Shakespeare's Family Part 19

1847; John Shakespear's Hindustani books; Emily Shakespeare's "Tennyson Birthday Book," 1877; and Mrs. O. Shakespear, a novel, in 1895. Edward O. Shakespeare, of Was.h.i.+ngton, U.S.A., has a medical work on "Inflammation."

Mr. Russell French, from whose pages I have gleaned the bulk of the facts concerning these modern Shakespeares, expatiates on the glories of the later Shakespeare marriages. By the Currie alliance he traces back descent to the royal Scottish families of the Bruces and the Stewarts; by the Talbot alliance he traces back their pedigree to Edward I.; by the Davenport alliance he again connects them with the Ardens, through Sir Thomas Leighton and the eighth Lord Zouch, who married Joan, daughter of Sir John Denham, by his wife Joan, daughter and heir of Sir Richard Archer, who married Joan, the second daughter and coheir of Giles de Arden, grandson of Sir Robert de Arden, the descendant of Turchil; but these rather tend to glorify the modern branches than the poet's name.

It were to be desired that there were more concerted study of registers and other records concerning the name. Much more might thus be found, and much of the energy now dissipated in futile searches might be utilized in connecting the scattered links, because the study of genealogy is the ancient form of the very modern inquiries into heredity which interest so many followers of Mr. Francis Galton. It is after all worth knowing who were the ancestors of William Shakespeare, what heroic, chivalric, poetic, philosophic strains went to form the nature of the perfect poet; and it is of mildly sentimental interest to us that we should know whether any of his line is left on the earth. Of sentimental interest, I say, for rarely, if ever, does genius repeat itself, nor do different environing circ.u.mstances weld and mould genius in the same way. Its nature is very easy to kill, or dwarf, or distort, but it is our excuse for being concerned with those who bear the honoured name.

In the unsatisfactory inquiries relating to Shakespeare's ancestors I have exhausted all that I can find concerning his father's family; but so much remains to be said concerning his mother's family, that in consideration of the old proverb, "like mother, like son," it has seemed to me worth incorporating into this volume some account of the Ardens.

FOOTNOTES:

[312] Churchwardens' Accounts of Thurston Amere and William Combes, from June 8, 1538, to May 8, 1540, 48th week, 1st year.

[313] _Notes and Queries_, Seventh Series, vii. 483, June 22, 1889.

Compare Third Series, iii. 318; Third Series, viii. 418; Savage's "Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers in New England," ii. 528; John Timbs' "Curiosities of London," ed. 1855, p. 238, and ed. 1867, p.

297; "Annals of St. Helen's, Bishopsgate," 221, 322.

[314] Subsidy Rolls, London, Ward of Billingsgate and others, 39 Eliz., 146/369, P.R.O.

[315] Marriage Licenses, Faculty Office, Harl. Publ.

[316] Bishop of London's Marriage Licenses, Harl. Publ.

[317] Register, St. James's, Clerkenwell.

[318] Registers of Christ Church, Newgate Street, Harl. Soc. Publ.

[319] He died 1598, and was at one time connected with the Theatre as shareholder. _Notes and Queries_, Seventh Series, vii. 188.

[320] Registers of St. James's, Clerkenwell, Harl. Publ.

[321] Account of the Treasurer of the Chamber, 1572, _et seq._

[322] "Archaeologia," vol. xiii., appendix, p. 403.

[323] _Notes and Queries_, Seventh Series, ii. 247.

[324] Registers of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields.

[325] Churchwarden's Accounts, St. Martin's-in-the-Fields.

[326] Bishop of London's Licenses, Harl. Soc. Publ.

[327] Registers of the Church of St. Bride's.

[328] Registers of the Church of St. Bride's.

[329] Among the expenses of the Royal Household are entered: 1621--"To John Shakespeare for one gilt bit for the sadle aforesayd 3 13s.

6d. To John Shakespeare for fourteen bittes, guilt silvered and chased, at 5 10s. a peice. For one payre of bosses, richly enamelled, 52s. 6d_, 73 12s. 6d. For 7 bittes for the sadles aforesayd at 52s. 6d. each, 18 7s. 6d."--"Early Ill.u.s.trations of Shakespeare," published by the Shakespeare Society.

[330] State Papers, Dom. Ser., Car. I., ccclxxiv. 20, Docquet.

[331] State Papers, Irish, Dublin Castle, Vol. M., p. 338. _Notes and Queries_, First Series, vi. 289, 495.

[332] Somerset House, 268, Aylett.

[333] The Registers of St. Thomas Apostle, London.

[334] State Papers, Dom. Ser., Car. I., lxxvi. 41.

[335] Somerset House, 249, Aston.

[336] Lic. Fac. Office, Harl. Publ.

[337] Reg. of St. George's, Hanover Square.

[338] Marriage Licenses, Bishop of London, Harl. Publ.

[339] Bishop of London's Licenses, Harl. Publ.

[340] Foster's "Alumni Oxonienses."

[341] Bishop of London's Mar. Lic., Harl. Publ.

[342] Somerset House, 248, Aston.

[343] _Notes and Queries_, Third Series, vii. 175.

[344] "Book of Apprentices," 1666-1736, f. 756

[345] His son stated that he was seventy-seven at the time of his death, in 1689, but his marriage certificate makes him younger. "Publications and Marriages, 1654: John Shakespear, of Ratcliffe Highway, ropemaker, aged thirty-five, and Martha Seeley, of Wapping Wall, mayde, nineteen years. Married before John Waterton, Esquire, on ye 14th June. Richard Mathews, Robert Connolly, witnesses" (French, 547). He might have been a son of John, son of Thomas of Snitterfield, b. 1582.

[346] _Notes and Queries_ Second Series, x. 188, 402; Third Series, vii.

498.

[347] State Papers, Dom. Ser., 1656-57, Commonwealth, cliii., Nos. 55, 56.

[348] "Misc. Gen. et Herald.," Second Series, v., 371, and Merchant Tailors' "Book of Apprentices."

[349] Bishop of London's Marriage Licenses, Harl. Publ.

[350] Herbert's "Twelve Livery Companies."

[351] _Gentleman's Magazine_, 1805.

[352] _Ibid._, 1818.

[353] French, 551, and _Times_, April, 1867.

[354] "Dict. Nat. Biog."