CHAPTER XII
CONTEMPORARY WARWICKSHIRE SHAKESPEARES
Outside the immediate family of the poet there were many contemporaries in Warwickshire, who may have been connected in some far-off degree.
There was the John Shakespeare, shoemaker, who came to Stratford about 1580, probably as apprentice or journeyman of Roberts, the shoemaker, in whose house he dwelt till 1594, and whose daughter Margery he married.[231] He became Member of the Company of Shoemakers and Saddlers, paying £3, in 1580, and Master of the Shoemakers' Company, and was elected Ale-taster for the town in 1585. He paid 30s. for his freedom January 19, 1585-86, and became Constable in the autumn of 1586. His wife was buried on October 29, 1587, but he must shortly afterwards have married again, as he had three children christened[232] in the parish church. On February 17, 1587, he was in receipt of Thomas Oken's money, and in 1588 became guardian to Thomas Roberts's sons. The poet's father, after 1570, was always mentioned as Mr. John Shakespeare; this other appears simply as John, or John the Shoemaker, or Corvizer, or some other epithet (see Records of Stratford-on-Avon). Hunter thinks that he was the third son of Thomas Shakespeare, a shoemaker, of Warwick, who held land under the manor of Balsall, and mentioned in his will, 1557, four children—William, Thomas, John and Joan, ux. Francis Ley, mentioned in Warwick registers.
This John of Stratford seems to have left the town before 1595, as his house was inhabited by others then, and no further mention appears of him in record or register.
Beside John Shakespeare's double of Stratford-on-Avon, there was a John Shakespeare of Clifford Chambers, a village a mile or two out of Stratford, who has also been confused with him. He married there, on October 15, 1560, Julian Hobbyns, widow. He sued William Smith, of Stratford, for debt, in 1572; and in the will of John Ashwell, of Stratford, 1583, it is stated that "John Shakespeare, of Clifford Chambers, was in his debt." It is quite probable he was the John often in debt, who had "no goods to seize," in Stratford-on-Avon, generally supposed to be the poet's father.
Other notices of the name, besides the Henry and Antonio above-mentioned, appear in the Clifford Registers. Charles Malary and Alice Shakespeare were married in 1579. Katharine Morris, servant to John Shakespeare, was buried in 1587; Julian Shakespere buried July 22, 1608; John Shakespere buried October 20, 1610. His will was proved at Gloucester in 1611. These latter dates set the question of identity at rest.
An agricultural John was in occupation of Ingon in 1570.[233] I believe him to be our John, the brother and surety of Henry. We must not forget that as Ingon was so near Snitterfield, John of Ingon may be the John Shakespeare, Agricola, of Snitterfield, who administered Richard's goods, and was fined, October 1, 1561, at the Snitterfield Court. And there are many Johns of Rowington, fully entered in Mr. Rylands' "Records of Rowington."
Just as his father had doubles, so had William. There was a William Shakespeare drowned in the Avon, and buried at St. Nicholas, Warwick, July 6, 1579.[234] The world would not have known what it had lost had this fate overtaken "our Will," but it makes us shiver now as we think of it, even as a past possibility. It has been thought that this youth was the son of Thomas Shakespeare, shoemaker, of Warwick, and brother of John the shoemaker of Stratford. But he seems rather young for that relationship.
Another contemporary William seems to have been in a small way of business as a farmers' agent, sometimes as a lender, and sometimes as a borrower. Among the Shakespeare manuscripts at Warwick Castle are preserved bonds for 2s. 6d. for a quarter of a year's use of £5 by William Shakespeare in 1620, 1624, and 1626. Another of "three quarters of oats to Will Shakespeare for a quarter's use of £5 due upon the 10th of May last, 1621," and some for the sale of malt.[235]