shakespear, shakespeare, genealogy, family, history, family history, ancestry, sncestors

APPENDIX E

THE NAME SHAKESPEARE

[Bibliographical Note. Records of the name Shakespeare are collected in Variorum, ii. 15; J. Hunter, New Illustrations of Sh. (1845); G. R. French, Shakespeareana Genealogica (1869); J. P. Yeatman, The Gentle Shakspeare (<1896>; 1904, 1906, with additions; here cited as Y.); C. C. Stopes, Sh.'s Family (1901). Many have been contributed to Notes and Queries. Of particular value for the northern villages of Warwickshire are W. B. Bickley, Register of the Guild of Knowle (1894), cited as G. of K..); J. W. Ryland, Records of Rowington (vol. i <1896>, vol ii, 1922, cited as R.R.), Records of Wroxall Abbey and Manor (1903, cited as R.W.), Parish Registers of Wroxall (1903). I have attempted to give all notices known to me up to the end of the 15th century, and in Warwickshire, counties contiguous to Warwickshire, and London up to about the end of the 16th century. I give the recorded spellings of the name where my sources permit, and elsewhere substitute 'Sh.']

1. NOTICES BEFORE THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY

1248 (Gloucestershire). William Sakspere, of Clopton in Kiftesgate Hundred, was hanged for robbery.1 - 1250 (Essex). Simon Sakesper was a verderer in the half hundred of Waltham.2 - 1261 (Gloucestershire). By then Simon Shakespeye, royal valettus, had transferred land at Pruslbury <Prestbury>.3 - 1268 (Surrey). Geoffrey Sh. was a juryman in the hundred of Brixton.4 - 1279 (Kent). John Shakespere was a plaintiff at Canterbury.5 - 1318 (Staffordshire). William Shakespere was surety in a suit by the Prior of Trentham. In 1324 Simon Shakespere was himself sued by the Prior. In 1327 Simon Schakespere of Penkhull in Stoke upon Trent was on the subsidy roll. The name is traceable at Penkhull and at Shelton, akso in Stoke, to 1417. The form Schacosper occurs in 1374.6 -

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1348-9 (Cheshire). Rolyn Shakespere was a tenant on the manor of Harden in Stockport.¹ - 1349 (Cumberland). From this year to 1357 Henry Shakespere withheld a payment due to the hospital of St. Nicholas, Carlisle.² - 1357 (Nottingham). John Shakespere was in a law-suit, and again in 1360.³ - 1359 (Warwickshire). The bailiffs of Coventry account for the property of Thomas Sh. a felon who had fled the country.⁴ - 1359-89 (Warwickshire). See (II) s.vv. Balsall, Baddesley Clinton. - 1375 (Ireland). Thomas Shakespeare was connected with the port of Youghal, where he was appointed collector of customs in 1377.⁵ - 1378-9 (Yorkshire). Robert Schackspere, cooper, and his wife Emma paid poll-tax at Pontefract.⁶ - 1378-9 (Essex). Walter Shakespere had been recently a prisoner in Colchester Castle, whither also John Shakspere went for breach of peace on 3 Mar. 1381.⁷ - 1398 (Cumberland). William Shakespere witnessed a transfer of land at Penrith, next to that of Alan Shakespere.⁸

II. NOTICES OF THE FIFTEENTH AND LATER CENTURIES

(a) Warwickshire.

(I) Balsall. Adam of Oldediche, a farm in B., was father of Adam of Baddesley Clinton (1389).⁹ Richard and Alice Shakspere de Woldiche of the G. of K. died c. 1457. Thomas and Alice Shakspere joined the G. in 1486. Alice joined the G. in 1511-12 and paid for the soul of Thomas. John of Wroxall (1575) had a cousin Laurence Shaxper of B. Thomas of Warwick (1577) left a copyhold on the

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manor to his wife Agnes. A John hanged himself in his house 23 July 1579.¹

(2) Baddesley Clinton.

Adam Shakespere, son and heir of Adam of Oldediche, held, and probably then acquired, land on the manor by military service in 1389. He ob. 1414, leaving a widow Alice and son John, a minor, who held the land in 1425 and 1441. Probably his sons were Ralph and Richard, who held Great Chedwyns in 1465. Ralph's wife was Joanna. He was alive on 17 Apr. 1493 but dead by 14 Apr. 1496, when his land was divided between Robert Huddespit and Robert Rakley, husbands of his daughters Elizabeth and Isolda. On 14 Dec. 1506 Elizabeth was a widow, and held some of the land which was Adam's in 1389.² Johanna Schakespere joined G. of K. in 1464, and the next enrolment is of Ralph and Isabella Schakespeire, who paid for Johanna's soul. These entries give no place of abode, but the date fits for Ralph of B. C.

(3) Wroxall.

Almost the next G. of K. entry in 1464 to Ralph's is for Richard and Margery Schakespeire of W. probably Ralph's brother. In 1503-4 is the entry 'Orate pro anima Isabella Shakspere quondam priorissa de Wraxale'. There may be some error of date, since manor courts were held for Isabella on 17 Apr. 1501 and 3 Nov. 1507.³ She may very well be the widow of Ralph of Baddesley Clinton. Dugdale, Mon., iv. 89, names no prioresses between Isabella Asteley (ob. 1431) and Jocosa Brome (resigned 1524). The earliest Sh. on the manor records is Elizabeth Shakspere, whose copyhold was forfeited for irregular alienation in 1417.⁴ Richard and Margery alone bridge a gap to 1504-5 when land late of Robert Hutsped of Hatton (cf. s.v. Baddesley Clinton) was conveyed by William Shakespere of W. and John Shakespere of Rowington to charity trustees for W.⁵ They were probably executors of Hutsped, and possibly sons of Richard and Margery. In 1515, on the other hand, a conveyance was taken for Wroxallcharities by William Sh.

