Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/35

10 11, 1908.] 2. I may remark that a love of clothes is shown in Sharpham's plays: twice in 'The Fleire' he describes a cloak as "lined through" or "throughout."

3. He is still bound to Devonshire. He describes himself as "of Allington," and his legatees and overseers are chiefly of that county.

4. He makes no mention of his mother nor of elder brothers—who were perhaps dead—but leaves legacies to his half-brother George Hext and his brother-in-law (perhaps the husband of his sister Susanna) Richard Goteham. A George Hexte was Alderman of Dunheved (Launceston) in 1620 ('Visitations of Cornwall,' Harl. Soc., ix. 281).

5. Another legatee is "my Cosyn Bridgitt ffortescue." Perhaps Bridget Fortescue was the daughter of Roger Fortescue by Mary, daughter of R. Northleigh and previously wife in succession to John Leigh and to Martyn Hext, younger brother of Sharpham's stepfather Alexander Hext ('Visitations of Devon,' ed. Vivian, 1896, pp. 200, 484). She seems to have lived at East Allington, as the registers of that parish record her burial: "1619, Bridget Fortescue was buried 1 November." Possibly a little romance attaches to the legacy of the chain and diamond ring.

6. The Langwbrthys were a well-known Devonshire family, and there were some at East Allington.

7. There are monuments to the Rowpe or Roope family in the church of South Milton (Lysons, p. 341). See also 'Visitation of Devon, 1620,' under 'Roupe.'

8. One of the witnesses to the will is John Owen. I imagine he may be the epigrammatist whose work was translated by Sharpham's friend Robert Hayman.

It was clear from the fact of Sharpham having "made his mark" instead of signing his name that he was very ill when the will was executed on 22 April, 1608; and as it was proved on 9 May following, it was clear that he had died in the interval. But where? From the fact that a notary of Westminster witnessed the will I concluded that Sharpham died in Westminster. A visit to St. Margaret's Church confirmed my conjecture. In the register of burial of that church, under the date "April 23"–the day after the will had been made—was the name "Edward Sharpham" written in the large characters accorded in old registers to persons of superior station. He must have died that day or the before, and his remains, if they have not been disturbed, must now be lying in St. Margaret's Churchyard.

There is no probability in Hunter's sugestion that "Ed. Sharphell," whose verses 'To my beloued Master Iohn Davies' are prefixed to Davies's 'Humours Heau'n on Earth' (1605) was Edward Sharpham; and another suggestion that Sharpham wrote the 'Vision upon this his Minerva' (signed "E. S.") in Peacham's 'Minerva Britanna,' 1612, is disproved by the now ascertained fact that Sharpham had then been dead four years.

I add a few lines on Robert Hayman, supplementary to the life of him given in the 'D.N.B.' He was matriculated at Oxford from Exeter College on 15 Oct., 1590, as "Hayman, Robert: Devon, pleb. f. 11." He must have been born, therefore, between 15 Oct., 1578, and 15 Oct., 1579. Neither his father's name nor that of his Birthplace is known. I hoped I had found a clue in four lines of Hayman's charming poem 'Of the Great and Famous, euer to bee honoured Knight, Sir Francis Drake, and of my little-little Selfe' ('Quodlibets,' Book IV. No. 7):—

Nicholas Hayman, merchant, represented "Totness borough" in the Parliament of 15 Oct., 1586 to 23 March, 1586/7. His name does not appear on the roll of the Parliament of 12 Nov., 1588 to 29 March, 1589; but "Nicholas Hayman" (probably the same) represented Dartmouth, Clifton, and Hardness in the Parliament of 19 Feb., 1592/3 to 10 April, 1593. Here, one might suppose, was Robert's father. But the Vicar of Totnes, the Rev. T. H. Elliott, who has searched the registers from 1570 to 1586, tells me that the name of Robert Hayman is not to be found, though the baptisms of five children of Nicholas Hayman are recorded between 6 Nov., 1579, and 16 April, 1586. Possibly Robert Hayman was born and baptized at the end of 1578, before Nicholas settled at Totnes. Or he may have been not Nicholas's son, but his nephew, and have been merely visiting his uncle when he met the great Drake. Possibly the Dartmouth registers would throw light on Robert Hayman's birth.

With the help, however, of Mr. E. Windeatt of Bridgetown, Totnes, and the Rev.