Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/419

 1 2 s. vii. OCT. so, mo.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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five in the chamber adjoining the hall and four in the bedrooms over), bedding and linen, copper-pans and brass pots and candlesticks, a quern, a kneading-trough and other utensils, tools, vessels for milking and brewing, in the barn wheat and barley, hay, peas, oats and straw, carts and ploughs and harrows, wood in the yard, bacon in the roof, wheat in the field, cattle, four horses and three colts, fifty sheep, nine pigs, bees and poultry valued altogether at 111. Us. Wd. Such was the simple, com- fortable, industrious home in which the mother of William Shakespeare was brought up.

JOHN SHAKESPEARE, TASTER, 1556-7.

IN 1556, the year of Master Robert Arden's death, John Shakespeare comes suddenly and conspicuously into view. He was sued in the Court of Record by one Thomas Siche of Armscote for the large sum of 81. The case lasted through four sittings and resulted in his favour, being allowed to go by default on Aug. 12. He pleaded on July 15 that he had justly iised physical force on the plaintiff. In September he was elected one of the Tasters. The office was one of trust and the usual first step in municipal promotion. "Able persons and discreet" is the qualifica- tion in the Leet Book at Coventry. In Leicester they promised,

" We shall duly and truly search and assay, and that which is good we shall able, and that that is ill we shall not able, and we shall not let for favour or for hatred, kin or alliance, but we shall do euen right and punish as our minds and consciences will serve."

Nor was their duty a light one if, as at Banbury, they made "weekly and diligent search." The same month John Shake- speare was named as attorney in the Court of Record for Richard Lane "Goodman Lane " as he was called, a victualler and yeoman in Bridgetown (at the other end of Stratford Bridge) and tenant of the old Gild garden but he declined to act. Goodman Lane had a son Nicholas, who aspired to gentility and attained it.

At the Court Leet of Oct. 2 John Shake- speare was presented as having purchased a tenement in Henley Street, with a garden adjoining, from Edward West, and a tene- ment in Greenhill Street, with garden and croft, from George Turner. The ground- rent of the former, which was 6e?., enables us to identify it with the eastern house of the two which he subsequently owned and

occupied in Henley Street. Here at the eastern house he had his home and glover's shop (there is no .reason for calling it "a wool shop ") for about a quarter of a, century, from about 1550 until 1575, when he purchased the western housa.

On Nov. 19 he sued his friend, Henry Field the tanner of Back Bridge Street, for the non-delivery of 18 quarters of barley; and the same day he was appointed arbiter by the Court in an action brought by William Brace, a draper in Corn Street, against a- miller, William Rawson. His suit against Field occupied four sittings and ended apparently in arbitration. The purchase of barley shows his interest in agriculture. He was a yeoman of Snitter field until 1561. By farming and glove-making he prospered during his bachelorship.

He may have known Mary Arden, daughter of his father's landlord, for years before he married her, perhaps from her childhood. He was certainly a good deal her senior. He was the eldest son and she the youngest daughter of con- temporaries, and she came at the end of a^ long family. He lived to be over 70, and she survived him seven years. He was probably about 29 and she about 19 at the time of their marriage. In the spring or summer of 1557 after a wedding, we may suppose, at Aston Cantlowe, he brought her to Henley Street. It is worth observing that he was fined on June 2 for having failed to attend as Taster at three consecutive sittings of the Court of Record. This is unlike an aspirant to Borough honours, and very unlike what we know of John Shakespeare at this period. He was pro- bably engaged in things matrimonial and other private affairs. His wife's 61. 13s. 4df. and freehold farm of Asbies were a welcome- addition to his rising fortunes.

Twice in 1557 he was put on the jury of Frankpledge, on Apr. 30 and Oct. 1. On or soon after the latter date he was elected a Principal Burgess. The oath ad- ministered to him was as follows :

"You shall swear that as a Capital Burgess of this Borough you shall from henceforth main- tain and defend the liberties and rights belonging- to the same to the uttermost of your wit and power ; you shall aid and assist the Bailiff for the time being when you shall be thereunto required, in giving your best advice and counsel, as well for the benefit of this town as for the good govern- ment of the same ; and the laws, orders and statutes heretofore made and hereafter to be made by the Bailiff, Aldermen and Burgesses or the more part of them for the profit and better