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of Rowington and others.¹ Evidently the two places were closely connected. A William Shakespere, , not necessarily the same as in 1504-5, with a wife Agnes and a son whose name is lost, took a copyhold for their three lives in 1530.² William is traceable, sometimes as Shakespere, on this holding to 1542. He is an archer in a muster roll of 1536-7, and is on the subsidy rolls for 1542-4 (Schakespere) and (Shaxespere) as late as 10 Mar. 1546.³ It is reasonable to identify him and his wife with the William and Agnes Shakspere, who joined the G. of K. in 1526-7. This is one of a continuous group of unlocated Shakspere entries. The others are Richard and Alice, and John and Johanna. They are followed bt Richard and Agnes Wodham and Richard and Anna Saunders. Some family connection is likely, and may extend to an earlier entry in the same year for 'Domina Jane Shakspere'. She was sub-prioress of Wroxall in 1525,⁴ and is traceable after the dissolution at Hatton. There were at least two early Johns at W. John Shakspere took a copyhold with his wife Ellen and son Anthony in 1507.⁵ He was dead by 1530, when Ellen, then Cockes, and Anthony surrendered it.⁶ Another John Shakespere died between 1532 and 1534, when a different holding reverted to the lord for lack of a tenant.⁷ One of these may have been the John who once held land, belonging to the manor of Hatton which was a 'member' of Wroxall, but situated in Haseley (q.v.), and held after him by Richard Sh. and Richard Wodham, under a twenty-year lease of 1 June 1523. I take it they were John's son and son-in-law, and the two Richards of the 1526-7 G. of K. entries. This John might be one of the Johns of Rowington (q.v.), holding land in both parishes, and the John of the same entries. But it is also quite possible that he was a distinct John, since Richard Schakespere is already on the subsidy roll for 18 Jan. 1525, which suggests that his father was then dead.⁸

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Richard was on the manor juries in 1530 and 1532.¹ He was bailiff of the manor in 1534-5, but a successor was appointed on 4 Jan. 1535.² He was not, however, dead. He had in 1535-6 a copyhold at W., as well as his share in the Hatton lease, and is traceable on this to 1542.³ He was a billman in 1536-7,⁴ and a feoffee of the W. charities in 1539.⁵ In 1539 he witnessed a will as Richard Shakyspear.⁶ Yeatman 239 sqq. suggests that his wife Alice was the Alys Shakespere names as a sister in the will (1546) of Francis Griffin of Braybrook, Northants, and also (cf. App. A, no. ii) that he was the poet's grandfather. But Griffin does not say that his brother-in-law was a Richard or of Warwickshire, although there were Griffins in that county. And the ex-bailiff clearly ended his days, not at Snitterfield, but at Haseley (q.v.). Records of W. are sparse between the sale of the manor (other than Hatton) to the Burgoynes in 1542 to the beginning of the parish registers in 1586. A Robert Shackspeare was charity feoffee in 1559⁷ and died in 1565, naming in his will (Shaxpere, Shaxspere) a wife Joan, son Nicholas, daughters Frances and Margaret, brothers-in-law Lone and Richard Yeman. A William Sh. prized his goods.⁸ Both might be sons of the elder William. A John Shaxper, possibly a third son, died in 1575, naming in his will a son Edward, daughter Alice Windmills,brothers William and Nicolas, cousin Laurence of Balsall, brother-in-law James Woodham.⁹ A Nicholas was charity feoffee in 1582 and 1592.¹⁰ A Nicholas married Alice Edmunds in 1592, and had (Shaxper, Shaxpere, Saxper) several children, including a Peter, whose baptisms is recorded at Hatton or Haseley, as well as at W. Elizabeth, wife of William, died by 1613.¹¹ It is not worth while giving full details of those later Shs. of W. who are traceable to 1665, and whose name was alive as that of a tenement in 1714.

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(4) Rowington. John and Alice Shakespayre joined the G. of K. about 1460 and Thomas and Christiana Chacsper in 1476. Richard Shakespeare surrendered a copyhold in 1467.¹ The William Sh. who was a feoffee for Wroxall in 1515 is not traceable at Rowington itself, unless he is one who had a 2d. cottage in 1548, which had passed to another occupier by 1561. The commonest name is John. A John Shakespere was a feoffee for Rowington charities in 1485 and witnessed a deed in 1496.² He might be the gildsman and Hutsped's executor, (cf. Wroxall) of 1504-5. On the other hand, the executor, but hardly the gildsman, might be a John Shaxpere 'the elder', who was on the subsidy roll for 1523-4. That for 1524-5 shows a John Shakespere and a John Schakespere the younger. There is no Sh. on that for 1540.³ But a John Shakespere 'the yong' was a charity feoffee in 1541.⁴ The subsidy roll for 1543 shows John, Thomas, Richard and Lawrence;⁵ that for 1546 John Shaxespere only.⁶ As at Wroxall, the multiplicity of Johns is puzzling. But I think that one of those in 1524-5 is the John who joined the gild (cf. Wroxall) in 1526-7 with his wife Johanna, and that he was the father of a younger John, who died in 1546. The latter's will shows that two wives were dead a a mother still alive.⁷ A son John gets the residue, Nicolas land at Bawdy Shorts (Beaudesert); Thomas is left to the care of Thomas Cryar and his wife. There are three unnamed daughters. Debts of a brother Nicolas Shaxpere and of a Richard Sh., not said to be a brother, are forgiven. There are legacies to Jane Shaxspere and to 'all the rest of my brothers and sisters', after which is excised 'of Hatton'. Nicholas Bird was an overseer, and a debt was owing by Richard Bird. Now begins a series of surveys and rentals which, with the aid of parochial documents and wills, makes it possible to distinguish the descendants of this John from other Sh. families in Rowington. They are of

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28 Mar. 1548,¹ 10 Sept. 1561,² 6 Oct. 1590.³ 24 Oct. 1604,⁴ August 1606.⁵ I give a conjectural pedigree:

