Edward Shakespeare

HISTORY OF HORSLEY 

by the

 Rev. Messing Rudkin,

Vicar;

During this period we have a recurrence of familiar names as Bird, Wakely, Moody, Dyer, Harrison, Clarke, Mill, Millwater, Gillman, Kembridge (Cambridge), Neal, Gugins, Lokier. And there appear others for the first time, all of which are still found in the parish as Turke, Peggler, Haines, Cooke, Hitchens, Pride, Nicholls, Plummer, Shipton, Dangerfield, Webb. There are also other names such as Ruff, Lymbrick, Penley, Chambers, Barnard, Bennett, Davys, Langdon, Barnwood, Lidyat, Osburne, Carter, Shepperd, Clutterbuck.

In the list of baptisms, it is interesting to observe the names of Webb, Turke, Bird, Wakely, Dyer, following in consecutive order, probably the ancestors of those of the same name still living side by side in Horsley.

In 1616 Shakespeare died. He seems during some portion of his life to have been connected with Dursley and its neighbourhood. And Mr. Blunt, the late Rector of Beverston, relates that in the register of that parish, there is an entry of a baptism in the year 1610:-

“Edward Shakespurre, the sunne of John Shakespurre and Margery his wife, was baptized the 17^th day of September. Godfathers: Edward Eastcourt, Francis Savage. Godmother: Mary Eastcourt.”

There is, however, no record in the Horsley register of any Shakespear at this early period – though curiously enough there have been two distinct families of the name resident in the parish, viz., the family of the late Sir Richmond Shakespear, at Horsley Court, which left in 1881, and a family of the same name still residing at Walkley Wood.

• Sir Richmond Shakespear is Sir Richmond Campbell Shakespear, listed in the Dictionary of National Biography, and a descendant of the 'Stepney Shakespeares'