Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/466

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. vn. NOV. 13, 1920.

with "fitchew" or polecat), and Francis Harbage the skinner. The inventory of his goods was made on Oct. 19 among others by old John Burbage and Adrian Quyny. The Reynolds of Old Stratford of three generations were well known to the Shake - speares. Alderman Hugh and his wife Joyce had six children, of whom Thomas succeeded at Collis Farm. Thomas married the daughter of an esquire, Mistress Mar- garet Gower, co-heiress of William Gower of Redmarley in Worcestershire, and had by her a large family. His eldest son was William Reynolds, to whom William Shake- speare left 26s. 8<7. "to buy him a ring," in 1616.

Alderman Richard Lord of Henley Street died on Mar. 12, 1556, and his widow Emma or Emmot made her will on Nov. 5 following. She left directions that " all the priests.and clerks being singing men in Stratford " should be paid for mass and dirige at her burial, and that her month's mind should be kept as her "late husband's was." To Nicholas Lane of Bridge Town, the aspirant to gentility (with a very sloping chin), she bequeathed the lease of her ground in Old Town Field, and to his wife Alice certain linen, and to their infant son Richard, 20s. She also appointed Nicholas Lane a super- visor of her will, with Avery Trussell, esquire, Alderman John Jeffreys and Richard Hill the woollen- draper in "Wood Street. Nicholas Lane, and his son Richard, and his grandson John, come into contact at various points, and not always pleasantly, with the Shakespeares, John, William and Susanna.

Another family to be noted because of their association with the Shakespeares were the Phillips es. Alderman Thomas Phillips and Capital Burgess Daniel Phillips were cousins, living respectively in Bridge Street and High Street. The Alderman died in September, 1556, and Daniel in September, 1558.' Thomas was the respected son of a respected father, William Phillips, an old Alderman of the Gild, who bequeathed to the Bridge Wardens 5s. per annum out of a tenement in Sheep Street. The son, and probably the father, kept an ale-house in Bridge ^Street. Thomas when no longer young married for his second wife Margaret Dickson, the eldest daughter of his neighbour in Bridge Street, Thomas Dickson alias Waterman. She bore him two children, Mary and Elizabeth, who were babes at the time of his death. He made his will on Sept. 9, 1556. It is a very much decayed

document,* but we gather from it that he- left his widow, in addition to her jointure,, an interest in his property which eventually was to go to these daughters. His best gown he bequeathed to Thomas Dickson,, also an Alderman, and his second gown to- his cousin Daniel. " Edward Alcock, priest" (not "vicar ") witnessed his signature. On Saturday, Jan. 2, 1557, the inventory of his goods was taken by Edmund Barrett of the Crown Inn in Bridge Street, and others, who valued them at 50Z. 8s. 4d. The following Monday, Jan. 4, the widow Margaret proved the will at Worcester ; and on Tuesday she obtained a licence at the Court of Bishop Pate for her marriage at Stratford after one publication of the banns, with Edward Walford of Evenlode. Her daughter Mary died young, but Elizabeth lived to inheritr her father's legacy, to marry Richard Quyny,. son of Master Adrian Quyny and close friend of William Shakespeare, and after presenting him with eleven children to survive him for thirty years as a widow, active in business and all family matters.

Alderman Dickson alias Waterman, glover and whittawer, did not long survive his elderly son-in-law. He probably died in the summer or autumn of 1557, leaving six children besides Margaret Walford four daughters and two sons. His neighbour, John Burbage of the Swan was buried on Apr. 3, 1558, leaving a widow, as Alderman Phillips had done, very much younger than himself, Philippa Burbage, with five young 1 daughters. Thoma? Dickson, alias Water- man, eldest son of the late Alderman, married the widow, Philippa Burbage, on May 8, 1559, becoming step-father to her daughters and host of the Swan Inn. Under Thoma.s Dickson and his successive wives,. Philippa Burbage, Grace, and Joan Sadler, the Swan became the most prosperous house- in Stratford.

Five months after witnessing Alderman Phillips 's will Edward Alcock was appointed by his college (King's College, Cambridge) to the vicarage of Wootton Wawen near Stratford. He succeeded Anthony Little on Feb. 17, 1557. But he was scarcely settled in his new" home before he died. He

has made the best of it. I owe to Mr. Savage the transcripts of very many of the original documents used in these articles. Without his ready and generous assistance the facts I have accumulated and endeavoured to interpret cdula not have been put together or discovered. E. I. F.
 * Mr. Eichard Savage, with his wonted skill,,