Most of this, but not the connexion with Richard the bailiff (cf. Wroxall, Haseley), is, I believe, fairly certain, although the reconstruction in Fripp, Haunts, 68, does not quite agree with mine. The family was of Mousley End. Here a copyhold called the Hill, with some forty acres of land, rented at 10s. 4d., formerley belonging to a John Shakyspere, was left by Roger Oldenale in 1557 or 1558 to his widow Mary, probably a daughter of John ii.⁶ There

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seems to have been a mortgage to William Bird, but the holding was recovered by John iii about 1562-3 by payment of a fine of 10s. 4d. and a heriot due on Bird's death.¹ A will of Mary Oldenale is said to have been sold with Sir T. Phillip's manuscripts.² Her husband was a brother of John Oldenale, bailiff and lessee of the manor, whose son-in-law William Skinner, as owner of the tithes, became involved in disputes with John iii and other tenants. I only note this because John Sh. of Stratford served on a jury at Warwick in a resultant suit of 1569.³ The Hill passed to Thomas ii, a mealman, who added land to it, and with his descendants it remained to the 18th century. With it went a small copyhold of a croft and seven acres, rented at 2s. in Lowston End, which John iii had in 1548 and had apparently transferred to Thomas ii by 1561. Another tenant at Mousley End in 1548 was Joan Shaxspere widow, occupying two copyholds, one rented at 3s. 8d., and a smaller one called the Long Croft, at 2s. She had also alease for her life of some land rented at 6s. 8d., called Lyance.⁴ This belonged to a Rowington charity, but was in Hatton, which explains the reference to that place in the will of John ii. I take Joan to have been the widow of John i and mother of John ii, and the Johanna who, with a husband John, joined the G. of K. (cf. Wroxall) in 1526-7. She made a will, once at Worcester, but now lost, in 1557,⁵ and probably died a little later, as her son Thomas i continued to pay rent for Lyance up to 1559-60. Thereafter it was held by John iii and his widow Elinor to 1578-9, when it went out of Sh. hands.⁶ The 3s. 8d. copyhold has also gone by 1561. John iii had then Long Croft, and it passed to his younger son George, who had it in 1590 and 1604-6, and then to Thomas v. With it went a freehold called Madge Wattons in Shrewley (v. infra) left to George by the will of John iii in 1574.7 John iii, as early as 1554, had taken a twenty-one-year

 

1 R.R. i. 160.	5 Y. 143.
2 R.W. xxv.	6 R.R. ii, passim.
3 R.R. i. 41; Fripp, Haunts, 69.	7 R.R. i. 210.
4 R.R. i. 28.

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lease of Rowington charity land known as Harvey's. This was renewed for another twenty-one years to his widow Elinor in 1576, and held after 1577-8 by Thomas ii.¹

Long Croft, alone of the holdings of this family, is described in 1606 as 'Shackspeares ex antiquo'. Probably this does not mean much, as it is also said in 1561 to have been William Goodman's. I suspect that the family came from Wroxall and prospered in Rowington. They certainly acquired one property, more important than any yet mentioned. This was the only Sh. freehold in Rowington, a virgate called Brookfurlong at Lowston End, rented at 10s. 10d. It had been held under a charter of 1522 by Thomas Cryar, who with his wife Margaret joined the G. of K. in 1506. It is put down to John ii in 1548. He was in fact dead, but his executors may still have been in possession. It did not come to John iii, but to the son Thomas iii, left to the charge of the Cryars in John ii's will. Presumably John ii acquired it by a second marriage with their daughter, late in life. Thomas iii, unless a step is missing, held it in 1561, 1590,1604, and 1606, and up to his death in 1627. If so, he must have been younger than his half-nephew Thomas ii, who is called 'senior' in 1606. By marriage with another heiress, Mary Mathew, he also acquired property in Claverdon, Shrewley, and Pinley. He is the Thomas Shaxpere of the list of Warwickshire freeholders in 1580,² and probably the Thomas Shaxspere, Shackespere, and Schackspear of subsidy rolls for 1594, 1598, and 1599.³ Fripp, Haunts, 78, describes his battle with Thomas Holt in 1601 about common rights at Bushwood in Lapworth.

Two other households, not obviously linked to thos of Mousley End, can be traced from 1548. In Rowington or Wood End, a cottage and half-virgate was held, at 6s. 10d. and afterwards 6s. 8d., by John Shaxxpere in 1548, John Shakisspere in 1561, Richard Shackspere in 1590, and John Shakespere or Shackspere in 1604-6. It is said to be 'Shacksperes ex antiquo', but had once belonged to Spencers. Richard was a turner, who died

 

1 R.R. i. 31, 42; ii, passim.	3 R.R. i. 169, 171.
2 M.A. iii. 63.

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in 1591-2, being then 'the elder', and naming in his will his wife Joan, sons John, Roger, Thomas, and William, grandson Thomas by John, daughter Dorothy Jenks, and sister Turner.¹ The widow Joan made her will in 1599.² A house and half-virgate in Back Lane at Church End, called le Hilles, was held at 14s. in 1548 by another Richard Shaxspere, a weaver. He also leased from 1551-2 an acre of charity meadow known as Les Tyings. He appears in several wills, as Shax'pere, Shakspere, Shakysspere, and made his own and died in 1560, naming sons William and Richard, and brothers-in-law John and William Reve.³ Fripp, Haunts, 68, gives his wife's name as Alice. The son Richard succeeded both to the copyhold and the lease, and held the former (Shakisspere, Shackespere, Shakespere, Schackspeare) in 1561, 1590, and 1604-6. This also was 'Shackspeares ex antiquo. He made his will in 1613⁴ and his widow Elizabeth hers in 1614,⁵ and their sons William and John, the latter still a weaver, disputed the inheritance.⁶

