Gwillim mentions arms,[178] "Sable, a bugle, or hunter's horn, garnished and furnished argent. This coat-armour is of very ancient erection in the church of Rewardine, in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, and pertained to the family of Hatheway of the same place." Again he says, "Paleways of six, Argent and sable, on a bend Or, three pheons[179] of the second, by the name of Hatheway."[180]
The Hathaways from whom Anne Shakespeare descended have not been proved to be of the Gloucestershire stock, nor is it absolutely certain to which of the three Shottery families she belonged. In the Warwickshire Survey (Philip and Mary) it is stated that John Hathaway held part of a property at Shottery, called Hewlands, by copy of Court Roll dated April 20, 1542. He was possibly the same as the archer of that name, mentioned in the Muster Roll 28 Henry VIII., and was probably father of the Richard befriended by John Shakespeare in 1566. The Stratford registers record the birth of Thomas, son of Richard Hathaway, April 12, 1569; John, February 3, 1574, and William, November 30, 1578. Anne Hathaway, we know, from the words on her tombstone, must have been born before the register commenced (1558). There is not another Agnes, or Anne, recorded that could represent the legatee of Richard Hathaway's will of September, 1581. To his eldest son, Bartholomew, he left the farm,[181] to be carried on with his mother; to his second and third sons, Thomas and John, he left £6 13s. 4d. each; to his fourth son, William, £10; to his daughters, Agnes (or Anne) and Catherine, £6 13s. 4d., to be paid on the day of their marriage; and to his youngest daughter, Margaret, £6 13s. 4d. when she was seventeen. Witnessed by Sir William Gilbert, clerk and curate of Stratford.
The farm was not a freehold; Bartholomew did not become its owner until 1610, when he purchased it from William Whitmore and John Randall. Richard Hathaway mentions in his will his "shepherd, Thomas Whittington of Shottery." This man died in 1601, and by his will bequeathed to the poor "Forty shillings that is in the hand of Anne Shaxspere, wife unto Mr. Wyllyam Shaxspere, and is debt due to me." It was a common custom of the days before savings-banks, for poor earners to deposit their savings in the charge of rich and trustworthy friends, and this little link seems to associate Anne Shakespeare doubly with that particular family of Hathaways.
ANNE HATHAWAY'S COTTAGE.
To face p. 88.
Shakespeare does not mention any of his wife's relatives in his will, but that does not necessarily imply coldness of feeling. Dr. John Hall, his son-in-law, was made overseer of Bartholomew Hathaway's will in 1621, and in 1625 he was one of the trustees at the marriage of Isabel, his granddaughter, the daughter of Richard Hathaway of Bridge Street. A Richard is mentioned in the registers as being baptized in 1559 (but it is not clear that he was the son of this Richard or of Bartholomew), who became a baker in Bridge Street, an important member of the Town Council, and Constable in 1605. He was elected High Bailiff of Stratford in 1526, and was styled "gent." Many of the name are buried in Trinity Church, Stratford.
In the rather remarkable testament of Thomas Nash,[182] first husband of Shakespeare's only granddaughter, Elizabeth, he left £50 to Elizabeth Hathaway, £50 to Thomas Hathaway, and £10 to Judith Hathaway. His wife also remembered them, as will be afterwards shown. William Hathaway, of Weston-upon-Avon, in the county of Gloucester, yeoman, and Thomas Hathaway, of Stratford-upon-Avon, joiner, were parties to the New Place settlement of 1647.
All this shows that the Shakespeares were not ashamed of their mother's relatives. We do not know anything about Anne Shakespeare after her husband's death until we reach the record of her own, "August 8th, 1623, Mrs. Shakespeare."[183]
Tradition says that she earnestly desired to be buried in her husband's grave. The survivors were not able to secure this, but they buried her as near him as they could. Her daughter Susanna's grief is recorded in touching lines, probably Latinized by Dr. Hall, placed on her tombstone: