To this John and Mary Shakespeare replied, and again explained that the money was tendered at the date, and that Edmund Lambert refused to receive it unless other moneys also were paid, of which no condition had been fixed; that on the death of Edmund, John had stepped into possession, and refused to hear anything from them.[117] John Lambert had another quibble, that John Shakespeare had exhibited two bills against him, one in his own name, and one associating his wife's. On July 5, 1598, July 10, 1598, and May 18, 1599, further steps were taken, but still no decision was reached. Therefore, on June 27, 1599, a commission was appointed to examine both parties. In the Index Trin. Term, 41 Elizabeth, there is the entry "Shackspeere contra Lambert," but the page that contained further notice is lost.
On October 23, 1599, another entry of the case is recorded: "Yf the defendant show no cause for stay of publicacion by this day sevenight, then publicacion ys granted"; but nothing more has come to us. Probably delay helped the more powerful, certainly possession proved nine-tenths of the law, and the expenses of legal action even then were paralyzing.[118] It is strange that the fate of Asbies as a property is unknown. There are traces of its being in the possession of Adam Edkins in 1668, of one John Smith after him, and of Clement Edkins in 1699,[119] but the name seems to have vanished, and with it all remembrance of the boundary of the inheritance of the Ardens of Wilmcote.
FOOTNOTES:
[83] See "Survey of Birmingham," 1553, Clement Throckmorton, p. 3, edition by Mr. W. B. Bickley.
[84] Stratford Miscellaneous Records, No. 436.
[85] Ibid.
[86] Halliwell Phillipps mentions Elizabeth Skerlett as an eighth, surely in error.
[87] I believe that I have found the register of her death in association with the Ardens of Park Hall, see p. 41.