A few early Shs. remain unattached. The Laurence of the 1543 subsidy roll was of Lowston End about 1559. He was fined for burdening the commons at a court of about 1562-3, and from 1554-62 leased at 4s. charity land known as the Hill Close, in which a Thomas followed him to 1587-8.⁷ This was not one of the Mousley End family, but an 'old Thomas', traceable, apparently as a labourer, in 1585-6.⁸ A Robert Shakespeare was fined as a common brewer at a court of 1562-3.⁹ The 17th censtury Shs. of R. become too complicated to be worth disentangling. A William, who was a trained soldier in 1605, and who was identified by W. J. Thoms, Three Notelets on Sh. 113, with the poet, night be the son of Thomas iii of Brookfurlong, or the son of Richard the turner of Rowington End, or the son of Richard of Church End, or another.¹⁰

 

1 Y. 165; Var. ii. 16.	6 Stopes, Env. 94.
2 Worcester Wills, i. 408.	7 R.R. i. 160; 11. 4, 24, and passim.
3 R.R. i. 206, 209, 210; passim; Y. (1906) 11.	8 R.R. ii. 90, 91.
4 Var. ii. 16; Y.156.	9 R.R. i. 160.
5 Worcester Wills, ii. 62.	10 Cal. S.P.D. Jac. I (1603-10), 234.

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(5) Haseley. The register (from 1538) now at Hatton seems to be common to that place, with its hamlets Beausale and Shrewley, and Hasesley. Extracts are in Yeatman 168 and Stopes 124. Yeatman 287 says that he has given earlier in the book the will (temp Hen. Viii) of Richard Sh., weaver of H., whom he supposes related to the Shs. of Tachbrook (q.v.). But he has not given it. The holding at Haseley of Richard of Wroxall (q.v.) did not pass to the Burgoynes, and Richard still held it with Richard Wodham in 1546-7, although the twenty-year lease of 1523 had expired.¹ He was on the jury for Hatton manor in 1551.² On 5 Oct. 1556³ Nicholas Edwards, probably of Hatton, where a Richard Edwards is traceable before 1515,⁴ wrote in reply to an inquiry from royal commissioners as to the bells of Wroxall Priory, that 'one Richard Shaxpeir, my neighbar and one of the tenants of Wroxall' had been instructed c. 1536 by the receiver and auditor to carry them to Studley. In 1559 was buried Roger Shakspere, and the will of 'Sur Roger Sadspere priest' dated 17 Feb. 1559 is witnessed by Richard Sadspere.⁵ Roger had been a monk of Bordesley Abbey, Worcestershire, received a pension (Shaxsper) of 100s. at the dissolution, and became on 2 May 1549 incumbent (Shadspere) of Flyford Flavel, Worcestershire, where the next presentation was on 15 May 1560.⁶ It is not likely that Richard the bailiff, traceable at Haseley to 1559, was, as Yeatman thinks, the Richard, traceable at Snitterfield (cf. App. A, no. ii) from 1528-9 to 1561, who was the poet's grandfather. In 1589 William Sh. married Barbara Stifee, and the baptisms of children are in the register. William is described as 'gentleman'. His death is not recorded, but his wife's is in 1610. He was of Haseley, where a cottage in which he had dwelt was granted to another tenant in 1597.⁷ He might be a son, or more likely grandson, of Richard.

 

1 Monastic Estates, 20.	5 Y. (1906) 8; Worcester Wills, i. 57.
2 Y. 144.	6 Nash, Worc. i. 456; ii. 407; French 356; Y. 192; Stopes 14.
3 R.W. 122.	7 Stopes 122.
4 R.W. 149.

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(6) Hatton. Shs. from Rowington (q.v.) held Lyance, now the Moat Farm, here from 1547 to 1578; and several entries in the register may be of this family. One can be sure of that for 21 Oct. 1571, 'mortua et sepulta erat Domina Jana aliquando una monicarum Wraxall'. Possibly Thomas i is the Thomas whose wife Isabel, formerly wife of John Tybotes, was buried on 4 Apr. 1570. Possibly his brother is the Nicolas whose daughter Katharine was baptized on 5 Nov. 1570. There were Nicolases of Wroxall (q.v.), however, about this date, who had some connexion with either Hatton or Haseley. But Nicolas and Elizabeth, whose son Thomas was baptized on 8 Sept. 1593, were buried in 1607 and 1608 as of Beausale in Hatton.

(7) Shrewley, in Hatton. (8) Pinley. (9) Beaudesert. (10) Claverdon. For S. holdings in these places, cf. Rowington. (11) Budbrooke, with Hampton Corley; cf. App. A.

(12) Warwick. There are no early notices. Thomas Shaxper, shoemaker, died in 1577. His will leaves his widow Agnes freebench in a copyhold on the manor of Balsall, and names sons William, Thomas, John, and a daughter Joan, wife of Francis Ley.¹ Conceivably he might be Thomas i of the family at Mousley End, Rowington, to whose brother John ii a Roger Ley was executor. Joan Ley died in 1577.² Probably all the remaining Warwick notices belong to his sons. On 6 June 1579 'sepultus fuet Gulielmus Saxspere, qui demersus fuet in rivulo aquae qui vel quae vocatur Avona'.³ John and Thomas were assessed for poor rate in 1582.⁴ Thomas took a copyhold in Smith St. in 1585.⁵ He bought other property in Warwick in 1597, married Elizabeth Letherbarrow, daughter of the myor of Coventry, in 1598, and was bailiff of Warwick in 1612.⁶ In 1601-2 he acquired land in Bishop's Tachbrook.⁷ He is described as a butcher in the record of his son John's apprenticeship to William Jaggard the London Stationer, which extended from

 

1 Var. ii. 19; Hunter, i. 14; Worcester Wills, i. 248.	4 T. Kemp, Book of John Fisher, 81.
2 Stopes 131.	5 Bellew, 97, misdescribed as in Stratford.
3 H.P., 1848, 5, from Register of St. Nicholas; Worcester Wills, i. 259.	6 Stopes 131.       7 Var. ii. 19.

