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The 'King's Bitmaker' was an extremely wealthy man, whose son and namesake succeeded him as a bitmaker, but, strangely, his widow, Mary, named their daughter Ellen, the wife of John Milburne, as her heir in her will.

It is here, perhaps interesting to note that Mary's maiden name was Gotheridge, and that Stopes lists a number of her family who may provide clues for further research: she had a sister Anne, whose married name was Brewer, and an un-named brother, who had a daughter Sarah (Gotheridge) whose married name was Richardson.

What Was A Bitmaker?

In it's simplest explanation a bit  was the metal part of a horse's bridle. However, given the huge prices quoted by Stopes for examples of John's work, this here seems too simplistic - not only must there have been considerable leatherwork involved (and here we have connections with, for example, the Poet's father ( a glover) and John Shakespeare, the Stratford 'Shoemaker - workers in leather, and both, for their time, quite wealthy men), but there was probably ornamentation in precious metals or jewels.

Who Was John?

Stopes suggested that this John was the son of Thomas Shakespeare, of Snitterfield, an idea that Sir Edmund Chambers dismisses as 'guesswork.' However, this idea should not be put aside so lightly: there were very few John Shakespeares alive at this point in history, and as has already been shown, a number of them were 'leatherworkwers.' What is intriguing - and this is what probably drew Stopes to the idea - is that Thomas Shakespeare of Snitterfield had a brother Anthony, and among the children of the bitmaker is another Anthony, only the third of this name known to history, and extremely rare among the few dozen Shakespeares known to be alive, or have lived at this time. The only other occurrence of this name is the Anthony Shakespeare of Wroxall, now thought to be the ancestor of the Snitterfield Shakespeare's.

The Bitmaker's Family

John Shakespeare, the 'King's Bitmaker,'  married Mary Gotheridg at St Clements Danes, 3 Feb 1604/5 - she was described as 'of The Strand.' John was later buried at the same church, on the 27th January 1633. They had the following children:

• John, born 1605. He was also, like his father, a bitmaker. He married Margaret Edwards at St Brides in 1631. He is descibed on the license as a bitmaker, bachelor, aged 26. Margaret Edwards was a spinster, of St Brides, aged 28.
• Sarah, born 1607, died 1612
• Jane, born 1608, died 1609
• Anthony, born 1610, died 1610
• Thomas, born 1611, died 1612
• Ellen, born 1614. She married John Milburne, and was her mother's heir
• Katharine, born 1616, died 1616

The eldest son, also John Shakespeare, and his wife Margaret (nee Edwards) also left descendants:

• John, born 1632 (St Clements Danes), and died 1632
• Mary, born 1633, died 1633
• Mary, born 1634, died 1635
• John, born 1635, died 1636
• [possibly] Mary, who married Thomas Allon

Here then we have a probable reason for the widow, Mary (nee Gotheridge) making her daughter her heir: the children of her only other surviving child, John, were probably all dead, with the possible exception of the Mary Shakespeare who married Thomas Allon. So here we have yet another Shakespeare line which comes, like a number of others, to a dead end, having no male descendants, but it is still interesting to speculate as to the origins of 'The King's Bitmaker.'

See Also:

• John Shakespeare, of St Martin's In The Fields