Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/395

 12 s. vii. OCT. 23, i92o.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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Richard Bentley, a yeoman of Stratford whose turbulent opposition at the election of the Bailiff in 1505 called for the inter- vention of the Warden of the College, Doctor Rafe Collingwood. Possibly he was his son, and the associations and friendships of his youth may have brought him back after strenuous years as a college don and a Court physician to his pleasant native town. He was educated at Oxford, at New or Uni- versity College. He filled the office of Proctor in 1507, graduated in medicine, as well as in arts, taking his M.B. in 1516 and his M.D. in 1519, and became Doctor of Physic to the King and President of the College of Physicians. Retiring to Stratford he took a lease of New Place from Squire Clopton on Nov. 20, 1543, for forty years at a rent of 10Z. per annum with land at Ryon Clifford and Ingon for his cattle and horses. The ancestral occupation of yeo- manry and his collection of silver plate (which probably owed something at least to his wealthy patients at Court) seem to have given him pleasure in his old age. He possessed no less than three cups with covers, ten pots with covers, one pot without cover, two salts with covers, " a nest of goblets with covers " besides spoons. He had a wife, Anne, two daughters, Anne and Dorothy, and one son, William. In or about 1547 he exchanged his lease for another which was for the lives of himself and his wife in widowhood. He owned the lease of a house in Oxford called "George Hall." This .house was jot to Herman Evans, the University stationarius or virgifer. Among his bequests was one to "William Clarke, whom I have brought up of charity," of two heifers, to be delivered unto the said William at such time as he should fortune to be married. To one daughter he left a cow, to the other a cow and a calf, and to both silver plate. To his son he left silver plate. The residue of his estate including all his jewels he bequeathed to his well- beloved wife to distribute as she should think necessary to the pleasure of God, and for the wealth of his soul and all Christian souls. His wife was executor, and the supervisors were his friends Thomas Blount and Robert Wyncock. The former may have been Thomas Blount of Kidderminster, a kinsman of the Dudleys and "a favourer of True Religion," that is, a Protestant. Doctor Bentley committed his soul to Almighty God, "only trusting and firmly believing to be saved by the Faith that I have in, Christ, who did suffer for the

redemption of one and all mankind," and therefore not by the prayers of men or angels or the Virgin Mary. He willed that lis body should be buried within the Parish Church. His will was signed on Jan. 26, 1549, and witnessed by Stratford men, his neighbours : John Jeffreys of Sheep Street,, and Thomas Dickson alias Waterman of Bridge Street, Laurence Baynton of High Street, mercer, and William Minsky, a draper. Probate by his widow followed on Mar. 4, 1550. Squire Clopton did not find either the Doctor or his widow an amenable tenant. Neither kept the house n repair or obeyed the orders of the manorial court, or paid the rent at the times agreed upon. So at any rate Clopton alleged, who declared that at Bentley 's death New Place was "in great ruin and decay." Later Widow Bentley married Master Richard Charnock of Welcombe, and so forfeited her right to the house. Clopton made forcible entry but failed to evict th& lady and her husband. Having lost the - lease she put in a suit in Chancery about the year 1552. Charnock was in possession of New Place before Apr. 29, 1552, when he was fined for not keeping clean his part of the stream in Walkers Street, otherwise Chapel Lane ; and he had not vacated the house, apparently, until shortly before Apr. 23, 1558, when Richard Symons by a slip of the pen entered his name for the like offence in the Minutes of the Court Leet and then erased it.

JOHN SHAKESPEARE, GLOVER, 1552-3.

John Shakespeare would serve his seven years of apprenticeship, p,nd having become a householder would set up for himself, paying 6s. Sd. for his "freedom " to the Mystery, Craft or Occupation of the Glovers? Whittawers and Collarmakers, of which it was necessary to become a member. Four times a year, also, he paid his 2d. " quar- teridge." The brotherhood met hi their Hall, on dates arranged, for the consideration of matters affecting their " commodity " on the summons of their beadle or reeve. Absence involved a fine of I2d., and refusal to attend of 6s. 8d. Summons was issued in the name of the Master and Warden, who were elected annually on the first Wednesday after Michaelmas when the yearly Accounts were presented. Half the fees and fines went to the Borough Council, by whom the rules and proceedings of the Mystery were authorized. The rights of