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March 1610 to 22 May 1617.¹ John does not seem to have printed for himself or published for himself. Thomas Shakespeare, gent., is a principal burgess of Warwick in the Visitation² of 1619, and made his will in 1632.³

(13) Bishop's Tachbrook. Roger Shakesspere had a son Roger in 1557 and buried a daughter Alice in 1559. He married Agnes Steward of Haseley in the same year and had a daughter Anne in 1560 and a son John born and buried (Shaskespeare) in 1574. He had also (Shaxpere) a daughter Isabel, who married Thomas Turner in 1593. He was buried (Shakespeare) as a weaver in 1592 and his widow, here Anne, in 1599. His son Roger Shaxpear married Isabel Parkins in 1592 and (Shaxpere) Alice Higgins in 1595, by whom he had a son John in 1596, alive when Roger made his will in 1605.⁴ No connexion with Thomas of Warwick (q.v.) is apparent.

(14) Lapworth. William Shorte married Alice Shakespere in 1564. George Sh. had a daughter Anne in 1586 and a son Richard in 1590. John Shackespere had a daughter Elizabeth in 1595.⁵

(15) Packwood. Christopher and Isabella Shakespere joined the G. of K. in 1511-12. Christopher Shakspeyre is mentioned in a document of 1528. Petters, in his tenure and that of his sons William and John, was granted to William Sheldon in 1544. He is on the subsidy rolls for 1548-9 and 1549-50, and died c. 1558. A will of 1551 leaves his copyhold Hancoxe to William, and names his wife Isabel, other sons Richard, Roger, Christopher, and John, daughters Alice and Agnes, and son-in-law William Featherstone.⁶

(16) Tanworth. Christoher Shakespeare held charity lands in 1553.⁷

(17) Knowle. A manorial rental of 22 Sept. 1612 shows Elizabeth Shaksper a copyholder.⁸ I note here for con-

 

1 Var. ii. 73; Arber, iii. 684.	5  Var. ii. 17; Hudson Lapworth, 140, 146.
2 Harl. Soc. xii. 183.	6 H.P. Rarities, 246; Brewer, xix. 1. 77; Y. 161; Miller, i. 148.
3 Worcester Wills, ii. 146.	7 C.P.R. Ed. VI, v. 29.
4 E. T. Codd in 3 N.Q. viii. 185; Y. 161, from Lichfield Wills.	8 Greville Papers 4612 at Warwick Castle.

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venience two unlocated entries of payments for the souls of Thomas Schakspere and Thomas Shakspere to the G. of K. in 1486.

(18) Barston. Ralph Shakespere was a juror for Barston in 1547. He had a wife Bridget, who surrendered a meadow with a daughter Elizabeth Buttrey. He is on the subsidy roll for Barston and Ascote in 1546-7.¹

(19) Berkswell. A Ralph Shakspere is on the subsidy roll for 1524-5 and a Ralph, not necessarily the same, in 1570-1. A Ralph is also on the manor jury in 1550-1.² The same family may have held at Barston and Berkswell.

(20) Hampton in Arden. Elizabeth, widow of Roger Sh. of Chesset Wood, was his administratix in 1597.³

(21) Coventry. Cf. p. 355 for an early record 0f 1359. In 1416 William Sturdy of C. slew a Richard Shakspere there.⁴ A Robert Shakespier was of the Corpus Christi gild in 1489.⁵ A Richard Shakespere had a legacy from John Dwale in 1500.⁶ Henry, William, and John Shs. are traceable during 1583-1606. William made his will in 1606 as a shoemaker.⁷

(22) Alcester. Thomas Shakspere is on the subsidy roll for 1522-3. He was manor bailiff in 1530-1 and appears in rolls for 1531-2 and 1532-3.⁸ He may be the Thomas Sikestaffe, billman, of a muster roll for 1536-7.⁹ He made his will in 1539, naming a father Richard and mother Margaret, both alive, a wife Margaret with a son Alexander Fox, and a son William.¹⁰ Hunter made this Richard the poet's grandfather.

(b) Cambridgeshire.

Alice Langham of Snailwell left legacies to William Shakespere 'pauperi' of S. and his wife Agnes by a will of 1449.¹¹

 

1 R.W. 230; Y. 160.	7 M. D. Harris in II N.Q. v. 24, 104, 406; Stopes 125, from Lichfield Wills.
2 Y. 160.	8 J. H. Bloom, Ancient Warw. Deeds, from Greville Rolls, 208, 209, 210b.
3 C. Hopper in Herald and Genealogist, i. 265, from P.C.C.	9 Y. 192.
4 N.Q. cxlvii. 188, from Coram Rege Roll 655, m. 116.	10 Hunter, i. 9; Worcester Wills, i. 96, proved at Stratford-on-Avon.
5 M. D. Harris in Trans. Bristol and Glouc. Arch. Soc. xxxvii. 190.	11 C.S. Bury Wills, 12.
6 Stopes 8, from P.C.C.

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(c) Derbyshire.

John Shakespere was of Derby in 1544-5¹ and Elizabeth of St. Werberg's, Derby, in a will of 1558, names a sister Grace and cousins Alice Shepherd and Jane Firebrace.²

(d) Gloucestershire.

A Thomas Shakespeir, Shakespeire, Schaftspere, Sheftspere, Shafftespere occurs in several Bristol wills about 1501. In one he is Sir Thomas and a curate.³ James Sh. was buried at Bisley on 13 Mar. 1570. The Shs. of Dursley (cf. vol. i, p. 25) are not traceable before 3 Mar. 1678, when Thomas, a weaver, married Joan Turner. They had children Edward, Mary (two), and Thomas, and Shs. were still at Dursley to 1754. In 1848 there was a 'Shakespeare's Walk' at Dursley, and a 'tradition' of the poet's residence. Shs. are also traceable at Beverston in the 17th century, and at Newington Bagpath, where a John made his will in 1624, and there were freeholders of the name in 1848 who claimed kinship with the poet.⁴

(e) Leicestershire.

