Shakespeare's family

by C. C. Stopes

Manasses Shakespeare, of St. Andrew's, Holborn, widower, and Mary Goodwin, spinster, of same, married at St. James's, Duke's Place, April 27, 1710.[341]

Benjamin Shakespear, of the parish of St. Christopher, painter, made his will 1707, and bequeathed to his father, Benjamin Shakespear, of Tamworth, in Warwickshire, his wearing apparel, and left a legacy to his mother Joyce, his wife Judith being sole executrix[342] (proved December 4, 1714).

In the records of the Leather Sellers' Company is preserved the apprenticeship of George, son of Thomas Shakespeare, of Arley, county Warwick,[343] October 12, 1693. George, son of William Shakespeare, also of Arley, was apprenticed 1732. Thomas Shakespeare, son of George, citizen and leather-seller of London, was apprenticed to William Jephson, vintner.[344]

An important branch of the family settled in the east. John Shackspeer, of Rope Walk, Upper Shadwell, appears in 1654. His father has still to be found, but his posterity believe he descended from the poet's grandfather. I had hoped to satisfy them through the St. Clement's Danes registers. But his age at his marriage precludes this, for it gives the year of his birth as 1619. The only John that I know to be born in that year was John, son of Thomas Shakespeare, gent., baptized July 18, 1619, in St. Gregory by St. Paul's. I had taken him to be the son of Thomas, the Staple Inn student and lawyer of Leicester, but I cannot prove it. On June 14, 1654, John married Martha Seeley,[345] and had four sons and four daughters, of whom survived Martha, Samuel, Benjamin, Mary, John and Jonathan. A trade token of his still exists.[346] Ropemaker Shakespeare was summoned, with others, to appear before the Admiralty regarding a breach of contract for ropes, January 26, 1656-57.[347] John Shakespear, son of John of Shadwell, ropemaker, was apprenticed to John Grange, of Upper Shadwell, chafer, 1663-64.[348] Jonathan, the youngest son, born February 6, 1670, succeeded his father, who died 1689. He married,[349] April 26, 1698, Elizabeth Shallet, of Clapham, aged nineteen, and had thirteen children. Samuel Wilton was apprenticed to Jonathan Shakespeare, citizen and broiderer of London, April 7, 1725. He died 1735. The business of ropemaking was carried on by the eldest son, Arthur, born 1699, who died 1749, leaving the property and business to his youngest brother John, on condition he brought up his heir to ropemaking. This John, twelfth child of Jonathan, born 1718, married, 1745, Elizabeth, daughter of Colin Currie, and Anne, daughter of the Honourable John Campbell; and had eleven children. He became Ropemaker to the Board of Ordnance in succession to his brother Arthur, May 12, 1749; Trustee of Middlesex Turnpike Roads 1751; Ranger of Waltham Forest 1761; Deputy-Lieutenant for Middlesex 1763; alderman of the ward of Aldgate 1767; sheriff 1768. He was originally of the Broiderers' Company, as was his father, but was translated from that guild to the Ironmongers', of which he became master 1769.[350] He died 1775. "The alderman used the same coat of arms as the poet, there being but the one known." It is engraved in Noorthouck's "History of London," ed. 1773.

The Shakespear tomb in Stepney Churchyard records his death, and that of Bennet Shakespear, son of Jonathan, 1756, and Jonathan, son of Jonathan, 1768, brothers of the alderman; also Mrs. Elizabeth Shakespeare, his widow, February 15, 1807, aged eighty, at Bramdean, co. Hants; Arthur Shakespear, eldest son of the alderman, M.P. for Richmond, in Yorkshire, 1818, aged seventy; his wife Jane, 1805, aged fifty-five; Matthew John Shakespeare, son of Arthur, April 2, 1844; and several children who died young. The sons of the Alderman John Shakespeare and Elizabeth his wife were I. Arthur; II. John; III. David; IV. Samuel; V. Colin.

I. Arthur, the M.P. for Richmond, married Jane, daughter of Sir Matthew Ridley, and had two sons, Matthew John, and Arthur William. His wife died in Pall Mall in February, 1805,[351] and he died June 12, 1818, in Albemarle Street,[352] aged seventy. His son, Matthew John Shakespeare, willed away the Shadwell property to his cousins, the children of Mary Oliver, 1844. The rope-factory was destroyed by fire in the autumn of 1860, but a street in the neighbourhood is still called Shakespeare's Walk.

II. John. The second son of Alderman John was born May 6, 1749. He married, in 1782, Mary, daughter and heir of the Rev. William Davenport, of Bredon, co. Worcester, and of Lacock Abbey, co. Wilts, by his wife, Martha Talbot, of the old family famed by Shakespeare the poet.

The sons of John Shakespear and Mary Davenport, his first wife, were: (1) John Talbot; (2) William Oliver; (3) Henry Davenport; (4) Arthur.

1. John Talbot Shakespear entered the East India Company's service, and had four sons by Emily, eldest daughter of William Makepeace Thackeray: (1a) John Dowdeswell Shakespear, Lieutenant-Colonel of the Bengal Artillery, who married Margaret, only daughter of Joseph Hodgson, F.R.S. He died without issue, April 6, 1867, aged sixty.[353] (2a) William Makepeace Shakespear, (3a) George Trant Shakespear, who both died unmarried. (4a) Sir Richmond Campbell Shakespear, 1812-61, "youngest son of John Talbot Shakespear, of the Bengal Civil Service. He came to England with his cousin, William Makepeace Thackeray, for his education. He served with distinction in India, was knighted in 1841, the only occasion on which he returned to England. His cousin, Thackeray, in the 'Roundabout Papers' (Letts's Diary), paid a tribute to his chivalry and liberality. He married Marian Sophia Thompson in 1844, and died at Indore, October 28, 1861, leaving a family of three sons and six daughters."[354] A memorial-stone is raised in memory of him in the cloister walls of Charterhouse Chapel.[355] Thackeray drew the portrait of Colonel Newcome from his elder brother, Colonel John Dowdeswell Shakespeare. His eldest son, Richmond Shakespear, Captain H.M. 36th Regiment N.I., died in India, August 12, 1865. His daughter, Selina, married, in 1868, Lieutenant Ninian Lowis, Bengal Staff Corps.

Mr. John Talbot Shakespear had also four daughters—Emily, Augusta, Charlotte, Marianne.