Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/227

 B. vin. MARCH s, io2i.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 181 LONDON, MARCH 5, 1521. CONTENTS. No. 151. 'NOTES Among the Shakesp^re Archives : John Shakespeare as Chamberlain. 181 Nathaniel Field's Work in the " B*aumonfc and Fletcher" Plays, 183- Fit-ldine's Pamphlet, 'The Female Husband,' 184 An English Army List of 1740, 185-William Challinor: Birth Centenary of a Dickens' Link, 186 English Slaves in Barbary: Tavern Sign, the Turkey Slave, 187- Marriages Nuns and Dancing, 183. QUERIES : The O'Flaherty Family. Kings of Connanght, 188 St James's, Bury St. Edmunds Cheval or Chevall Family Thomas Chudleigh, Envoye to the Hague, 1682- 85 George Frank of Frankenau, 189 Francis Boyce Tavern Sign : The Brentford Tailor Churches of St. Michael The Fisherman's "Indian Grass" "Colly my Cow" John and Charles Thomas Brooks Culben Sands A Proverb about Eating Cherries, 190 "Death as Friend "- 52nd Regiment of Foot Foundlings in the Eighteenth Century William Langham "The Empire" A Motto of Erasmus Giuseppe Parini Capt. Smith, Founder of Jesus Chapel -Rev. William Loe, B D. Tutoiement, 191 Parliament Hill Authors Wanted, 192. 'REPLIES :" The Sword of Bannockburn " John Bear, Master of the Free School at Ripon " Auster " Land Tenure, 192 Dr. R. J. Culverwell The Packership of London Wat, Tyler, 193 Ma j. -Gen. the Hon. William ' Herbert Wilson, Ranger of the Himalayas New Style, ]9t Charles II. and the Smith Family Yew-trees in Churchyard*-Dome*tic History of the Nineteenth Cen- tury Norrons in Ireland William and Ralph Sheldon Gouger, 195 Bont A Coachman's Epitaph Kinema or Cinema? Alliances of Allen Family London Coffee Houses, Taverns and Inns in the Eighteenth Century. 196 Hazebrouck Suggested German Source of 'Merry Wives of Windsor 'Archbishop John Williams's 'Manual' Wideawake Hats Covill. 197 Volans The Pancake Bell Capt. Cook : Memorials Representative County Libraries. 198 Route through Worcestershire, 199. NOTES ONT BOOKS : ' The Year Books ' ' Later Essays, " 1917-1920 ' ' Le Comique et la Signification ' ' Our Clapham Forefathers.' .Notices to Correspondents. AMONG THE SHAKESPEARE ARCHIVES. (See ante, pp. 23, 45, 66, 83, 124, 146.) JOHN SHAKESPEARE AS CHAMBERLAIN. On Oct. 3, 1561, John Shakespeare was 'sworn Chamberlain of the borough of /Stratford with John Taylor, the shearman of Sheep Street, as his senior colleague. John Taylor was his old fellow-Constable of 1558-1560. The oath they took was very much as follows : " We shall be faithful and true officers unto our master the bailiff, diligent of attendance at all times lawful, obedient to his commandments and ready to do his precepts. We shall improve the livelihood belonging to the commonalty of this town to the most behoof of the same, and the tenements thereof we shall well and sufficiently repair during -our office. And we shall well and truly charge and discharge ourself of all lands' rents belonging to this town arid of all other money as shall come to our hands belonging unto the commonalty of this town, and thereof a true account shall yield up unto the auditors assigned in the end of our year, and all other things lawful that belongeth or pertaineth to our officers well and truly to our powers we shall do. So keep us God, the Holy Evangel and the contents of this Book ! "* The Bailiff, whom John Taylor and John Shakespeare promised to serve was the Welshman, Master Lewis ap Williams, iron- monger in High Street. The Head Alderman was Master Robert Perrott the brewer, who had just lost his wife. John Taylor's Account for the year Michaelmas 1561 to Michaelmas 1562, is a bare statement of receipts and expenses. Master William Court receives 3Z. 6s. 8rf. as Steward, Richard Symons 10s. as Town Clerk (the c trice brought him other fees and professional employment as a lawyer and a scrivener), William Smart the Schoolmaster 161 ; the assistant master, who was William Gilbert alias Higges, 4Z. ; Richard Godwin for looking after the two clocks, at the Market Cross and Chapel (he tolled the bells at the Chapel), 16s. ; and the acting Chamberlain, 20s. A new inmate in the Almshouse, with the interesting but not uncommon name in Stratford of Hamlet (it is variously spelt Hamlet, Hamolet, Amblet, Hamnet), pays 2s. 6d. for his admission. Payments to the clergy did not pass through Taylor's hands they were made direct to Master Bretchgirdle (20L), and to his assistant, apparently the married priest, Rafe Hilton, who was in such straits in Mary's reign, (10^, by the farmer of the late College tithes, Alderman Smith the mercer. But the rent of "the Vicar's House," 24s., w as paid by the Chamberlain. The Account was presented and passed on Jan. 24, 1563. We have only the official copy made by Symons. It is signed at the back by John Taylor with his cross, for himself and his colleague. Entries in Bret engird! e's registers for the year of John Taylor's acting Chamberlain- ship call for notice : the baptism on Nov. 16, 1561, of Richard Field, son of Henry Field the tanner in Back Bridge Street, the future friend of William Shakespeare and publisher of his ' Venus and Adonis ' and ' Lucrece ' ; on Nov. 18 of a son of Master Rafe Hilton ; on Feb. 18, 1562, of a son of John Bretch- girdle's kinsman, John Grantham ; on Mar. 1 of a son. of the assistant schoolmaster, William Gilbert alias Higges ; on May 13 of a daughter of William Smith, haberdasher
 * Adapted from the oath taken at Leicester.