William Shakespare of Walton on the Wolds is on the subsidy roll for 1544-5 and William of Waltham on the Wolds, a distinct place, is husbandman in a deed of 1553.⁵ Thomas Sh. was of Lutterworth in 1597 and of Staple Inn in 1604 and 1607. He is named in a letter about the affairs of Newark Hospital in Leicester as 'of Lutterworth gent' in 1611, and wrote to the mayor of Leicester to protest against visitors to Lutterworth from plague-stricken Leicester in 1609-11. In 1613 he was deputy-steward of Lutterworth.⁶

(f) Nottinghamshire.

Robert Shakespeyr was licensed to trade at Nottingham in 1414-15, and Robert Shakesper had a suit for the price

 

1 Hunter, i. 9.	4 1848, R. W. Huntley, Glossary of the Cotswold Dialect; 1877, J. H. Blount, Dursley and its Neighbourhood.
2 Y. 161.	5 II N.Q. vi. 228, 429.
3 T. P. Wadley, Notes on Bristol Wills (Bristol and Glouc. Arch. Soc.).	6 French, 542; H. Stocks, Records of Leicester, iii. 111, 119; Stopes, Ind. 270.

[p 369]

of wood sold for making arrows in 1443.¹ Sir Thomas Chaworth of Wiverton, by his will of 16 Jan. 1459 in Testamenta Eboracensia (Surtees Soc.), ii. 228, directed his foeffees to manumit Margery Shakesper among other 'bandmen and whamen' who had done him long service, and left her six marks towards her marriage. George Shakspere sued for two rosaries at Nottingham in 1533.² Richard Shakesper was of Mansfield early in the reign of Hen. XIII, and Peter Schakespeyr in 1544-5.3 A Peter Shakespur was a trained soldier there in 1596-7.⁴

(g) Yorkshire.

The will, dated 31 Oct. 1433, of John Shakespere, chapman, of Doncaster, with a wife Johannah is in Testamenta Eboracensia (Surtees Soc.), ii. 32.

(h) Ireland.

Thomas Shakespere is on a muster roll of troops under Henry Lord Grey taken near Conway on 27 Aug. 1478.5

(i) London

William Schakesper by a will of 1413 desired burial in the Hospital of St. John.⁶ Peter Shakespeare witnessed a Southwark deed in 1484.⁷ John Shakesper, also Shakespers, had a lease in the sanctuary at Westminster shortly before 1506.⁸ William Shakespert was buried at St. Margaret's, Westminster, on 30 Apr. 1539. A later hand in the register comments, 'Query if this be the poet or not'! ⁹ Roger Schackespere was appointed yeoman of the guard in 1547 and is traceable to 1555-6.¹⁰ Thomas Sh., minister, of St. Mildred's, Bread St., received a grant of 100s. a year in 1548. He made a will (Shackespere) in 1557,

 

1 W. Stevenson, Records of N. ii. 102, 180.	6 Stopes 9, from Commissary Court of London Wills, ii. f. 12.
2 Stevenson iii. 188.	7 French 356, from deed at Cordwainers' Hall.
3 Hunter, i. 9.	8 E. J. L. Scott in 1900 Athenaeum, i. 219, from Sacrist Rolls.
4 Stevenson, iii. 188; iv. 244.	9 A. M. Burke, Registers, 373.
5 French 350, from Misc. of Receipt of Exchequer, 39. 18.	10 Brewer, xxii. 2. 406; Stopes Ind. 271.

[p370]

being then a priest living in Jesus Commons, Dowgate Hill, Essex, and names brothers Robert, Harry Willson, John Cooke, and sisters Joan, Grace Starke, and Cecily Richardson. A leter will of 1559 names sisters Joan, Thomasina Cooke, Grace Stourton, Anne Willson.¹ Matthew Shakespere married Isabel Peelle of Christ Church, Newgate, possibly a relative of the dramatist, on 5 Feb. 1569. Presumably this is the Matthew, the births and deaths of whose children occur in the register of St. James's, Clerkenwell, from 18 Jan. 1570 to 7 Apr. 1583.² Thomas Shakspere (also Shakespare) is traceable as a Messenger of the Chamber from 1571 to 1577.³ John Shackspere married Dorothea Dodde at St. Martin-in-the-Fields on 22 Jan. 1590. A daughter Maria was christened in 1593. Dorothea died in 1608. John is long traceable as a leading parishioner, and may be a John buried in 1646.⁴ John Shakspear married Mary Godtheridg in St. Clement Danes on 3 Feb. 1605 and had a long family there. The variation of spelling in the registers is notable. Shaxbee, Shaksbye, Shakesby, Shasper, Shakespeer, Shakspeer, Shackspeer occur as well as more normal forms. An entry of the  burial of Jane daughter of William on 8 Aug. 1609 is probably a slip, as John had a daughter Jane a year before. John was buried in 1633 as 'the King's Bitmaker'. Many payments to him for bits and spurs are found in royal and private accounts from 1617 onwards. Here he even appears as Shasspeere and Sashpierre.⁵ There are no obvious links between any one of these London families and another, or between any one of them and the poet. It is a mere guess by Mrs. Stopes that the bitmaker was the son of Thomas of Snitterfield (Appd. A, no. i). She also suggests that it was the bitmaker and not the poet who furnished Rutland's impresa of 1613 (App. A, no. xxii). Edmund

 

1 Stopes, 139, from Auditors' Patent Books, vi, and P.C.C. 40, Chayney; A. C. Veley in Trans. Essex Arch. Soc. iii. 70.	4 Harl. Soc. Registers; Stopes 145.
2 Harl. Soc. Registers; 2 Gen. xii. 223.	5 Collier, i. 469; Stopes 146, Env. 229, Ind. 272; Halliwell-Phillipps, Marriage of Wit and Wisdom, 120; H. Southam in N.Q. cxlvii. 334.
3 Halliwell-Phillipps, Marriage of Wit and Wisdom, 118; Archaeologia, xiii. 403; Stopes 144.

