The Origins of Edward Shakespeare

The Shakespeare Family History Site

The Origins of

Edward Shakespeare

Edward was - in the early 1600's a very rare name among the Shakespeares and one found that might fit the bill might be the nephew of John Shakespeare, yeoman, of Lapworth. John Shakespeare left a will dated 30th October 1637 leaving sums of money to two brothers, one named Christopher and another brother - William - whose three sons Edward, William and Thomas and three daughters each received £3 6s. 8d. Also mentioned was his largest beneficiary John Twycross who was his nephew. There were several John Twycross's in the Warwickshire area at this period. If Edward of Dudley can be presumed to have been born around1580 it is possible that he is the one mentioned in the will. The will gives no indication where Edward and his un-named children lived.

The evidence from the will, as recorded in Shakespeareana Genealogica:

Shakespeareana Genealogica - Page 536

Will of John Shakespeare, Yeoman, of Lapworth dated 30 Oct 1637, pr. by wife Dorothy 27 Apr 1638. Mentions: that he had no children. Nephew John Twycross, sister Catherine - wife of John Shotteswell and her two children John and William. brother Christopher, nephew John son of his brother Christopher and Johns children John and Thomas. Edward, William, Thomas and 3 daughters - children of an unnamed brother - mentions that Edward had two sons. Will overseers are friend John Fetherston of Packwood Esq and John Shakespeare of Ringwood. Will mentions the following without giving relationship: Katherine, Elizabeth & Winifred Shakespeare, also Humphrey (and Humphreys children Henry and Elizabeth), Thomas and John Shakespeare, and an Alice Shakespeare. This family may be derived from Christopher Shakespeare and Isabella who belonged to the Knowle Guild (1512) & described as of Packwood.

However, the will itself reveals much more, including the fact that the father of Edward was in fact William, John's brother.

Let's examine the evidence from the will and the facts concerning Edward.

John, the writer of the will, presumably had no children as he left his estate to his brother, sister, and nieces and nephews. Edward, of Dudley and Rowley Regis, possibly had a brother, or other relative (possibly a son), John who had a daughter born in Rowley Regis - there is no other mention locally of John or his daughter - perhaps she died?
John's brother William had presumably died before John - why else would John leave money to the children. Edward died in 1634 - three years before the date of the will - however, it is quite possible that if Edward was John's nephew then John may simply not have been aware of his death.
Geography. Lapworth is, surprisingly, only about 17 miles from Rowley Regis. Co-incidentally it is also about 10 miles north of Stratford. Interestingly, Snitterfield, birthplace of the father of William Shakespeare the poet, is between Lapworth and Stratford - being about 3 miles north of Stratford.

What also fits the facts from the will is that Edward had two sons, William (baptised at Rowley Regis) and James, whose baptism is unrecorded, but from his marriage at Halesowen (on the borders of Rowley Regis) we can work out that he is almost certainly another son of Edward. The John who had a daughter baptised at Rowley Regis may not be a brother of Edward, he may be a cousin (eg son of Christopher mentioned in the will), a son, or even John the will writer of Lapworth himself. This would possibly be consistent with John disappearing from the area (for there is this one brief mention of him) - did he return to his native Warwickshire?

A search of the IGI for the marriage of John Shakespeare, Yeoman, of Lapworth, reveals only one entry (his wife's name, Dorothy, is known from his will):

22 Jan 1589, St Martin In The Fields, Westminster, London, Joan'es Shackspere & Dorothea Dodde

If this is John, of Lapworth, then this would make him a contemporary of the Thomas Shakespeare who married in Sedgley in 1581. It is possible that this is Edwards father, or maybe even an older brother - the will mentions six children of William, the brother of John Shakespeare, Yeoman of Lapworth. There are no records at all on the IGI for any children with parents John and Dorothy Shakespeare - this is consistent with there being no children of John & Dorothy mentioned in the will. It is possible that this marriage refers to a son of Mathew Shakespeare, progenitor of the 'Stepney Shakespeares', and, apart from the Poet and his brothers, the only Shakespeare family in London at the time - however Mathew is known to have had two sons named John: one born and died in 1569, and the second dying in 1572. If there was a third son named John then he would have had to have been born after this date and Mathew had a further five children recorded in the next eleven years, four of them buried in the same period - this would seem to make a third possible John too young to have married in 1589. (Dorothy Dodd is possibly the one bapt 30 Aug 1569, St Giles, Cripplegate, dau of Richard Dodde).

