Shakespeare's Family Part 12

[184] The inscription would imply that she was born in 1556; but, as in her husband's case, it may be she was reckoned as sixty-seven very shortly after completing her sixty-sixth year, or even before she completed it, as was done in the case of Lady Joyce Lucy. We may note, at least, that Shakespeare, fifty-three in 1616, is only seven years younger than one reckoned sixty-seven in 1623.

[185] Henry Waters, "Genealogical Gleanings."

[186] See coats of arms of the burgesses, Guildhall MS. 491.

[187] "Outlines," i. 219.

[188] Acton Registers.

[189] See Worcester Wills and Marriage Licenses.

[190] See List of n.o.blemen and Gentlemen of Warwick, 1577, by Henry Ferrers; Nichols's "Coll. Top. et Gen.," vii., p. 298, and State Papers, Dom. Ser., Eliz., 137 (38).

[191] State Papers, Dom. Ser., Eliz., lxiii. 55.

[192] The arms of these Halls were three talbots' heads erased sable, between nine cross-crosslets azure. Shakespeare's son-in-law bore the talbots' heads only, which may merely have been a mark of cadency. A suit in Chancery in the time of Elizabeth was brought by Giles Fletcher, LL.D., Joan his wife, and Phineas his eldest son, against John Hall (not the physician) concerning the site of the manor of Henwick and the land of Hallow. In the chapel is a mural monument to Edward Hall, Esq., who married Anna, eldest daughter of Sir Paul Tracey, having by her four sons and seven daughters. He died September, 1616, aged fifty-four.

Addit. MSS., Brit. Mus., 19,816.

[193] It has been suggested by Mr. A. Hall that he might have been son of the John Hall who married Elizabeth Carew, niece to Sir Nicholas Throckmorton. He had a son of the name.

[194] Stratford Registers.

[195] Miscellaneous Doc.u.ments and Corporation Records, Stratford-on-Avon.

[196] _Notes and Queries_, Fifth Series, vii. 287.

[197] Dugdale's "Warwickshire Antiquities," ed. 1656, p. 518. This may be translated thus: "Here is the dust of Hall, most famous in medical art, awaiting the glorious joys of the Kingdom of G.o.d. Worthy was he to have surpa.s.sed Nestor in well-earned years, in every land, but impartial Time has s.n.a.t.c.hed him away. Lest anything be wanting to the tomb, his most faithful spouse is there, and he has the companion of life now also in death."

[198] Sir Hugh Clopton to Theobald.

[199] Halliwell-Phillipps, "Outlines," ii. 108.

[200] Easter Term, 23 Car. I.

[201] Somerset House, 96, Alchin, also in Juxon.

[202] "Warwickshire Antiquities," ed. 1656, p. 518.

[203] Abington Parish Registers.

[204] Somerset House, 96, Alchin, also in Juxon.

[205] Halliwell-Phillipps, "Outlines," ii. 119.

[206] Somerset House, 36 Hale.

[207] Admin., October, 1686; Somerset House.

[208] _Morning Herald_--Obituary.

[209] _Notes and Queries_, Fifth Series, VII. 287. But she had no children, as proved both by the registers and the wills. She was Sir John Barnard's second wife.

[210] _Ibid._, 519. Smith really descended from the Harts.

CHAPTER X

COLLATERALS

John Shakespeare had other sons than William. There were three--Gilbert, Richard and Edmund. These all died comparatively young, and none of them was married.

Edmund, the youngest child of John and Mary Shakespeare, seems to have been the only one who followed his eldest brother to London. He also chose the stage as a profession, but we never hear of any success. From London registers we know that on August 12, 1607, in the parish of St.

Giles', Cripplegate, was buried "Edward, the base-born son of Edward Shakespeare, Player," and that on December 31 of the same year was buried within the Church of St. Saviour's, Southwark,[211] "Edmund Shakespeare, Player," "with a forenoon knell of the Great Bell."[212]

The poet paid every honour he could to his brother.

Gilbert, born two and a half years after William, seemed often to have been his practical helper and representative in Stratford-on-Avon. Some writers have imagined that because the clerk added the word "adolescens"

to the burial entry in 1611 of "Gilbert Shakespeare,"[213] that it could not have been this Gilbert, but some other, probably a young son of his.

But there is no record of a marriage, of the birth of any child, of the death of his wife, or of his own death, if this entry be given another translation than the natural one. We may well imagine the clerk did not fully understand the meaning of the word. Shakespeare often satirizes the ignorant use of learned terms at his time. There is no saying what hazy notions might have floated through the writer's brain of the age or position of the defunct. He would be no worse than a Mrs. Malaprop if he intended "adolescens" to represent "deeply regretted."

Of the last surviving brother, Richard, born 1573, we know nothing, except that he died February 12, in the year 1612-13.[214]

The negative evidence of the registers is supported by the negative evidence of the Shakespeare wills; there is no mention of a Shakespeare in the wills of William Shakespeare (so anxious to perpetuate his family and his name) or in those of his descendants.

We may therefore hold it as proved that there are no collateral lines of Shakespeares descending from the poet's brothers, and therefore none ent.i.tled to bear John Shakespeare's famous coat of arms without a new grant. Yet we find some bearing the arms, and many claimants of such descent. Sir Thomas Winnington asks if the Shaksperes of Fillongly are a branch of the poet's family, as the well-known armorial bearings appear on the tomb of George Shakespeare, who died there in 1690.[215]

The Rev. Mr. Dyer wrote to Mr. Duncombe from Coningsby, November 24, 1756: "My wife's name was Ensor, whose grandmother was a Shakespeare, descended from the brother of everybody's Shakespeare."[216] Such claims may be explained by a natural error. Another John Shakespeare has often been mistaken for ours, and real pedigrees have been traced back to him.

But there _were_ collateral descents from Shakespeare's sister. The only person who might have impaled the new Shakespeare arms, had he himself borne arms to make this possible, was William Hart, the hatter, who married Shakespeare's sister Joan, and who lived in Shakespeare's old house in Henley Street, and died a few days before the poet.[217] The pedigree of the Harts is printed in French's "Shakespeareana Genealogica,"[218] and need not be repeated here. The Rev. Cornelius Hallen[219] also gives a genealogical table of the various connections, and thus provides us with the collateral descent nearly up to date.

Though the early members of this family seem to have been content with a very modest position and very unromantic occupations, the later members have become more ambitious.

The Harts thought of contesting the will of Lady Barnard, who, with her mother, Mrs. Hall, had cut off the entail, or rather altered, as they thought, the proviso of Shakespeare's will regarding his heirs. But, as she left them the Henley Street house, and a contest for more would have been attended with certain expense and uncertain results, they on full consideration let the matter drop.

Even from this family sprang claimants for lineal descent. On a tombstone in Tewkesbury appears: "In Memory of John Hart, the sixth descendant from the poet Shakespeare, who died January 22, 1800, aged 45," etc.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SNITTERFIELD CHURCH.

_To face p. 113_]

FOOTNOTES:

[211] Registers of St. Saviour's, Southwark.

[212] Churchwardens' Accounts, St. Saviour's, Southwark.

[213] Stratford-on-Avon Registers.