Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/35

 12 s. vin. JAN. s, 1921.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 23 This originally sinister branch of the Yorkshire Tempests certainly suffered as much as the parent tree for the Catholic Faith. JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT. AMONG THE SHAKESPEARE ARCHIVES. RICHARD SHAKESPEARE'S NEIGHBOURS. 1. Sir Thomas Hargreave, Vicar of Snitterfield. WHILE John Shakespeare was taking his place among seniors and contemporaries in Stratford, his father held a position of some esteem among neighbours at Snitterfield. When Thomas Hargreave, vicar from 1541 to 1557, died, Richard Shakespeare and four other parishioners were called upon to make the inventory of his goods and chattels. The Vicar's income was chiefly derived from his glebe land. He was an energetic farmer with a kinswoman, Ellen Hargreave the elder, to keep house for him. He made his will on Apr. 27, 1557, with bequests to his housekeeper and other relatives in the district a brother William, a sister Joan (wife of John Seylton of Desford), James Hargreave of Minworth ; Anthony Har- greave, who had a son Thomas ; and John Hargreave of Sutton (Southam), who had sons Anthony and John. The last named was probably the John Hargreave who was tenant with Richard Shakespeare and John Henley of Master Robert Arden's property in Snitterfield and near neighbour to Richard Shakespeare. Thomas Hargreave remem- bered also his servants and god-children, and left malt and peas to be distributed among the "poor where need is," likewise "beef and bacon as much as is in the house." He bequeathed his soul "to God Almighty and our Blessed Lady and all the Holy Company of Heaven," and his body "to be buried in the church of Snitterfield afore my seat in the chancel." Towards the re-casting of the bell he left Ws. Residuary legatees and executors were Anthony Fletcher, Vicar of Tachebrooke and our friend Edward Alcock of Wotton Wawen, who were to dis- pose of what was left for the good of his soul at their discretion. Master Thomas Robins of Northbrooke and his son-in-law, Master Edward Grant, he appointed super- visors. On Wednesday, May 5, Richard Shake- speare, in the company of Richard Maids, Walter Nicholson, William Perks and William Round, made a personal survey of the vicarage and farm. They noted the table^ benches, tressels, ambrey (cupboard), and seven painted -cloths in the hall ; bedding, linen and coffer in the parlour above the hall (of the value of 3Z. 2s. 3d.) ; six bedsteads in the chambers ; utensils in the mill -house and kitchen ; corn winnowed in the house, and corn growing in the field 12 acres of- wheat, 17 of rye and maslin, 8 of barley and dredge, 12 of oats and 19 of peas, 68 acres altogether; 4 oxen (71.), a little ambling nag (2 6s. Sd.), and an old lame mare (5s.) ; a wain and a cart, 2 old tumbrels, 3 ploughs, 1 pair of harrows and other things : summcs totalis 34Z. 10s. 2d. 2. Widow Townsend of the Wold. More than one family lived at the Wold in the parish of Snitterfield. Among them were the Townsends John and his wife Margaret, and their two sons, William and Thomas, and two daughters, Mary and Joan. John Townsend was a freeholder, known to Master Robert Arden. He witnessed the release of John Palmer's tenement, adjoin- ing Richard Shakespeare's farm, to Master Arden on Oct. ), 1529. When he made his will on Oct. 10, 1546, he left his freehold to his wife for life and to dispose of at death as she thought best. He expressed the wish that she and Thomas should occupy two parts of the farm jointly, and William the third part. Among the three he dis- tributed his corn and crop, carts, beasts and horses and other things, reserving a cow for his daughter Joan and a nose -calf for her son. This Joan was Mistress Waterman of Stratford, wife of Thomas Dickson alias Waterman, glover and whittawer in Bridge Street, and future Alderman, and her' son was young Thomas, the future husband of Phillipa Burbage and landlord of the Swan. John Townsend's other daughter (appar- ently Mary) was married to John Staunton of Longbridge, near Warwick, and the mother of children. One of her later born, or perhaps a grand- child, was Judith Staunton, who became the wife of William Shakespeare's friend, Hamlet Sadler. After Judith and Hamlet Sadler the Poet named his twin children on Candlemas day, 1585. Widow Townsend survived her husband ten or twelve years. With her sons, of whom Thomas married and had a son Thomas, she lived on the freehold farm at