[p 371]

Shakespeare of Southwark and probably of Cripplegate was the poet's brother (App. A, no. i) and John of Warwick (p. 365) was apprenticed in London.

III. SPELLING AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE NAME.

The notices collected in this and other appendixes and in the records of John Shakespeare¹ yield eighty-three spellings of the name. They may be calssified as follows:

Shakespeare, Shakespear, Shakespere, Shakesspere, Shakesper, Shakespers, Shakespeer, Shakespeyre, Shakespeire, Shakespeyr, Shakespeir, Shakespeye, Shakespare, Shakespere, Shakespheare, Shakespur, Shakespert, Shakesby.

Shakspeare, Shakspear, Shakspere, Shaksper,Shaksperr, Shakspeer, Shakspeyre, Shakspeyr, Shakkespere, Shakispere, Shakisspere, Shakyspear, Shakysspere, Shakysper, Shakyspeyr, Shaksbye.

Shackespeare, Shackespear, Shackespere, Shackesper, Shackspere, Shacksper, Shackspeere, Shackspeer.

Schakespere, Schakesper, Schakespeire, Schakespeyr, Schakspere, Schacosper.

Schackspear, Schackspere.

Shaxpeare, Shaxpear, Shaxpere, Shaxper, Shaxpeir, Shaxbere, Shaxberd, Shaxspere, Shaxsper, Shax'spere, Shaxespere, Shaxver, Shaxbee.

Shexpere, Shexspere, Shexsper.

Sakesper, Sakspere, Saxpere, Saxper, Saxspere.

Shaskespeare, Sheakspear, Shagspere, Shasper, Shasspeere, Sashpieere.

Shadspere, Sadspere.

Schaftspere, Shafftespere, Sheftspere.

Chacsper.

A few others, which are late or need verification, are

 

1 H.P.ii. 199, 215; M.A. passim

[p 372]

given by French 348 and Ingleby, i. 6. Some of the forms may be merely scribal eccentricities or may rest on misreadings. Thus the Shaxberd of the Revels account (App. D) for 1604-5 may derive from Shaxbere, which is found for John S. in a deed of 1573.¹ The Shagspere of the poet's marriage bond (App. A, no. v) is rare. The Shaksperr and Sheakspear of the Scottish Drummond or his 18th-century transcribers (App. B, no. xxii) are abnormalities. Shakespear, dear to the 18th century, is not yet common. Forms without 'h' in the first member are unusual, but occur among the earliest records. Thoase in Shack-, Schak-, Shax- are nearly as common as those in Shake- and Shak-. In the Sadspere and Shadspere of the monk of Bordesley, who is, however, also Shaxsper, in the Schaftspere and similar alternatives for Sir Thomas of Bristol and in the -bye, -bee variants of St. Clement Danes, to which there are analogous forms in 17th-century Essex,² we almost see distinct names budding off. Abd there is even a more curious permutation much earlier, since Richard Shakespeare clearly appears also in the Snitterfield court rolls as both Shakeschafte and Shakstaff (App. A, no. ii). Similarly an Alcester Shakespeare seems to appear as Sikestaffe. Shakeshaft  is not an uncommon name. I have noted examples in several parts of the country from 1423 to 1545.³ In the last of these a Shakeschaft and a Shakestaff hold land together in Shropshire. A John Shakeshaft is at Balsall in 1543-9.⁴ The variants are clearly not a matter of differing family usage. To take a brief example (App. A, no 1), Margaret Sakspere, wife of Henry Shakspere, is buried at Snitterfield in 1597, and Henry is also Shakespeare, Shakespere, Shakesper, Shaxper, Shaxspere, Saxspere, Shagspere. Indeed the same man's name is often variously spelt in a single document. But an accustomed scribe sometimes has his own preference. John Shakespeare gets at least a score of the forms. There is an appearance of

 

1 H.P. ii. 232.	3 R. R. Sharpe, London Letterbooks, K 29; Brewer, ii. 1. 51; iv. 2. 2227; v. 628; xix. 2. 420; xx. 2. 456, 542.
2 Stopes 140.	4 Yeatman 160.

 [p 373]

a fairly uniform Shakspere in the register, but this, up to 1600, is a transcript in a single hand. One town official, Richard Symons, nearly always makes him Shakspeyr; another, Henry Rogers, is less uniform, but tends to Shaxpeare. Unfortunately John was a marksman, and we do not know how he spelt his own name. The poet's own spelling (cf. vol. i, p. 504) seems to have been usually Shakspere, sometimes in an abbreviated form, but the main signature to the will is Shakspeare. The epistles to Ven. & Ad. and Lucrece are subscribed Shakespeare, and this is the form used in F1 and in nearly all he Qq. Occasionally it is hyphenated Shake-speare. Love's Lab. Lost (Q1) has Shakespere, K. Lear (Q1) Shak-speare, Yorkshire Tragedy (Q1) and T.N.K. Shakspeare. In literary references and in official documents written in London, Shakespeare is also predominant, although by no means invariable. In documents of Stratford origin it is otherwise. Here the forms in Shack- and Shax- rather markedly prevail. The poet's cousin, Thomas Greene, however, writes (App. A, no. xix) Shakspeare, and this is the form on the monument. On those of his wife, daughter, and son-in-law it is Shakespeare.

Shakespeare's admirers, like the heralds in devising his arms, no doubt gave the name a heroic significance. Camden, Remaines (1605), 111, says that men derived names 'from that which they commonly carried, as Palmer, that is, Pilgrime, for that they carried Palme when they returned from Hierusalem, Long-sword, Broad-speare, Fortescu, that is Strong-shield, and in some such respect, Breake-speare, Shake-Speare, Shotbolt, Wagstaffe'. He is followed by Richard Verstegan, Restitution of Decayed Intelligence (1605), 294, JohnDone, Polydoron (1631), 9, and in special relation to the poet by Thomas Fuller, Worthies (1662), Warwick, 126, who compares him to Martial, 'in the Warlike sound of his Sur-name (whence some may conjecture him of a Military extraction,) Hasti-vibrans, or Shake-speare'.Jonson's verses pun on 'break a lance', and Thomas Bancroft, Epigrammes (1639), cxix writes:

	Thou so hast us'd thy Pen, (or shocke thy Speare)
	That Poets startle, nor thy wit come neare.

