The Rowington Shakespeares

The number of families present in Rowington during the early 16th century is confusing, as it is impossible to connect them with any degree of certainty. However, they can be broadly divided into a number of different lines which will be examined separately:

• The Descendants of John & Joanna Shakespeare - The early generations of this family, and it's connections with Wroxall, are detailed in a fairly convincing pedigree given by Chambers in 'William Shakespeare, a Study of the Facts and Problems', App. E. p 360.

• John Shakespeare, of Wood End - held land 1548 - 1561

• Richard Shakespeare, a Weaver - died 1561

• Christopher Shakespeare - one of the very early Shakespeares mentioned at Rowington. He is later to be found in Packwood, and details of him are to be found there. He was the ancestor of the families at Lapworth.

These four comprise the main early sixteenth century families to be found in Rowington. Of these, it is fairly certain that John who married Joanna is the John, son of Richard & Margery Shakespeare, who, with his brother, William of Wroxall, conveyed the land of their cousin's husband, Robert Hudsped, to the Wroxall Charity Trustees around 1506. This line can therefore be connected directly to that of Adam Shakespeare, of Baddesley Clinton. John Shakespeare, of Wood End, is a mystery, in that he cannot be proven to be directly connected to any of the earlier Shakespeares, which in fact he must - the explanation is probably that he is the son of one the other sons of one of those to be found earlier whose name is simply not recorded. The same can be said of Richard who died in 1560, although there are here clues that he may be the same man as Richard the one-time 'Bailiff of Wroxall.' Conversely, he is possibly the Richard mentioned in the will of John, son of John & Joanna - Chambers was unsure about him being Richard 'the Bailiff', and it can now be shown that he was not, leaving us the possibility that the Richard mentioned in the will is in fact the Rowington 'Weaver'. This is also the conclusion of E I Fripp in his book 'Shakespeare's Haunts Near Stratford' (page 68-69). Christopher we can place with a little more certainty, as he is probably the son of Thomas Shakespeare, at one time of Rowington, but later to be found in Balsall. This Thomas was almost certainly the brother of Richard (who married Margery) mentioned earlier, thus making Christopher a cousin of the John who married Joanna.

Sadly, the surviving Rowington Parish Registers begin in 1612, and are of little use to us in our quest to define the relationships of the families of the preceeding century, although they do, of course, provide useful information on later descendants. For our reconstruction we must therefore rely mainly on wills, manorial records, and subsidy rolls. Happily many of these are now available in printed form, primarily in two great works by the Reverend J W Ryland: 'Records of Rowington' and 'Records of Wroxall.' These are supplemented by the monumental work of E K Chambers, 'William Shakespeare: A Study of the Facts and Problems.' Chambers was later Knighted for his work for the Civil Service, but his Knighthood would have been justly deserved for this book alone. It is here interesting to note that Ryland lived at Shakespeare Hall during the early years of the twentieth century: was this the 'spark' for his interest in the history of the Shakespeares which led to the production of the two books mentioned? A little further detail can be added from the work of Charlotte Stopes: 'Shakespeare's Family,' although she mainly draws on the work of earlier authors, sometimes adding research of her own. While we are here listing the authors whose work has proved invaluable, and background information about them, Charlotte C Stopes was the mother of the birth-control pioneer Marie C Stopes.

July 2005