If the marriage of John Shakespeare and Dorothy Dodd in 1589 does refer to John of Lapworth, then it might be assumed that his nephew, Edward, known to have been married because the will mentions he had two sons, could well be in his fifties at the time of the will.

The Lapworth Shakespeares had a connection with Rowington, for the Rowington parish registers record a number of them eg Humphrey and Christopher - Christopher Shakespeare, presumably the one mentioned in the will, was buried at Rowington 17th August 1638. It is curious that the Rowington Shakespeares owned land in Rowley Regis as late as the mid eighteenth century:

FILE [no title] - ref.  DR 12/58 - date: 28 June 1755
   \_ [from Scope and Content] Counterpart of a release and conveyance from Miss Catherine Fatherston Leigh and Mary Leigh of Packwood, spinsters, daughters and coheirs of Thomas Fetherston Leigh, to William Shakespeare of Knowl Hall, gent., and William Wakefield gent., of a parcel of ground called the Long Inage in RowleyRegis, co. Staffs., adjoining a pathway from RowleyRegis church to Portway and a moiety of RowleyHall, the Home Piece, Holley Croft, Longfields, Cowper's pieces, etc. in trust to sell for payment of the debts of the said Thomas Featherston Leigh.
   \_ [from Scope and Content] Signed: William Shakespeare, William Wakefield.

[Listed on the Access to Archives Website, and preserved in the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Records Office.]

NB: Note that a John Fetherston, of Packwood, was an executor of the will of John Shakespeare, of Lapworth.

This as all, of course, theoretical, and is the subject of ongoing research. However, the details do not seem to fit Edward of Rowley Regis/ Dudley. A further section deals with the facts known about Edward.

Notes

To summarise:

The search for Edward Shakespeare, who baptised three children at Rowley Regis and died in Dudley in 1634, is the search for an Edward Shakespeare born possibly around 1581 (or earlier) and who had two sons (William and James), and a possible third (John).

A large number of researchers in Utah (all of them descendants of Edward Shakespeare of Rowley Regis/ Dudley) have spent decades combing the parish registers of Warwickshire - this is the reason for so many entries 'submitted by a member of the Church of Latter Day Saints' appearing on the IGI. As these researchers appear to have covered most of the parishes in Warwickshire with Shakespeare connections at this period it is likely that any other reference to an Edward, with two (or three) sons, at this period would have been found - and it has not. However there was one other Edward at this time - the son of John Shakespeare, of Wroxall whose 1574 will survives.

There is documentary evidence for the existence of Edward (of Rowley Regis and Dudley) and his surviving sons, including his burial - apart from the mention in the will of John Shakespeare, of Lapworth, there is no other record (his marriage, burial, or even the baptism of any children) of this Edward, John's nephew, in Warwickshire, or anywhere else, unless he is the Edward who lived in Rowley Regis and then moved to Dudley. The other brother mentioned in the will, Christopher, can be traced - he was buried at Rowington in 1638. Apart from the mention in the Lapworth and Wroxall wills Edward of Rowley Regis/ Dudley is the only Edward Shakespeare known to be alive at this time, anywhere. The Edward mentioned in the 1574 Wroxall will survived (no record of marriage or burial has yet been found) to be mentioned in his fathers will - it is not yet known how old this Edward or his father were. It is quite likely that Edwards daughter Mary, baptised 1612 in Rowley Regis, did not survive - no marriage for her has been found (although, conversely neither has a burial): this would be consistent with only two sons being mentioned in the Lapworth will. However, the date of the Lapworth will would seem to make the Edward mentioned therein too young to be the Edward of Rowley Regis/ Dudley. This leaves one, and only one other Edward within the correct timeframe, this being the Edward mentioned in the 1574 will of John Shakespeare of Wroxall.