Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/49

 9 th S. I. JAN. 15,

NOTES AND QUERIES.

LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 15, 1898.

CONTENTS.-No. 3.

NOTES : Shakspeare's Grandfather, 41 Duels in the Waverley Novels Eobert Burton, 42 Brewster's ' Life of Newton 'Swansea, 43 Letter of Sir Christopher Wren- Pattens Eobert Gpmersall, 44 Leswalt, Wigton Keats A Notable Aphorism " Bob," 45.

QUERIES : Indexing, 45 "Creas" " Defais le foi" Stewart: Lambart Asses Braying John Stevenson Genealogies of North-East France The Order of the Lobster, 46 Castlereagh's Portrait Augustine Wingfield Translation Wanted " Lord Bishop "Madam Blaise Canning Portraits Old Year Custom Chalmers Baro- netcy Darwin and Mason Defoe Archer Family Portrait of Sir G. Eyre, 47 Balbrennie St. Aidan Poem by Miss Procter Evidence of Marriage Dedications of Churches Cound, 48.

REPLIES : City Names in Stow's ' Survey,' 48 Gentleman Porter W. Wentworth W. Penn " Belling," &c., 50- " Grimthorped," 51 The Waldrons Howard Medal Hand of Glory "Twm Shon Catti" Claret and Vin-de- Grave, 52 Durham Topography Masonic Signs En- dorsement of Bills Newton's House in Kensington Navy of Seventeenth Century, 53 Howth Castle Voyage to Canada " Trod "=Footpath Gender of " Moon," 54 Hatchments " Difficulted " Bayswater, 55 Wind from Fire Lord Bowen, 56 "Dressed up to the nines" " Kids," 57" Tirling-pin" Stewkley Church, 58.

NOTES ON BOOKS: 'Dictionary of National Biography,' Vol. LIII. Lang's Scctt's ' Antiquary 'Sharp's 'Dic- tionary of English Authors 'Power's ' William Harvey ' 'The Baptist Handbook ' 'Journal of the Ex-Libris Society ' ' Antiquary.'

Notices to Correspondents.

SHAKSPEARE'S GRANDFATHER.

(See 8 th S. xii. 463.)

MR. VINCENT'S letter is in fact an arraign- ment of the charge I made (p. 5 of my book 'The Gentle Shakspere') against "the able men employed by Mr. Halliwell - Phillipps," and against that writer himself : against his assistants for

" having failed to find the administration bond for Richard Shakespere of Snytterfield (Shakespere's grandfather), which proves that John (his father) was son of Richard " ;

and against Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps himself for " having suppressed it, because (if he had honestly used it) he must have rewritten the greater part of his work, for it is based upon assumptions contrary to it " ;

a grave charge, no doubt, but one which is capable of substantial proof, and I am ready to join issue with MR. VINCENT upon the facts.

That Mr. Phillipps did not use the fact is patent ; that he also knew of it is clear, for he has himself printed a copy of the very administration bond in one of his petty tracts, of which only his most intimate friends had copies. There is a copy of this tract in the British Museum, Who gave this

fact to Mr. Phillipps ; and when 1 Perhaps MR. VINCENT can enlighten us; reading his letter, one would suppose that he was in ignorance of it. I have printed an abstract of the bond at p. 153 of my book. It was made 10 February, 1565, and John Shak- spere, the administrator (son of Richard), is styled " of Snytterfield, agricola." This fact disposes of Mr. Phillipps's idea that the poet's father was a resident of Stratford, and was fined for a nuisance in Henly Street in 1552, and the whole train of argument invented, apparently, to confound the poet's father with John Shakspere, the shoemaker could not apply to him, because John Shakspere was still living at Snytterfield.

"Oh, but," says MR. VINCENT, "there is no identity of the poet's father with John Shakspere of Snytterfield." If that be so, Mr. Phillipps's able assistants did not blunder, and Mr. Phillipps himself did not suppress the facts. Is this so 1 It is as idle to assert the contrary as it is to shut one's eyes to the facts connected with the descent of Mary Arden's property. If this assertion of MR. VINCENT'S can be sustained, away goes the fact of Mary Arden's being the poet's mother the marriage of his parents has not been found ; but we have proof that John Mayow in 16 Henry VII. (see p. 227 of my book) con- veyed to Thomas Arden and Kobert Arden (his son) a portion (two-sixths) of an estate at Snytterfield ; and this fact we also know, that Mary, Robert Arden's daughter and co- heir, became possessed of one-seventh of this portion as one of his seven daughters. Mr. Phillipps suppresses the fact that Robert Arden was son of Thomas ; but the deed is still at Stratford in proof of it, and to prove that this Mary Arden was the poet's mother there is a lawsuit of 1598, in which John Shakspere and the poet William, son and heir of Mary Arden, were parties. This evidence takes the poet's father to Snytter- field, and to nowhere else.

Now that Richard Shakspere of Snytter- field, John's father, was not resident there independently of Robert Arden is actually proved by a deed of Robert Arden (No. 430 of the Stratford charters, p. 173 of my book), in which he refers to Richard Shakspere as his tenant of his Snytterfield land. This was 17 July, 4 Edward VI., only fifteen years before his death; and deed 429, by Agnes, widow of Robert Arden, shows that Richard Shakspere was her tenant in 2 Eliz., just five years before his death. Nor is this all. There is a fine of Pasc., 22 Eliz., between Robert Webb and John Shakspere and Maria his wife, conveying to him one -sixth of two