[p 374]

It must not be assumed that every mention of shaking a spear in Elizabethan literature is a covert allusion to Shakesepare. The phrase is common in Spenser. Camden's philology may not be sound, although the name Fewterspere affords an analogy. Some rather absurd guesses at alternative derivations have been made, which it is not necessary to record. Adams ₃ argues for an origin in the Norman Sakeespée, which he finds in the English forms Sakespeie, Sakespey, Syakespeye, Saxpey, Shakespeie from 1260 onwards. If he is right, the Simon Shakespeye of Gloucestershire in 1261 is a link. But a misspelling here for Shakespeyre is also possible, and in any case Adams is hardly justified in identifying this Simon with the contemporary Simon Sakesper of Essex. A. F. Heintz suggests that the name originated by translation from that of Levelaunce or Lyvelaunce, which he finds in Warwickshire from the 12th to the 14th century, and that Shakelaunce, which appears on the Hundred Rolls for Northants in 1274-5, may be an intermediate form.¹ And he notes as analogous the occurrence of Briselaunce and Breakspear together on Herts. subsidy rolls in 1325-6. He believes Lyvelaunces to have lived at Lyance in Hatton. This, however, would not help his argument, as the Shakespeares found there clearly came in the 16th century from a neighbouring village. On the other hand, the Shakespeares, so far as the records go, show no obvious signs of belonging to the spear-using class.The only ones known to have held land by militarytenure are Adam and his kin of Baddesley Clinton, and that probably not from an earlier date than 1389. Mostly they are copyholders; some freeholders. There are hints of serfdom. Henry Bradley proposed a more humble derivation from the A.S. personal name Seaxberht, and compared Winfarthing from Wineferhth and Allfarthing from Ealferhth.² If so, Shaxberd, although probably only by an accident, becomes the nearest representative of the original form. But I owe Mr. K. Sisam the criticisms that (a) West Saxon seax would not, as a rule and in wide

 

1 1916, Apr. 20, T.L.S.

2 1887, Feb. 5, Academy

[p 375]

areas, yield Sh-, and (b) -berht would not yield -bere and still less -pere,  and probably would yield dental forms, such as -bright, -brith, which do not appear. The Shack-, Shax- forms suggest that the original short vowel of an imperative scac may have often been retained in pronunciation.

IV. THE CASE OF HUGH SAUNDER

Attention was called to this case by G. C. Brodrick, Memorials of Merton College (1885, O.H.S.), xxxiv, xliii, 96, 98, 334, 370. There was an election of Fellows on 8 Apr. 1487, 'In qua electione electi sunt...dominus Hugo Shakspere, Wigorniensis diocesis'. On 23 June 1487, 'Admissi sunt in communas collegii sex baccallarii nouiter electi, scilicet...Hugo Sawnder alias dictus Shakspere, sed mutatum est istud nomen eius, quia vile reputatum est.' Saunder became M.A.in 1490 and D.D. in 1501. He held many college offices and was Rex Fabarum for the Christmas of 1501-2, when he resigned his Fellowship on taking the vicarship of Meopham in Kent.¹ In April 1507 he was rector of Mixbury in Oxfordshire. In 1507 and again in 1508 he was one of three named to the Archbishop of Canterbury as suitable for the Wardenship of Merton, but was not chosen. In March 1513 he became rector of Gestingthorpe in Essex. He became Canon of St. Paul's on 25 Nov. 1517 and died before 3 Nov. 1537. A will is at Somerset House. In the Bishop of London's Register he appears as 'Saunder alias Shakespere alias Brakespere'. The Brakespere is unexplained. It seems (cf. supra) to have been a distinct name from Shakespeare. The name Saunders, variously spelt, is common in the records of Rowington, Wroxall, and the neighbourhood. The Gild of Knowle register gives many examples from 1460 to 1527. One follows a group of related Shakespeare entries.² I do not find a Hugh. The worthy Fellow perhaps did not know the

 

1 Cf. Med. Stage, i. 260, 407.

2 Cf. p. 357.

[p 376]

variant Saunder-Knaue, which is in a Tamworth subsidy list of 1332.

There are other examples of such changes of name in the Merton records. One who had been elected Fellow as Robert Barbour in 1484 became Robert Dale during 1488-9. Here there is no comment in the Register. Robert Dykke was elected Fellow in JUne 1492 and on 28 October was received into commons as 'Robertus Dykke, alias dictus Robertus Hyll, et ita appellatus in collegio'.¹ A possible explanation of the 'vile nomen' may be that Hugh Shakespeare was, like Margery of Wiverton, of a bondman family, and had fled his village or had been manumitted on taking orders. On 21 Sept. 1312 Richard de Kellawe, Bishop of Durham, manumitted Walter de Heghington, clerk, because 'ascribi desideras militiae clericali', and there is a note in the register that on the same day 'habuit magister Robertus de Heghington, Scolaris Aulae de Merton in Oxoniis, quandam literam libertatis sub eadem formula'.² Robert de Hegynton was a Fellow of Merton by 1310.³

 

1 Salter, xliii. 159, 167.	3 Brodrick 192
2 J. Raine, Depositions and other Ecclesiastical Proceedings from the Courts of Durham (1845, Surtees Soc.), 5.

To the pedigree chart reproduced above can be added:

• Nicholas (i) had a daughter Katherine bapt at Hatton 5 Nov 1570

• George Shakespeare (son of John (iii) and Elinor) married Jane Harper, 10 May 1593, at Allesley

• John (iii) and Elinor also had a daughter, Annis, mentioned in John's will