The name of William Shakespeare appears in the list of the trained soldiers of Rowington taken by Sir Fulke Greville at Alcester on 23rd September 1605, probably the son of the second Richard, but erroneously, by some, supposed to have been the poet. Collier says that “we have intelligence regarding no other William Shakespeare at that date.”
The mark of a William Shakespere is found on a roll of the jurors at the Court of the Manor of Rowington in 1614, which is almost certainly that of William, son of the third Richard.
Mr. Ryland’s “Records of Rowington” show us that a lease was granted through feoffees to Richard Shakespeare, of Rowington, weaver, of the “Tyinges,” which may refer either to Richard the second or the third. The Customary rent of Rowington in 1605 mentions “Richard Shakespere, one messuage, half a yearde land (14 acres), 14s.; John Shakespeare one cottage and one quarter yard land (9 acres), 6s. 8d,.; Thomas Shakesper, one close, 2s.; one tofte and 16 acres, 13s. 4d.; one messuage, 10s. 4d.” It is not clear which “Thomas” it was. Richard and John are those referred to in the legal proceedings which give the story of their lives.
This Richard the third was evidently son of Richard the first, and, as he was under twenty-three in 1561, would be about seventy-six when he died in 1614. In consequence of his will and actions a protracted litigation commenced. The case somewhat resembles that of Jacob and Esau. The youngest son, in the absence of his eldest brother, prevailed on his father to disinherit him in his favour, and the dispossessed brother did not bear his loss with equanimity. Some of the facts were known to Malone, “Proleg.,” ii, 15, note 8; and Mr. Cecil Monro had included some of the references in his “Acta Cancellaria,” 1847. Mr. Knight discovered, and Mr. Bruce published, the Star Chamber Bill and answer in “Notes and Queries,” Third Series, xii, p. 81 (3rd August 1867); and a list of the official entries collected by Mr. Monro is given at p. 161 of the same volume.
The Catalogue which, within the last few years, has been drawn up of the Second Series of Chancery Proceedings has given us access to still another paper; and as so many minor illustrative details have turned up, it seems time to make a résumé of the whole mass of material. The story illustrates the domestic and legal life of the times.
Richard Shakespeare was of Turner’s End, or Church End, Rowington, when he made his will on 13th November 1613. He did not trust to its being sufficient of itself to go against the Customary of the manor, and during his lifetime he surrendered his copyhold estate into the hands of the steward by his attorneys, Thomas Ley and George Whome, in order to “settle it upon himself and his wife Elizabeth for their lives, and the longer liver of them, and after their decease, upon his youngest son John and his heirs,” provided that John paid to his brother William £4 a year. This deed of settlement was completed, and the fine paid into Court, in March 1613-14. Richard died within a month, and his wife followed him almost immediately, repenting of her share in the arrangement. William thereupon applied to be put on the homage of the manor, as his father’s eldest son and heir, probably at the time he made his mark; and also contested his mother’s will at Worcester. (See MS. Episc. Reg. Worcester, “per Wilielmus Shakespere, filium naturalem Elizabeth Shakespere nuper de Rowenton.”)[24] But the combination against him had been too powerful. He had no remedy but to eat humble-pie and accept the first instalment of his yearly fee from his brother John at Michaelmas 1614. When John had claimed his inheritance at the Manorial Court, the steward had bidden him be cautious with that proviso, or he would forfeit it, as it devised it to be paid in two portions, at the two half-yearly feasts of Lady Day and Michaelmas, between the hours of ten in the morning and two of the afternoon, in the church porch of Rowington. At Lady Day 1615 difficulties arose. Each said the other did not keep the appointment. William was not paid at the time specified in the settlement, and, assuming that the premises were thereby forfeited, made an entry into his father’s house as his natural heir, and was forcibly resisted. He thereupon instituted a case in Common Law. John went above him, and filed a bill in Chancery against him. Mr. Cecil Monro collected the following entries of this case:
1. Bill in Chancery, filed 1st May 1616, John contra William Shakespeare.
2. 11th May 1616, L. C. Ellesmere’s order to stay proceedings of defendant in Court Baron of Rowington until heard in Chancery. Mr. Richard Moore to consider it (Reg. Lib. B, 1615, fol. 747).
3. 16th May, Master Moore’s report (ibid.).
4. 8th June, a week given for plaintiff to reply (Reg. Lib. B, 1615, f. 824).