) to the gate in Clopton Hedge and take in Salisbury’s peece; and that they meane in Aprill to servey the Land, and then to gyve satisfaction and not before, and he and Mr. Hall say they think there will be nothyng done at all.
This is one of the very rare examples of Shakespeare’s conversation having been preserved, even indirectly.
The next entry is also interesting. Greene, the Town Clerk, records:
23rd Dec., 1614. A Hall. Letters wrytten, one to Mr. Manneryng, another to Mr. Shakspeare, with almost all the Companyes hands to either: I alsoe wrytte of myself to my Cosen Shakespeare the coppyes of all our oathes made then, also a note of the inconveniences wold grow by the Inclosure.